Gina and Emmanuel Owusu started their own business in Cambridge after they got tired of making long grocery trips to the Greater Toronto Area to look for specific items the two Canadians of Ghanian descent were missing locally.
"We moved here about three years ago from Mississauga," said Gina. "We still had to go to Mississauga for our kind of products. With the pandemic, being home, and not being able to work, we thought maybe it would be a good idea to bring the products here to the customers."
And that's what birthed Akwaaba Tropical Market, situated on Langs Drive, last September.
The term akwaaba means welcome in Ghanian, said Gina, adding they specifically didn't want to use a name that limited them to a certain region.
"We have tried to be a bit more diverse," she said. "We have Caribbean items and (items) from African countries. We have spices that most people come in and find."
But it isn't just spices specific to the Caribbean or African countries, Gina said, they've also slowly added items that customers have come in and asked for. And all items, she said, are mostly brought in from GTA suppliers or directly from the countries of origin.
"When they ask for things, we go out and look for them," Gina said, adding they've had people asking for Caribbean fish and spices from West Africa and even South America. "I didn't know the diversity of Cambridge until we opened up here.
"We have gillbacker, red tilapia, hassa, and butter fish," she said, talking about some of the specific aquatic meats the business carries. "We have spices from Guaana and Trinidad. We also have Cameroonian spices. We have Nigerian food, we have food from Ghana, Ethiopia, Somalia, so we have varieties."
Some of the items Gina said she was familiar with, but she had no idea what most of the fish customers were asking for looked like.
"We had to go in and do research and bring it in," she noted.
The store also has a variety of skin care and hair products, Gina said, proudly pointing to the wigs and weaves displayed on the walls.
"We have pure shea butter," she said, picking up a pale-looking bar from one of the shelves. "People come in and ask, 'What is thi?' I said, 'It's shea butter.' And they're so surprised and ask, 'Is this how it is supposed to look?'"
To add to diversity of items, Gina said, the store also carries dashiki, a colourful garment worn mostly in West Africa.
The expressions on people's faces, when they see a familiar item they've used or a food they've grown up eating, are priceless, she said.
"When people come in and thank us for being here, it makes our day," Gina said. "People appreciate us being here, and we appreciate them coming in."
The one thing, she said, the business is trying to stay away from are perishable items, however, they do carry some vegetables, such as yams, ginger, tomatoes, and onions on customers' requests.
It's hardly been a year, Gina said, but it's been great.
"I say this and I will keep saying it — it's almost like I'm selling Cambridge — but people have been great," she said.
As for the future, Gina said, there are currently no plans for expansion in terms of store size or starting another location, but she has a different view on making a business bigger.
"Big for us is putting more things on the shelves than space," Gina said, adding, "It's going to be a long journey and we hope our customers will come with us on the journey and appreciate us as much as we appreciate them."
