We had the good fortune of connecting with David Kim and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi David, what can you share with us about how Covid-19 has affected your business?
On Jumping World: Covid-19 has negatively impacted nearly every type of business out there including the entertainment industry where we rely on birthday parties and other large crowds to afford our substantial operating costs.. Even right now, not all of our locations are allowed to be opened due to local government restrictions. The closing of all 11 of our locations couldn’t have happened at a worse time. It happened during half of our locations’ spring break vacation which is when we have historically done well. Not to mention, we were gearing up to open up our 12th location in El Paso, Texas during the month of May, but that has been postponed for the time being. We are grateful that we are still able to operate moving forward and have been diligently buying new cleaning equipment as well as implementing new procedures and guidelines that will protect our employees and customers. We are constantly checking for updates from the CDC and WHO to better understand what measures we can take as a business to protect the communities that we are in. On Boba Republic: Our opening date (April 3rd, 2020) occurred during the pandemic! The pandemic caused a delay in our opening date by a few weeks due to the uncertainty of the overall initial impact that Covid-19 had on everybody. We have been extremely fortunate that the community around us has been extremely supportive. We project that our current sales only reflect 33%-50% of what it would have been if it wasn’t for Covid-19. but we are grateful that the business was able to remain operating during this time even if it was for only delivery and take-out. Not every industry had that opportunity.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Boba Republic; Boba Republic is a brand new milk tea cafe located in Allen, Texas of the DFW metropolitan area. We are extremely proud of the fact that we did not open a cafe using a franchise brand but our own. We strongly believe that having our own brand allows us to have complete control and focus on what type of products we offer as well as the quality of the products. The flexibility of owning your own brand also allows us to be creative in every aspect of our business. Coming from a family business (Jumping World) which was not also from a franchise brand helped me tremendously with knowing how to compete in a market where there are more well-known brands. National franchise brands most definitely make it extremely difficult to enter a market, but by treating your customers and your employees like your own family members along with offering a product or service that you personally are proud of, your surrounding community will appreciate the effort and the creativity of your brand. Before we opened, my two partners and I have decided that we will all individually choose a non-profit organization that we would like to send each 1% of our profits to. During Covid-19, we have partnered up with other local businesses and have donated gallons of our milk tea products to local hospitals, retirement centers, and other places of need. We are proud of what we offer, but we are more proud of what we represent in our community and in any future community that we maybe fortunate to be in and represent.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Dallas: Favorite Restaurants; Ari Korean BBQ, Mike’s Chicken, No 1. Plus Chicken Favorite Places to Hang Out; Anywhere on Deep Ellum or Uptown

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shout out is to all my partners from my recent different business ventures – Eric J. Chiang, Paolo De Leon, and Christopher Nguyen. Without the trust, love, and appreciation that y’all have constantly showed me, I would nowhere be close to the person that I am today. Looking forward to continuously grow whichever business venture we are in together as well as ourselves personally. Much love.

Website: www.bobaculture.com, http://www.davidjoonkim.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asian.angel/
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/davidpringleskim

Image Credits
My Lai; Justin Lin