Meet Adidoreydi Figueroa | Owner of Kawaii Otaku Plus

We had the good fortune of connecting with Adidoreydi Figueroa and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adidoreydi, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My thought process was not the original goal in life. This started out when I went to an anime conventions, I was looking for a special type of figure. I was walking to each vendor asking question, but they were very rude to me. Some of them refused to sale me anything, thinking I didn’t have any money. I came across the one figure I was looking for, I asked the gentleman who was working the booth how much the item cost. He looked at me and told me a high price, thinking I didn’t know the real price. I keep trying to ask him question but he refused to sell me anything, mostly ignoring me. Another gentleman ask the vendor the same question as I did, but he sold the figure to him and made a deal for him only. I was heart broken, I was crying, just because I was a women. Not a single vendor wanted to sale me anything unless it was super girly items. After that day I wanted to change things, I wanted to help everyone who ever went through what I had to deal with. I wanted to help people with their hobbies without any judgment or any type of discriminations. All of this has lead me to start my own anime convention and open my store.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Kawaii Otaku Plus is a Japanese import for all anime and pop culture goods. We make sure we are as low as we can go, so people don’t have to brake the bank with their hobbies. We don’t believe in scamming people or bring in fake products. We understand that it is hard to trust someone online not knowing what you are getting. We would like to bring a safer and trusting business to all people. Believe me all been there, trying to buy product only to only find out the product is fake or overly prices. When we first started people could not believe what we where doing. Other business would tell us that we need to charge more. My answer is no, its not fair to the people who are working hard.
During this pandemic we had to to grow with the community and give out more of a helping hand. It was hard to reach out when there was no convention and people only interaction was online. Shipping was hard on us due to international delays and the stop of Japanese goods. We started to reach out to the small business in japan to see what we can do. We learned a lot during this big change, the biggest one is how to open your own store.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When I want to have a good time with a friend, I would take them to the locally own restaurants to try different food. If they would like to go shopping I would take them to other local owned shops like The Music City Mall in Lewisville. Places like these get over looked when you can find something interesting and great in these places.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have a couple of people who helped me along the way. My husband Justin is my number one cheerleader who encourage me to take this leap of faith. Helping me figure everything out when I was lost, and helping me understand why things work the way they did. Justin encourages me to just speak up and how its ok to express my self. Another person who help me out on this journey is Anime Yankii, she has showed me how to be brave. I feel more confident standing and speaking about equality in the anime community.

Website: https://www.kawaiiotakuplus.com/

Instagram: @kawaiiotakuplus

Twitter: @plus_kawaii

Facebook: @kawaiiotakuplus