Meet Natasha Dempsey
Natasha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?
I want to be remembered for creating a place in Bend that makes people feel like they belong here. Growing up in a predominately white community can be challenging on so many levels and I want customers that come into our Asian market no matter what their backgrounds are or where they have been to feel comforted, loved, and seen.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Tomi Mart is all about creating a sense of belonging, familiarity, and cultural connection in Bend, Oregon. Growing up here in a Korean American family, I remember not having access to Asian grocery stores during my childhood. Unlike many, I never had the chance to explore an Asian market with my mom, learning about the foods and ingredients that were part of our culture. However, my mom was resourceful. She grew her own vegetables and herbs, made a bounty of homemade kimchi, and stocked up on essential ingredients whenever she could. Through her cooking, I connected with my Korean heritage, a tradition I’m now passing on to my children. My mom couldn’t just pop down to the store for a special ingredient or to prepare for a celebration because such a market didn’t exist in our community. That’s exactly what we’re trying to change with Tomi Mart. We aim to provide easy access to familiar Asian ingredients and introduce new ones. We want to nurture the nostalgia and connection that I feel every time I enter an Asian grocery store – a sense of being at home.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I knew of my business partner since high school. We both grew up in Bend, Oregon which is a small. mountain town were back in the day it seemed like everyone knew everyone. We didn’t run in the same social circles but knew of each other and had many mutual friends. When Jesi launched the Tomi Mart instagram back in October of 2022 I quickly reached out to the account wondering who was the person behind the account. She told me it was her and I asked her to chat in person as I had had the same ambitions to bring an Asian grocery store to Bend. We chatted over coffees in her garage while her daughter Tomiko played at our feet. After that conversion and a lot of thinking we decided to move forward and expedite the process of finding out if we would be “a good fit”. For us it meant having weekly business mentorship meetings with a business advisor at the Small Business Development Center, doing compatibility type tasks, and getting to know each-other on a professional level. After about 3 months we decided to make it official and create an operating agreement and start an LLC partnership.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I was apart of DECA club in high school. For those who many not know, DECA is a business and marketing club. It uses role playing, business plan writing, and proposal pitching to learn about the ins and outs of starting and marketing a business. I was heavily involved in high school and got the opportunity compete at the state and national level for my business plans. Though I was heavily invested in high school when I started college I went a different route and became a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. But I always had that passion for business development, entrepreneurship, and owning something of my own. Now that I am starting my own business things that I learned in DECA are showing up in many different avenues and its really neat to see it come full circle.
Contact Info:
Website: www.tomimartbend.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TomiMartBend/