FAMILY SERVES UP AMERICANA; IMMIGRANTS SEE ENTREPRENEURIAL DREAM IN FAST FOOD, FAST SERVICE.Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer Mohinder and Satinder Johal have achieved the American dream American dream also American Dream n. An American ideal of a happy and successful life to which all may aspire: thanks to three 7-Elevens they own in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . Now the Indian-born couple is helping their 23-year-old son, Manpreet, realize his own version of the dream by buying him a piece of Americana: a Dairy Queen Dairy Queen (also known as DQ) is an ice-cream shop and fast-food restaurant franchise based in the United States and founded in 1940. For many years the franchise's slogan was "We treat you right!" In recent years, it has been changed to "DQ something different. franchise. And this shop looks about as Americana as they get. The new outlet, which opened last week on Lankershim Boulevard at Magnolia Street, is one of the chain's new-look outlets that actually looks old. Old as in retro [Latin, Back; backward; behind.] A prefix used to designate a prior condition or time. , circa the 1950s, when every small town had a big ice cream shop. Why Dairy Queen for the son of one of the most successful 7-Eleven franchisees in the Valley? ``He liked Dairy Queen all the time,'' said his father. ``Then he told me `Pop, why don't you buy a Dairy Queen here?' '' Manpreet Johal - ``we call him Jim,'' says his father - sees the store as the perfect place to put into practice what he has learned as a business major at California State University, Northridge CSUN offers a variety of programs leading to bachelor's degrees in 61 fields and master's degrees in 42 fields. The university has over 150,000 alumni. It's also home to a summer musical theater/theater program known as TADW (TeenAge Drama Workshop) that leads teenagers through an . He graduates from CSUN CSUN California State University Northridge in the spring with a degree in accounting. He's had plenty of hands-on experience helping his parents run their 7-Eleven minimarts, which he considers similar to his new venture because of their emphasis on fast food and quick customer service. ``I pretty much wanted to get into the same business as them, and ever since I was a kid I pretty much enjoyed Dairy Queen,'' the younger Johal said. The new Dairy Queen is barely a mile from the very first 7-Eleven Manpreet's parents opened back in 1981. It's in the shadow of Universal Studios, near some offices and apartments. ``That's why I picked that location,'' Mohinder said. ``I said, I want it in this area.'' International Dairy Queen Inc. started the retro-style shops about a year ago, said Eric Lavanger, vice president of franchise development for the Minnesota-based chain. There are a dozen scattered around the country, with about a half-dozen in the Southland, he said. They play off the nostalgia many Dairy Queen customers still have for the bygone by·gone adj. Gone by; past: bygone days. n. One, especially a grievance, that is past: Let bygones be bygones. era. ``We call it an Americana look,'' he said. It's not unusual for franchisees to buy into the chain with the intention of keeping it in the family, he said. ``We do have franchisees that tell us, I'm getting into this for myself, but one of my objectives is to have something my child can work in,'' Lavanger said. Immigrants frequently buy into franchises because they provide the benefits of business ownership without the risks associated with starting up a small business from scratch, said Bill Crookston, a professor of entrepreneurship in the Greif Center in the Marshall School of Business The Marshall School of Business (also known as USC Marshall School of Business) is the business school at the University of Southern California. It is the largest of USC's 17 professional schools. The current Dean is James G. Ellis. at the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission . ``One other thing I can surmise is this: The average immigrant might come here with more cash and be able to buy a franchise more readily and operate more successfully because they're going to out-hard-work Americans,'' Crookston said. ``It's almost instant entrepreneur; in some cases, almost instant small business.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO (Color) Satinder Johal, left, her husband, Mohinder, and son Manpreet offer a frosty frost·y adj. frost·i·er, frost·i·est 1. Producing or characterized by frost; freezing. See Synonyms at cold. 2. Covered with or as if with frost. 3. Silvery white; hoary. 4. treat at their Dairy Queen franchise in North Hollywood. David R. Crane/Daily News |
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