Zero-Waste Store “Mama & Hapa’s” Brings Hapa Pride to Portland

Mixed Asian Media - January 23, 2024

By Madeline Carpou

When I was still deciding whether or not to move to Portland, Oregon, I took a trip to get to know the city from the ground up. It was during this period of exploration that I saw a sign on Mississippi Avenue: a zero-waste shop called “Mama & Hapa’s.”

I did a double-take. Even as a born-and-raised Californian, I’d never seen a store with the name “Hapa.” Immediately, I took a picture for my Hawaiian auntie, then went inside, where I asked the staff all sorts of questions about the name. Was it Hapa-owned? Was it Hapa-staffed? One year (and several purchases of soap) later, I finally got my answers straight from the source.

Mama & Hapa’s was founded in 2021 by Ross Ching (the “Hapa”) and his wife, Nadia (the “mama”). I spoke with Ross, and learned that our family histories weren’t all that dissimilar. His father’s side immigrated from Hong Kong to Hawaii, where his father grew up before moving to the Bay Area, where Ross was raised. In his family, the word “Hapa” was pretty much everywhere, so he never felt the need to examine what it meant to him. Even growing up in a predominantly “fully Asian” San Jose, people more or less knew what Hapa meant.

Thus far, that has not been the case in Portland.

“Lots of people come into our store and don’t know what Hapa is,” he said. “They assume it’s a play on ‘Mama and Papas.’ We wanted to have a name that was easily searchable on Google, but 75% of the time, people assume it’s Mama and Papas, with a P.”

This did not surprise me. Portland is one of the whitest metropolitan cities in the United States, and though many within that demographic are well-intentioned, they simply do not grow up with the sort of multicultural knowledge that people from other cities do (especially the Bay Area). As he put it, “If I say kung hei fat choy here, they’re not really gonna know what that is.”

We shared a laugh about the lack of food options in particular. He brought up San Jose’s Little Saigon neighborhood as an example, “​​Where you can go and get any Vietnamese food you could think of, even things you don’t know exist.” By comparison, if you don’t live on 82nd Avenue, your options for authentic Asian food in Portland are rather slim.

Don’t get it twisted, though: This kind of talk is all in good fun, just nostalgic remembrances between two Californians who ultimately chose to move to Portland for its many positive qualities. In Ross’ case, Portland allowed him to start a new business he’d been mulling on for quite a while.

Before founding Mama & Hapa’s, Ross and Nadia lived in Los Angeles, where he worked as a director for TV commercials. He distinctly remembers visiting Sustain LA, a zero-waste shop in Highland Park, which was full of fantastic, eco-friendly products… but was otherwise “cumbersome.” There wasn’t a process by which you could refill your pre-existing jars or purchase your own measurements of various products. Everything was already measured and weighed out for you — and at the very high prices that every Angeleno has grown weary of, including Nadia and himself.

Meanwhile, Portland was verdant, ostensibly cheaper to live in, and, surprisingly, had a zero-waste niche that had yet to be filled. “I started doing some research on zero-waste shops in Portland, but they didn’t really have any,” Ross explained, noting that while zero-waste initiatives existed in the city, they lacked economic permanence. Everything seemed to fall into place for the ecologically minded couple, who went on to found Mama & Hapa’s in 2021.

Since then, the store has opened three other locations, with wildly enthusiastic community support. I’m raising my hand here, as a frequent shopper myself. Ross understands that most people want to do good by the environment, but are often waylaid by the “inconvenience” that often comes attached to eco-friendly consumerism. “There are a lot of people who don’t want to spend more money for dish soap, or go through all the hurdles of dispensing their own stuff,” he noted. “That’s a big subset of people we want to target, mainly the people we want to talk to and reach out to.”

That’s one of many unique things about Mama & Hapa’s: Its products truly are accessible, even for broke twentysomethings like myself. This is in large part because they’re all locally sourced, which keeps shipping costs down and helps contribute to the local economy. But something else that makes this model sustainable is the fact that you mainly purchase your essentials through barrels and RFID cards.

When you walk into the store, you pick up one of these cards, then wander over to the product you need. To give an example: As a lady with long, thick hair, I run out of shampoo a lot. So I’ll go to the shampoo barrels with an empty jar from home (olive oil bottles are my favorites), line the spigot up, and leave the card in its slot until the bottle is full. I only pay for what I need, and I don’t create excess waste in the process — and my hair thanks me for it, too!

What impressed me the most, however, was how hands-on Ross is with his business. He didn’t know anything about entrepreneurship before opening the first store, but he put in the time and research to learn on his own. When something goes wrong at one of his locations, he’ll go there himself to fix it. If he’s not busy at home, he’ll often be on location at one of the sites to attend to things himself. In a time when so many businesses seem to lose sight of their original mission, it’s clear to me that Ross carries his close to heart.

For now, he’s content with the four stores and the warehouse. What he ultimately wants is for Mama & Hapa’s to become a community staple, a place that’s easy for people to get to and get what they need. He wants to eventually lower prices even more and become a neighborhood name. In doing so, he’s hopeful he’ll get consumers to think more about their relationships with what they buy: where it comes from, where it goes, and so on.

You can visit Mama & Hapa’s at any of its four locations: two in Portland proper, on Stark St. and Mississippi Ave.; one in Milwaukie; and one in Beaverton.

Madeline (she/her) is a writer, editor, and musician with roots up and down the West Coast. She studied Asian history in college in an attempt to better understand her Chinese heritage, but ultimately became fascinated with the history and execution of race as a concept. Now, she hopes to provide a greater sense of confidence and selfhood to other mixed people through her work, because she sincerely believes we can all get to a place where we no longer let others define who we are, as individuals and as artists. You can find her writings on various corners of the internet, including some selected pieces at madelinecwrites.com.