In the corner of StoneWood Shopping Center located on 8626 N. Lower Sacramento Road, is a donut shop called SK Donut owned by Pagna Pong, 39. Pong is from Phnom Peng, Cambodia and tries his best to support his family.
He and his four brothers came to Stockton with their dad’s help in 2018. While having an opportunity to work for a donut shop for almost a year, Pong was inspired to open up his own shop with his two brothers but it wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be.
“It’s really hard to open up a donut shop. I didn’t have much experience with being a salesman. I started out by only making donuts with my brother,” Pong said.
Pong opened up his donut shop on Dec. 20, 2019 with no social media posts and only a sign that said “Grand Opening” in front of his shop. Pong made many different kinds of donuts to sell on his first day of opening but his shop was not busy.
“It was quiet until 11 a.m. On that day I felt bad and I had to find a solution,” Pong said.
He immediately took action to bring in more customers.
When customers came into the shop, Pong handed out vouchers to customers to help promote his shop. The voucher stated that if you bought a dozen donuts, you could get two free donuts with your purchase, or get $2 off your donuts. Pong hoped the voucher would let other people know that there’s a new donut shop for people to come by. He also tried to bring different flavors of donuts to attract more customers.
“To find another solution, I registered on Google to help people find my place, created a Facebook account, and I registered to let people put online orders on DoorDash. The next day after that, it’s better, I got five to seven orders online a day but in person there were still not as many customers except for weekends, a little more customers coming in,” Pong said.
After finding solutions to help his shop, business was doing a little better to help keep him going and enough to support his family. Some schools would call and ask for donations and Pong would give away 2-3 boxes of dozen donuts for free to schools to support them. Schools would write a thank you letter to him. Pong recently ranked No. 1 for Best Donut Shop from the Bear Creek Neighborhood.
In front of SK Donuts with graphic arts on their windows that displays some of their food items. By Navathy Roeun 
A photo inside of SK Donuts where the donuts, menu, and customers pay. By Navathy Roeun 
A sign on the front of the door saying “We are open” with the days and time. By Navathy Roeun 
Long Johns topped with maple and chocolate frosting. By Navathy Roeun 
Donuts topped with chocolate chips and chocolate frosting next to glaze donuts. By Navathy Roeun 
Croissants besides donuts hole on the display area. Croissants besides donuts hole on the display area. By Navathy Roeun 
Donuts with cereal and sprinkle decorations on them. By Navathy Roeun 
Pong’s brother is ringing up the customer with her order, while she gets ready to pay. By Navathy Roeun 
A lucky cat on top of the coffee machine with the prices of coffee displayed beside it. By Navathy Roeun 
Pong is grabbing donuts for his customers while they tell him what they want. By Navathy Roeun 
Customers lining up to order donuts and to pay their things while the owner’s brother is waiting. By Navathy Roeun 
A wide shot of the donut shop with seating area, the fridge, and toy vending machine. By Navathy Roeun 
A picture of the food menu with prices. By Navathy Roeun 
A picture of the drink menu with prices. By Navathy Roeun 
A board with fake tiny donuts on it with boxes of donuts behind it. By Navathy Roeun
“I feel good about receiving the award and I am happy. It gives me hope about the business doing better,” said Pong’s youngest brother Chhorphorn Pong.
Despite some successes and some struggles, business is still slow for SK Donut.
“The place is not a good spot. In the morning it’s slow but have some regular come in the early mornings,” Pong said.
SK Donuts is located next to a popular asian grocery store named SuperKing with a bakery spot inside. Many people inside order their food and drinks while they shop at SuperKing. Even with many people coming in and out of SuperKing, SK Donuts struggles to bring in customers.
“I hope it’s busy and has more customers because, not enough customers,” said Chhorphorn Pong.
When Pong is going through difficult times, his wife, Chakriya Keo is there to guide and support him through it all. She helps her husband clean and organize the donut shop, takes care of the housework and their son.
“When he is stressed, I want to know what happened, what’s the reason that makes him so stressed. We find a solution and make him feel relaxed,” Keo said.
During Covid-19, many businesses received money from the government but SK Donut received no money from the government due to them being a new donut shop, but many customers placed orders online.
“It was an opportunity to expand business because people from far away order,” said Pong.
Pong hopes to open up another location close to Stockton.
