EVERETT — The product labels at Vasiliy Kondor’s deli and bakery read like a European geography lesson: cookies from Latvia, cherry jam from Moldova, malt soda from Russia.
His customers come from just as wide a variety of places, he said.
"We have lots of Germans, people from Poland, also Russians, Ukrainians," said Kondor, 41, who came to the United States from Ukraine nine years ago.
European Sausage and Bakery at 1824 Broadway, which Kondor and his family opened less than three months ago, is one of a few new businesses oriented toward Everett’s growing Russian-speaking population.
With more than 11,000 Snohomish County residents claiming ancestry in Ukraine, Russia and neighboring countries, according to the 2000 census, there’s at least some demand for specialties from that part of the world.
The new ventures may also signal that immigrants who have moved to the county from Ukraine during the past 15 years are getting more involved in creating their own businesses.
Ann Panchenko, a job specialist with the county’s Immigrant and Refugee Forum at Everett Community College, said the first noticeable wave of Ukrainian families settled in the Everett area in the late 1980s. Most of the immigrants had fled that country because of religious persecution.
Many local employers, notably manufacturers and construction companies, have added significant numbers of Ukrainians to their workforces during that time, Panchenko said. But like previous immigrants, more are able to strike out and start their own businesses after being here for some time.
Kondor, his wife and their seven children moved to Everett last year from Vancouver, Wash. Before starting the deli, Kondor drove taxis and long-haul trucks for a living.
When he wanted to start a retail business, he got advice from a friend with a similar shop in Portland, Ore. He arranged to get everything from candy to sushki (tea bread) imported from Russia, and then set up meat-smoking and sausage-making equipment in the back of the shop in order to produce fresh European-style meats.
The family is still getting the shop off the ground, struggling with slow days and getting the word out to potential customers, he said.
"It’s kind of hard to start off. … Not many people know about us yet," he said, adding that borrowing money to launch the shop has been the hardest part.
For Yuliya Lutskova, the most difficult part of launching a business was dealing with the numerous forms and regulations any new business owner has to read and sign.
"I don’t speak English very well," she explained.
But at the age of 24, she’s the owner of Everett’s Ukraine International Food, at 5317 Evergreen Way, which offers a range of grocery and deli items. The shop counter also displays cards from a range of local Russian-speaking business people.
Lutskova came to the United States four years ago from Kurdistan, despite the Ukraine reference in the business’s name. Before starting her venture, she worked for a year in another European-oriented grocery store.
Setting up her shop didn’t take much capital because she’s leasing sales space inside the Evergreen Market, which specializes in fresh produce. Just as at Kondor’s business, Lutskova’s customer base for imported cheeses, meats and fish products is diverse.
"A lot from Poland, Germany and American people, too, though not a lot," she said.
The two new businesses aren’t without some well-established competition. The Russian-owned Svetlana European Deli has been open at 607 Everett Mall Way SE for about five years, offering some of the same food items. There also are a few similar businesses, along with numerous specialty grocers oriented toward other ethnic groups, scattered across south Snohomish County.
But Kondor said his business received a boost when another specialty shop that was popular with Germans in south Everett closed about the same time he opened. Since then, word about his freshly prepared sausages, kielbasa and salami products has brought in those patrons of the former business.
There’s also one clear advantage to opening his own business compared to his previous jobs, Kondor said.
"You stay home," he said.
But he noted he is still driving trucks occasionally to augment his family’s income.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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