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This 19-year-old Topekan is operating a convenience store at West Ridge Mall. Here’s why.

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5 months ago

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This 19-year-old Topekan is operating a convenience store at West Ridge Mall. Here’s why.

The opportunity to grab a quick snack is back at West Ridge Mall.

Sueño’s Shop, owned by Rene Cabrera, opened in late April and provides common convenience store snacks to mall shoppers.

Cabrera said bringing the shop to the mall is an opportunity that presented itself, but he’s familiar with retail due to his mother’s store Deportes y Mas, 1517 S.E. 6th St.

“It’s just been a learning journey, just seeing what a business is, actually having the operations of it,” Cabrera said. “Because when I grew up at the store, it was always like, ‘Oh, I get to see all the food and all the snacks and stuff, but I never got to see the finances of anything or how to actually run a business.'”

Watching West Ridge Mall come back to life

Cabrera said he remembers shopping at the mall a lot when he was younger, so to see it slowly coming back to life since under new management is something he’s excited to be a part of.

“It brings a lot of joy to see such empty space come back to life, especially with a lot more community aspect with the new owners, but as well, a lot of just local Topeka businesses wanting to open up a business here,” Cabrera said.

In addition to Sueño’s Shop offering such convenience store goods as candy, drinks, chips and more, Cabrera plans to add Mexican-styled candy to the shelves for customers. Snow cones have recently been added.

Craving chicken tenders and waffles? Love Me Tenderz is open at Topeka’s West Ridge Mall.

“I do kind of enjoy learning about the workplace and stuff like that and just how people spend their time. So, this is honestly definitely something that I wanted just to go ahead and start and see what I can do with it in the future.”

Cabrera, a 19-year-old Seaman High School graduate, said balancing the convenience store and other duties has been fairly easy.

“Before I took this on, I knew that it was going to take a lot of time, but thankfully this type of environment, it’s fairly flexible,” he said, “and I don’t have someone here. If I need to shoot a quick email or reach out to other people, I can do it all here.”

Keishera Lately is the business reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. She can be reached at klately@cjonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @Lately_KT.

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