Business Spotlight: Ewa Trading Company
Welcome to Chinatown spoke with Zhou Rui Xian (周瑞賢 ) who, with his wife, owns and runs Ewa Trading Company, a tea and Chinese medicine and herbs shop. Ewa Trading Company is also a Longevity Fund grant recipient. All sorts of people, from Chinatown and beyond, depend on Mr. Zhou’s business to support their health and well-being. To support Chinatown small businesses like Ewa Trading Company, donate to the Longevity Fund here.
Tell us about yourself!
I’m Zhou Rui Xian, and I’ve been running Ewa Trading Company for about 20 years. We sell health goods, Chinese herbal supplies, and tea. For example, we sell fish stomach, red dates, ginseng, and astragalus root (北芪). You can make soup with a lot of our goods, and they can help, for example, with overall respiratory and circulatory health.
The business predates us - it was “Ewa Trading” then too. My wife started working with the previous owner when she immigrated to the United States in the 1980s. I came to the United States in 1991, and started working here in 1997. Back then, it was the owner and four or five employees. The previous owner eventually decided to retire and we took over, and it’s just been us two since.
Pictured: Mr. Zhou, behind the store counter (Credit: Derick Marquez Photography)
If customers come in and have never heard of Chinese medicine, how do they buy from you?
Typically if customers come in and don’t know exactly what they want, we’ll ask them what kinds of symptoms they are trying to relieve and make a recommendation. We’ll explain to them each ingredient, what their properties are, and what combinations to use to make a soup.
Do you use the products in the store at home?
At home, we use it all! We often make soups: four ingredients soup (四物湯), astragalus root soup (北芪湯), and so on. Every week we have a different soup, most importantly ginseng soup. It’s good for respiratory health and expelling yeet hay (熱氣).
Who are your customers? What do people typically buy?
Our regulars are a really diverse crowd: Black, White, Asian - everyone comes in. There’s young people, there's old people, a lot of people in their 20s! It’s not just Chinese people looking for Chinese medicine - for instance, many Black and Latin American people come and see Chinese medicine doctors too. Our customers see the doctors who make a diagnosis, and they come to my shop to pick up their prescriptions.
A lot of English and Spanish speakers come by. If there’s a language barrier, we work through it to ensure what we sell them will help with their symptoms. Our customers feel better, and they come back, ask more questions, and spread the word about our shop.
Before COVID, a lot of tourists would come and buy gifts to take back home. Our regulars would mostly buy herbal supplies, tea and ginseng to support their health. The young folks usually get herbal medicine that helps with sore throat. I think it’s because a lot of young people love eating deep fried food. Customers also buy natural medicines for cold and flu symptoms too.
Pictured (left to right): an assortment of Ewa Trading’s herbs, piles of fresh ginseng root, collections of herbs arranged for daily dosage, and some of Ewa Trading’s tea (Credit: @ewatradingnyc)
Why did you decide to run a business in Chinatown?
Chinatown has a special character, being amongst a large group of Chinese people. Coming to this neighborhood, it almost feels like home, like family.
What’s your favorite thing about Chinatown?
Of course the food! Chinese barbeque is my favorite, and dim sum.
Can you tell me the pandemic has affected your business?
When we took over the business, there were gradually more and more customers. After 9/11, business did dip but came back. COVID has been much worse than then. Pretty much all of our customers are gone. The only people that have been coming back are regulars, no new customers now.
We were closed from late March till May. We reopened in May because, even though COVID was still near its peak at that time, it had calmed down a little more, and regardless of COVID or if we were closed, we still had to pay rent every month. Where would the rent money come from if we didn’t open our store? Also, because of COVID, there are also some people who need the type of medicine we sell too.
We’ve worked for over 20 years and we’ve never taken a break. We work 7 days a week. I’ve never hired an employee, it’s just me and my wife in the shop. The PAUSE shutdown was the first months out of 21 years of business where we closed and took a break. That was the longest break we’ve ever taken. We don't even close during Lunar New Year.
We’ve been open seven days a week since reopening, but there haven’t been many customers. At most, ten people a day, but typically four or five. Every day we make maybe $200 or $300, not even enough to pay for the electricity.
A lot of stores have closed. On our street, there were about 20 stores, but four or five have called it quits so far. It’s been tough. Ever since COVID there’s been significantly lower foot traffic, every day only a few customers come in. Hopefully when this ends tourists will come back and patron stores, restaurants, and visit the neighborhood in general.
Pictured (left to right): Mr. Zhou and his family in the shop 20 years ago, and the Ewa Trading Company storefront (Credit: @ewatradingnyc)
Have you tried selling online?
We tried before but no one bought anything. My kids set up the online store for me and we had it up for half a year, but only 1-2 orders came in for tea sets. We still had to pay the fees for the e-commerce platform. So after that we just closed it. In this field of work, it is really hard to sell online. Customers really have to come in, and we have to become familiar with them. On the customer’s end, they don’t necessarily know what each ingredient does, so they don’t know what to buy. For example, if I have a sore throat, what do I get? In the store you can explain to them what each ingredient does and how it will alleviate their ailments. After a while there’s a built-in trust with the customers, they’ll take their ingredients home and use it, and they get better. The next time they feel unwell they come back again, and recommend other people to come here.
Have you received any assistance besides the Longevity Fund grant? How will the grant help your business?
Yes, we’ve got a modest PPP loan. It’s not much but every little bit counts, and I’m still very thankful for it, and the Longevity Fund grant, which will help us with rent. I really hope to continue my business, and the grant will help. I really do hope more people come back to the neighborhood.
If you’d like to support Ewa Trading, or are in need of Mr. Zhou’s knowledge, pay them a visit at 80 Mulberry Street (between Canal and Bayard Streets).
Chinatown establishments like Ewa Trading are what makes the spirit of our neighborhood. We need your support now more than ever before to keep that spirit alive. Please consider making a donation to our small business relief fund, The Longevity Fund, or help us spread the word of what’s at stake. Together, we can preserve Chinatown businesses and help say Chinatown will always be open for business.
