Conchita’s Ice Cream
15 E. Beach Street
Watsonville, CA 95076
831.761.2171

Owners: Juan and Esther Gonzales

En Español

“As a young child, I always wanted my own ice cream store, and there is a tree on the Plaza that I would play in. This was my ice cream shop, and I would serve ice cream there. As I grew older, I still dreamt about having my own ice cream store, but these were only ideas. About six years ago, my husband and I heard about the “First-Time-Store-Owner” program with El Pájaro CDC, so we put our name on the list. We kept on going to the meetings; this went on for years, and we still attended even when we had almost lost hope. We knew how important it was to show our interest in the program and when we were finally accepted, it was with the support of Ray Vigil who helped to push the deal through.

Owning your own business requires a lot of time; it requires a lot of effort and time. It’s still hard today. You have to take it day by day, and it’s never ending. The whole time I have been here at La Plaza Vigil I have only closed the store twice. That’s two days out of six years. I don’t like to close, because I know my customers know that I’m here, and I want to be here for them. I’m someone they can depend on. When I first started this business, it was really hard because I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know how to order any supplies, or where to get them. I didn’t even know how to use the cash register. Now I really know what I’m doing, and I’m a pro at it!

I would like to keep this business in the family and my son Bob teases me that he’ll take it over and change the name to “Bob’s Ice Cream”… how about that?!? I feel really good about owning my own business because I made my dream come true. I’ve always wanted an ice cream shop and here I am. I like being the store owner and serving the customers. I like to greet people and welcome them here.

I’ve learned many things as the owner, and the most important one is that “the customer is always right.” They know what they want, so they’re always right. I think it is a good thing to start your own business, especially for other Latinos. They have to understand that it is a hard job and that nothing is easy, but if they are committed and they stick to it daily, they’ll make it.”