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"Pop-up" Event MVM 10.30.21

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The owner of the Mountain View Market was gracious enough to let me set up behind her shop. This also happens to be the day for the annual Doney Park halloween parade and the market is the staging area. We arrived about noon and got set up. We popped a batch and took a bag and some samples inside the market as a "thank you" and to entice people to come around back.  Things started slowly as expected,  but became pretty steady. We sold 34 bags which is better than I did at the community market using my home set up. At the community market, we sold 20 (still not bad).  Most importantly, I learned some things: • Wear long sleeves • That face shield you bought - use it! The reason fornthese 2 revelations is this. In order to pop popcorn, oil in the kettle needs to be between 400° & 460°. Add some sugar into that mix, and the little droplet of scalding oil flying from the kettle will stick to things (apron, bare arms, face, etc). After a few of these sugar missles
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Community Market 10/2021

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Pre-made bags Welp, the whole kit didn't arrive as I thought today. In hindsight, I was thinking it was impressive to fit everything in just those 2 boxes. Looks like we will attend the market tomorrow morning with pre-made bags as originally planned.  I will bring my "home kit" to make more on site if needed. We'll see.... UPDATE: We brought 16 pre-made bags to the market and the sales started slow. I decided to make a batch on my home kit for samples. Every kid got a sample. Almost everyone who got a sample boughtva bag! A recent trick I learned that I implemented towards the end of the day was asking the customer if they wanted a fresh bag. Most said yes, som just wanted the already popped stuff. The idea behing asking is that it keeps the person at the booth longer. Totally psychological, but when others see someone in the booth, then naturally want to see what's going on.  I also gave a bag to the event organizer who was walking around. The beat advertisement
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The Birth of Something Great!

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It was August 7th, 2021. My wife & I were working a booth at a local community market. We were selling natural body scrubs and paleo granola. We did well. We were discussing with the event organizer that a kettle corn booth would do well! She got really excited about that idea! That got me thinking.... Let me take you back in time a little. As far back as I can remember, my dad was a popcorn FREAK! He would make a big batch almost every weekend and my brother & I would get our little salad bowl an he would have the rest. Now, I'm  the dad. Let's just say history has a way of repeating itself.   Anytime we would go to a store that made popcorn (K-Mart used to have a "food" area), he would always get a bag and begrudgingly share with my brother & I. As a dad myself, I have tried to break this cycle, but I fear it may be in my DNA .  Any time we go to the county fair, a large kettle corn bag mysteriously appears in my hands. I have always loved the slightly s
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