24/7 Mart

20-Jan-11
Leonard P

Lets talk about family values. The Konjas have it and brothers Sean (19 years old) and Dillon (18 years old) backed by their Father who has over 40 years in the retail business have just opened up the 24/7 mart at the corner of C and and 8th streets.

The market looks like your standard grab-and-go corner convenience store with a crushed-ice drinks (Steve’s Frozen Chillers™), chips, snacks, sodas, a coffee station (with fresh bean grinder), personal hygiene supplies, sports caps, ice creams, bottled water, imported Arabic teas. The twist is the smoke shop focus. The smoke shop is mainly about premium tobacco and the growing Hookah culture overtaking the downtown club scene. Pipes and paraphernalia for medical marijuana patients are also in stock and on display. And what better than pipes and munchies in one stop for that group? The area our front is fenced, by a previous restaurant run on the site and Konja plans to use this place for a taco cart and hot food stand.

The shop has a back room that now houses Dillon’s business Gadget Tech Repair. Gadget tech offers Cell phone, iPod, Game Console, and computer/laptop repairs and upgrades. They also buy & sell cellphones, gold, Rolexes and electronics. In typical family fashion though, if Dillon’s business does not take off “we might put in a small Hookah lounge,” says Sean. You got to love the sibling rivalry.

In the ever changing face of America and downtown San Diego the Mom and Pop corner store is giving way to the brother and brother corner market, and the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well, although here it seems a with a new work hard, play hard attitude suitable to the age of the generation running the business.
It is clean, it is honest, and the brothers like us all are just trying to make the dream come true. This is a safe place to pop into when down town and it only looks set to get better.