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  • If you know doughnuts, you know the pink doughnut box.

  • Especially if you're familiar with Southern California, which has hundreds of doughnut shops, most with the pink boxes.

  • But while you may recognize the box, you may not know it's central to a story about chasing the American dream.

  • The pink box phenomenon all started with a man named Ted.

  • Ted Ngoy came to California as a Cambodian refugee in the 1970s.

  • He got into the doughnut business and became the owner of dozens of shops.

  • Ted sponsored other refugees, taught them the business, and helped them open their own shops.

  • Since Ted used the pink boxes, so did everybody else.

  • Ted became known as the Doughnut King.

  • My name is Mayly Tao, and I am the Doughnut Princess of L.A.

  • The Doughnut Princess's great uncle, the one and only Doughnut King, Ted Ngoy.

  • He taught Mayly's parents the business in the 1980s, and they started this shop.

  • Mayly took it over a few years ago.

  • And beyond Mayly, Ted's legacy lives on through, you guessed it, those pink boxes.

  • When we came to L.A., my parents owned a doughnut shop for 26 years.

  • We use the pink doughnut boxes.

  • In the Asian community, red is a lucky color, so therefore, using the pink box, it's no coincidence about it.

  • The pink box is overwhelmingly the favorite of the doughnut shop industry.

  • That's Len Bell, he should know.

  • His company manufactures about 12 to 15 million doughnut boxes every year.

  • Cheers!

  • While the pink boxes are still an iconic part of the doughnut landscape, owners are putting a new spin on things.

  • Mayly makes some of the same doughnuts her parents used to make, but like everything, times are a changin'.

  • When I took the business over from my parents, they were using the generic pink boxes that you see everywhere.

  • But our doughnuts were not generic, and I needed to reflect that upon our new, upgraded boxes.

  • And what does your mom think about that, Mayly?

  • My mom does not really approve of the new boxes.

  • They're a little bit more expensive, and it's not really what she's used to, but I think it's a sign of new doughnut times.

  • Yum, sounds delicious.

If you know doughnuts, you know the pink doughnut box.

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