Their father grew this beloved specialty market in Miami Gardens. Now it’s their turn
On a quiet corner in Miami Gardens, the arrival of fresh collard greens fills Sunshine Meat Market with joyful noise on a Wednesday morning. A line of excited customers weaves through the brightly lit and colorful family-owned business. With wide smiles, sisters Vanessa and Karissa Disla talk to customers and help them with whatever they need.
This is how their father, owner Rafael Disla, 54, imagined growing the business with his family when he bought the market over two decades ago.
On that Wednesday, Rafael was in the Dominican Republic ahead of his father’s 90th birthday, something he said he was only able to do because of his daughters’ work ethic.
“It took 20 years of doing the same work and working a lot of hours a day,” he said via Zoom from Santiago. “It drains you a little bit. I can be here, because they’re there. Who else can I trust more than my daughters to run my business? That’s how we want to keep it.”
Rafael grew up in Santiago. His father grew all of the vegetables the family ate, and his home did not have a refrigerator. Food had to be freshly prepared.
“I learned a lot because my father used to be in the meat business,” Rafael said. “In a little town, back then, if you killed an animal today, it was sold out the same day.”
When Rafael was 16, his family moved to the United States and settled in Connecticut. He worked at a Burger King and cleaned banks before working full-time at a diner.
In May 2001, Disla and his wife, Sterlyn, moved from Connecticut to Miami when they purchased Sunshine, which had opened under different ownership in 1984. Their three children — Vanessa, Rafael Jr. and Karissa, who were 8, 4 and 3 at the time of the move — practically grew up in the meat market and watched it evolve over the years.
“It’s really cool to see the growth from a customer level,” Vanessa said. “I’ve seen customers who shopped at this store my whole life. We have generational customers where I now take care of their grandkids.”
Vanessa and Karissa work full-time as partners in the market, with Vanessa focused on operations and Karissa handling the company’s marketing. The business has four other employees, one of whom has been with Sunshine for 22 years.
“I want to be a good trooper and keep it going as Miami changes and marketing changes,” Karissa said.
Looking back, the sisters can see how their father, with an ardent work ethic and passion for helping others, laid the foundation for the business’s success today. Providing customers with high-quality options and customer service has allowed the market to thrive for more than two decades, Rafael said. He prides himself on having only advertised his business once in 23 years.
“What I always tell my employees is to make sure we take care of people,” he said.
For the Disla sisters, working with their father has led to unforgettable moments that could only come from being a part of a family business. For Karissa, one memory exemplifies that.
Customers filled the market days before Thanksgiving one year when the power suddenly went out. As uncertain chatter filled the space, Karissa looked at her father, and they both started to laugh.
“My dad just looked at me and said, ‘This is business. We’ll be fine tomorrow,’” she remembers. “ ... Instead of freaking out and worrying if we’ll make sales, he said that our customers will be back tomorrow.”
Rafael was right. Sunshine’s customers have been so loyal to the business that their children continue to shop at the market as adults. One of the market’s appeals to its longtime customers is that it not only looks like a tienda in another country, but it also feels like one.
“We’ve seen people that have come from their home countries in Latin America, and it’s similar to the dynamics of their home,” Vanessa said. “But maybe they think that they have to speak English, and they get a little afraid. After seeing that we speak Spanish, you feel a connection because of the language.”
Although customers regularly ask when the market will expand and add a second location, the sisters remain mum about the idea. But they have already begun building the brand in other areas. Sunshine currently services six local restaurants and is working on expanding into delivery soon via Instacart.
“We’re up for the challenge,” Vanessa said. “We’re not going to stay the same and are going to keep adapting.”
Karissa nodded in agreement with her sister.
“There’s nothing like shopping at a family-owned business,” she said. “We genuinely care about the people coming in. That’s what helps us stick out compared to the big dogs.”
As he prepares to celebrate Father’s Day and his father’s birthday, Rafael considers it a blessing for his daughters to continue the family legacy.
“I’m here enjoying my country and my parents,” he said, “and I know they’re doing things right over there, and things are going how they’re supposed to go.”
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