Grocery mogul Bowen Kou says Senate could benefit from more business owners

Bowen Kou. Image by Jacob Ogles.

Lots of politicians say government should run more like a business. But as the owner of several groceries and restaurants in seven states, Bowen Kou said he can follow through.

“I want to improve the efficiency and cut wasteful spending, which I always do,” the Winter Garden Republican said.

The Senate candidate discussed his views on the patio of the Paris Baguette bakery in Hamlin, a franchise location Kou owns and operates with wife Hong, whom he married last year.

But to describe Kou as a small-business owner somewhat undersells his background.

After the Michigan State University graduate spent a couple years in used textbooks, he sold a bookstore and entered the food business in 2011 with the purchase of an existing East Lansing grocery. He upscaled it to something more in the model boutique grocers like Trader Joe’s, but with a focus on international ingredients and cuisine. Through a series of acquisitions and store openings, Fresh International Market now operates locations in seven states.

More recently, he connected with Paris Baguette about opening the first Florida location and ended up in the Orlando area about three years ago. He has one other franchise location open and two others planned.

He initially moved to Florida with Hong about four years ago, with the couple seeing the heavy impacts on his employees of inflation and rising commuter costs, driving him to run for office. Kou gestures toward State Road 429, a toll road that many of his employees take to work. But he just had an employee quit because commuting costs from Clermont cost around $12 per day.

“This is hurting the entry-level families, the middle class,” Kou said.

He’s made cutting tolls a central part of his campaign for Senate District 13, an open seat. He believes for roads where the principal debt has already been paid off, like the Florida Turnpike, the state could maintain the roads by charging tolls only on commercial and out-of-state vehicles.

His chief rival for the Republican nomination is Rep. Keith Truenow, a Tavares Republican with the support of retiring incumbent Sen. Dennis Baxley. Former Clermont City Council member Ebo Entsuah and business owner C.J. Blanchett are also filed in the Primary. Kou has largely bankrolled his own campaign to the tune of almost $1.4 million.

Kou’s business background has also raised some questions. Missouri health officials in 2022 shut down Seafood City, a business Kou runs in University City, something that attracted media attention in Florida after his Senate campaign launched. Kou said that was a result of maintenance failures by a landlord resulting in a roof cave-in.

Prohibited from even accessing his own store, Kou said that resulted in the loss of $7.1 million in inventory, equipment and revenue for his business, and he still can’t access much of the equipment in the business. The situation has created conflict with local government and insurance providers, and he remains in litigation with the property owner over the issue.

“In the lease, it’s black and white,” he said. “I’m paying the rent but I’m also paying for the maintenance and repair.”

On a series of hard-line conservative social issues, Kou adheres to a party line. He supports Florida’s “heartbeat” abortion restriction and limits on transgender girls playing in scholastic women’s sports. He stresses that in his businesses, he has never even considered unisex bathrooms.

On issues like preemption of local government, he said as a lawmaker he would address that case by case. He supports, for example, having the same minimum wage apply statewide, and doesn’t want a higher rate required in Orange County than competitors in Lake or Osceola County are asked to pay.

Originally born in China, Kou said he’s certainly faced some resistance to his entry into the race. Especially with the state cracking down on economic influence from the Chinese Communist Party, Kou has often had to defend his own motives for running. Now an American citizen, he said he knows firsthand the way communism prevents the type of entrepreneurial success he moved to America to find.

“America, it’s not about what you look like, what language you speak or even your birthplace,” he said. “It is about ideas and what we believe. That’s American. I can’t help what I look like, where I came from. But I live my life based on biblical principle, and I know I can make a difference.”

For the record, Kou said he agrees with certain measures taken by the state of Florida to limit Chinese nationals from buying certain real estate in Florida. Indeed, his experience in Central Florida’s Chinese American community as well.

“For our farmland, or commercial properties, I agree with Gov. (Ron) DeSantis that sometimes we have to worry (about) causes of Chinese individuals or Chinese corporations buying our land,” he said. “That could be a national security issue. For us, we are Chinese American. We don’t get affected. A lot of my friends are supporters of it too, because they realize how socialism and how the CCP can be very sneaky.”