Wine Kit-Kats, mac-n-cheese Lays chips; world of flavors offered at new Turlock shop
Seldom is the phrase “like a kid in a candy store” more appropriate then when talking about customers as they walk into Turlock’s new snack shop, Sublime Pop.
The seller of imported snacks, candy and soda has opened a new retail shop in an unassuming industrial area on the city’s southern edge, on Freitas Park. The tiny store is an offshoot of a much larger distribution business from son-and-father team Ernesto and Ricardo Montanez that services other retailers and wholesalers across the country.
The company stocks more than 400 kinds of sodas, candies, chips, cookies and other sweet and savory snacks imported from around the world. It currently imports from 13 countries, mostly in Asia and Europe, and offers familiar brands including Lays, Pringles, Kit-Kat and Oreos in flavors not typically sold in the United States.
So you’ll find mac-and-cheese flavored Lays potato chips, sparkling wine Kit-Kats, and fish-and-chips Pringles on the shelves. There also are ube (a kind of Japanese sweet potato) Snickers bars, mojito-flavored 7-Up and seemingly every flavor of Fanta under the sun.
“Everything we carry here is imported from out of the country. We carry chips, sodas, some really wacky candies that make you question things,” Ernesto said of his small shop.
This is the 24-year-old’s second successful business. He and his older brother Ricardo Montanez Jr. previously spent about three years working together importing auto parts from Japan.
But about two years ago, after a friend asked them to find some collectible treats from Asia, they started exploring the world of snacks instead.
Import distribution business opened before Turlock shop
Supplying the sweet and savory goods was a part-time side gig at first. Then it started doing better than their main auto parts importing work, so Ernesto and his brother made the switch. They brought in their father, Ricardo Sr., to join as co-owner, and Sublime Pop started its official online and distribution business in the fall of 2019.
Then, during the pandemic, Ernesto decided to open a shop at the site of their almost 5,000-square-foot warehouse in south Turlock. They carved out a small retail space, less than 200 square feet, that opened at the start of May and is packed with colorful and unexpected snacks.
“We were getting tired of just being online and wanted to switch it up. With COVID and everything locked up, it gave us an opportunity to try this,” Ernesto said. “At first, I didn’t believe (importing snacks) could be so big myself. I thought, this is silly and won’t work out — it’s a way to make pocket money on the side. But now we’ve got the actual store and warehouses.”
The three men brought their various expertise in handling the complicated rules and regulations needed to import foreign goods: Ernesto in handling imports into the country and running the distribution side, Ricardo Jr. in running the supply side from their existing warehouse in Japan, and Ricardo Sr. in working in the food industry and navigating USDA and FDA policies.
The distribution side services mom-and-pop stores and larger retailers like US Foods Chef’Store (former Cash & Carry). Sublime Pop imports from Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Germany, Canada, France, Serbia and beyond. Since starting the business, the family has had to upgrade storage space three times — from the first makeshift garage to a 1,000-square-foot warehouse and now the 4,900-square-foot Turlock site.
The Montanezes get shipments from overseas every week and are shipping to other states from the warehouse daily.
As the popularity of the small shop takes off, the family plans to expand the retail side and nearly double the room for shopping. They hope to have the larger shop space done and ready for customers by the end of the year.
Ernesto said watching kids and adults alike get excited by all the rare and unusual finds in the shop has been part of the fun. He said customers have been impressed by the breadth of their snack stock. They regularly carry around 90 items from Japan and 50 from Korea, two of the countries they import the most from for distribution.
“Honestly, a lot of people’s first response is shock more than anything,” he said. “They’re like, ‘What the heck, there’s no way this exists in the valley.’ A lot have had to go to L.A. or the Bay Area to find this stuff. But even if you go to L.A. or the Bay Area, they’ll only have maybe 10 or 20 items. We have them all here.”
Sublime Pop, at 1401 Freitas Park in Turlock, is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, call 209-250-1881 or visit sublimepop.com.
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
