King Kone opened its doors on 143rd street during the summer of 1996. For over 28 seasons we have been locally owned and operated and pride ourselves on providing a quality product and authentic positive customer service.
In 2010, Rick and Shelly, the current owners, purchased King Kone from the previous owners after being employees. In 2015, they expanded King Kone, with help and encouragement from their staff to the location on 69th St.
Today, Rick utilizes his background in youth development to work directly with our high school and college aged staff to not only provide a great experience for customers but also support staff to grow and develop as employees, friends and contributors. He believes what makes King Kone different is the faces and personalities behind the counter. You can only get us at King Kone.
Although Rick thought he was getting out of youth development and was jumping into the business world he was sorely mistaken. Our first hire in 2010 was a young lady named Angie. Angie was 16 years old and we were to be her first job. Rick had scheduled Angie to begin training on the weekend before Memorial Day, also known as Cruising weekend. The weather was fantastic and Angie and Rick were both overwhelmed with the amount of people that came into King Kone. At the end of the shift Rick called Angie and told her that he knew she was overwhelmed and wanted to quit, and frankly he did as well, but he needed her to come in the next night and that together they were going to make it. It was in that moment that Rick realized that he was doing way more than running a business but had an opportunity to still commit to the work he loved in Youth Development. Angie was an employee for 7 years and worked from being a day time staffer to Shift Leader and eventually became a Manager of one of the stores when we decided to expand in 2015.
Today, Rick, and other leadership staff members, mentor and coach staff to be the best version of themselves every day. Our high school students get lessons in personal finance, leadership and team member skill development and interpersonal coaching. Our college and beyond students begin with lessons around personal finance and debt reduction/destruction, effective workplace behaviors, interpersonal skills and entrepreneurial coaching. We don't push it on them but when the conversation takes off, watch out.
