Customers of a donut shop are buying by the dozens so the shop owner can sell out early and see his sick wife, reports the OC Register.
John Chhan and his wife Stella have been selling donuts for three decades at Donut City in Seal Beach near Los Angeles. When customers noticed Stella had not been around, they began asking about her. That’s when John told them his wife had suffered an aneurysm.
Longtime customer Dawn Caviola had an idea . She went on Nextdoor to drum up support for the couple.
“I thought, if enough people would buy a dozen doughnuts every morning, he could close early and go be with his wife,” she said. “Days went by and I just couldn’t get it out of my head.”
Neither could other customers.
“[They’re buying] one or two dozen doughnuts for their friends and relatives,” John Chhan told ABC News. “Before they [would buy] one, two or three donuts.” Now instead of selling out at 3, Chhan sells out by noon and is able to go see his wife. Support has been so strong, one day he was even able to close the shop by 10 a.m.
The OC Register reports that the Chhans came to the United States as refugees from Cambodia in 1979. They bought the shop ten years later, working seven days a week and rarely taking a day off.
“We’re very close knit,” said Marc Loopesko, another longtime customer. “When there is a need, we really step forward and bond together, put our differences aside and we help one another,”
Loopesko says he’s been giving the donuts he buys to the homeless, firefighters and neighbors.
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