Here’s the machine we got for the shop! It’s a Carnival King 8 oz. popcorn popper, which is plenty enough production for the crowd we get, even in a street fair, which is rare enough that we can rent if we need something bigger and faster, which we presently don’t.

The idea is not so much “to sell popcorn” — although that might be a very good business thriving business in itself, just plain old popcorn, but we have an angle that makes our popcorn very different from all other popcorns.

It’s the spice.

Anyone who knows anything about Arrakis knows that spice is always at the bottom of any deal.

Popcorn is exempt from some local and regional and all federal food-handler licensing. Ben Franklin’s arts & crafts store has a big commercial popcorn machine in the front of the shop — they give away bags of popcorn to incoming customers, being careful to avoid serving them to those inevitable folks who show up every day for a bag of popcorn and quickly run out the door when they’ve got it.

You can’t afford to give away stuff forever, and at some point, you’ll learn to charge for it so you can keep doing your public service, thus fulfilling your Bodhisattva Vow, the one you took in a previous lifetime.

It’s time to settle that debt. Popcorn is a good beginning, spicy popcorn doubly so.

We sell our Zombie Family Red Hot Popcorn Spice in a special spice bottle, and we offer the spice in sample form, by sprinkling a generous amount of our incredibly hot “salsa caliente” on the hot salted or unsalted popcorn as it’s bagged up, and offer a fair special to take home, two bottles for only $25, which is a LOT of popcorn spice that could outlast the planet.

So how to turn this into a street hustle? Continue reading →