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# Get Sushi with a Big Gulp
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/get-sushi-with-a-big-gulp/
- Published: 2002-12-21T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T01:10:20.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Two women start up business on credit card*

*By BRENT HOPKINS Daily News of Los Angeles* profits to a specially built conveyor belt.

To avoid production hassles and ensure longer shelf life, they opted for only fully cooked sushi. While raw sushi’s freshness is measured in minutes, their variety can last up to five days.

They concede that their surimi crab-pollock cooked and shaped to resemble shellfish pales in comparison with a sushi bar’s. But then they note that the $2.99 price tag for six rolls is more than competitive.

Ellis and DeMartinis found a niche market in convenience stores in Northern California that helped them win contracts with Trader Joe’s and Costco, eventually landing their products in hundreds of stores nationwide.

Last year, the rolls brought in $20 million in revenue, a figure they expect to grow substantially with added distribution and more sales contracts.

The 7-Eleven deal could prove to be their biggest catch yet. This month Okami’s products got a major boost as the firm began distributing daily to 692 7- Elevens throughout Southern California, part of the convenience-store chain’s attempt to go upscale.

That’s another kink in the company’s strange six-year history — the king of convenience was long the haven for late-night revelers on the hunt for greasy nachos or harried workers grabbing hot dogs on the run.

DeMartinis, an avowed sushi lover, didn’t think her own products would fit in.

“At first, we thought, ‘Oh, my God, this will never sell in 7-Eleven,”’ she said with a bemused smile. “It’s too gourmet; it’ll never work.... But it’s really taken off.”

> “At first, we thought, ‘Oh, my God, this will never sell in 7-Eleven.’ It’s too gourmet; it’ll never work.... But it’s really taken off.” — — MARY DeMARTINIS Okami co-founder

The low-price point integrates well with 7-Eleven’s traditional fare, as does its slim packaging.

Des Hague, the convenience chain’s vice president of fresh food, agrees that a premium product like sushi doesn’t jell well with the store’s old image, but he thinks it will synchronize nicely with its attempts to add more produce, fresh sandwiches and baked goods.

“We want to offer something unique and different for the consumer,” he said. “We don’t want to be a 14-day-old sandwich and the same tired hot dogs on a grill.”

While those treats have been strong sellers for most of the chain’s 75-year history, food expert Phil Lempert said it needs the change.

By adding products like Okami’s, he said, 7-Eleven can attract an upscale, professional clientele to complement its junk-food audience.

“Sushi has become more universal,” said Lempert, editor in chief of Supermarketguru.com. “It’s spread to more demographics than you’d think. People want taste, and they want quality. Since this isn’t heavy, it’s a good, quick pickup for someone who’s working. Eating a few of those hot dogs with chili won’t give you a very productive afternoon.”

Early this month, the mention of soy sauce and the thought of wasabi got the Okami partners licking their lips and debating whether to go with yellowtail tuna or eel rolls.

“Mmm... I’ve got to have it,” DeMartinis said. Surrounded by fish photos and with 120,000 pieces of the rice and fish rolls sitting right behind them in the chilly warehouse surrounded by auto yards, they have decided to order out.

“For what we make, it’s good, (but) we can’t compare to a sushi bar,” DeMartinis said.

She has a 28-year love affair with sushi, she added, savoring the memory of her first bite of the Japanese food.

“It’s addicting,” she said, her hand twitching toward the phone, waiting to place her order. “The soy sauce, the rice, the sugar, the salt. I still crave it.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 21, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/122102.pdf?ref=smdp.com)