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BUSINESS PROFILE Photo by Bob Pennell Cowboy hats are among the wares at Star Super Store, as shown by Bruce and Eun Yi, their daughter, 10-year-old Alice, and friend Kyung Pak, 7. Two cultures, one store Korean family caters to growing Hispanic market By VICKI GUARINO PHOENIX -- Over the low chatter of a Korean movie video, Bruce Yi nods an easy greeting to customers. "Como esta?" Most conversations at Star Super Store continue in Spanish, just as the name over the door suggests they might -- the banner over the door bears the name "Super Tienda Estrella." Korean-born Bruce Yi and his wife, Eun, run the valley's only variety store that caters to Hispanic clientele. Star, in the Phoenix Shopping Center, is multicultural fare unto itself. The Korean couple, naturalized U.S. citizens, along with their daughter, U.S.-born fourth-grader Alice, cater to Spanish-speakers, especially Mexican nationals and citizens of Mexican heritage. But the family speaks Korean among themselves and is active in a regional Korean business community that includes close ties to the Korean consulate in Seattle. Anyone who wants to travel to Korea can get visa assistance from the Yis at Tienda Estrella. "Some of the problems, we can solve," Bruce Yi says. Customers also can go to the shop to transfer money overnight directly to two of Mexico's major banks. Although Bruce and Eun still fumble occasionally to express themselves in English, they've picked up more than enough Spanish for small talk with customers. And just to be certain, a shelf behind the cash register holds both Korean-English and Spanish-English dictionaries. Their customers' requests have guided the Yis' selection of inventory for Star. Stock includes what customers say is the largest collect of Spanish-language music around. "One guy came in here and found the one tape he said he couldn't find in Mexico," Bruce Yi says. A look around Star is a glimpse of local Hispanic culture. The significance of Catholicism, Eun Yi says, is apparent in the large stock of baptismal and communion clothes and icons of religious significance. At harvest time, the Yis make sure they are well stocked in bags and suitcases for those customers who are following the crops. Rows of boots, a wall of party dresses and racks of festive outfits for little kids answer customers' demand for dance clothes. Dances, the Yis say they have learned, are important events for Estrella shoppers. "My customers for five days work hard and on Saturday they dress up and go dancing," Bruce Yi says. "I think that is a good custom." Not one that the Yis appear to practice, however. Estrella is open every day but Tuesday -- the day Eun Yi helps out with her daughter Alice's classes at Grace Christian School. On work days, Eun Yi opens Estrella at 10 a.m. Bruce Yi keeps earlier hours, getting to his job as a lab courier at Rogue Valley Medical Center before dawn. He's also enrolled in medical training to become a phlebotomist. The classes are a great opportunity, he says, but one that gets him going at 3 or 4 a.m. After a day at the hospital, Bruce joins his wife and daughter at Estrella until the store closes at 8 p.m. The couple say they are accustomed to such a schedule. Before they left Korea in 1983, working two jobs had become habit. After they set up a new home in Vancouver, Wash., double shifts continued. The idea for Estrella came from a Korean friend who found success with a similarly focused store in Hood River. "He came to my house and said `Bruce, you need your own business."' His friend called the local chamber of commerce for information about the Hispanic community and Hispanic-oriented businesses. From what they learned, the Yis decided to move south. They picked the shopping center site because it was available, stocked a few items, hung out the "abierto" sign, and advertised on Spanish-language radio. That was in December 1993. "When we opened the store, we didn't know anything, even how to use the cash register," Bruce recalls. Business was slow at first, and the family had some lean times. Eun Yi can laugh now as she remembers thinking, "Oh, I know now what is bankruptcy." Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � interRogue & The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA