21st Century Capitalists, and Proud

It’s a very short step from pickles to ice pops, at least in Brooklyn, so we read with great interest Adam Davidson’s recent economics column in the NYT, “Don't Mock the Artisanal Pickle-Makers,” about the post-industrial, post-recession move in certain sectors towards a craft-centered economy.

Yes, as the author says, “it’s tempting to look at craft business as simply a rejection of modern industrial capitalism.” Dave, Joel and I went into business together because we wanted an alternative to corporate jobs, the liberty of being our own bosses, of shaping our own lives, and of making decisions led as much by principles as they are by economics. But when Davidson says, “It would break their heart to be called model 21^st-century capitalists,” he’s wrong. To us, there is no higher compliment. To be able to lift our business out of the artisanal ghetto into the realm of consequence, resonance and profitability is a dream that, with much hard work, is slowly coming true.

Don’t get me wrong—I venerate artisans, embrace locavorism, and spend as much on the handmade and humble, whether it’s jewelry or goat’s milk cajeta, as any Brooklyn hipster. But I challenge the dichotomy created by a small-is-beautiful, big-is-bad worldview. Companies such as Chipotle, Organic Valley and Whole Foods are showing us that you can mass-produce responsibly, that you can empower all levels of people within a large corporation, and that there’s a huge and growing audience for consciously sourced goods.

In fact, it’s snotty, fallacious and unworkably purist to believe otherwise. If we at People’s Pops can continue to source our fruit from nearby farms, supporting our local ecology and economy, but we are making 100 times more pops than we are making now and they are still as delicious, is that still a good thing?

We think it is.

If we can provide 50 more jobs than we did when we started, but our cherries get pitted by machines rather than by humans, is that still a good thing?

We think it is. (You probably would too, if you’d ever spent entire days pitting cherries by hand while your brain slowly rotted.)

And why do we have to trade profit for satisfaction? If our product is terrific and enough people buy it, we and our employees can be happy and prosperous. Isn’t that good too?

Bring it on, Davidson. Say it loud! We are 21st century capitalists, and proud!!

pitting cherries artisanally

People's Pops Vision Quest

As small-business owners, we spend a lot of time scrutinizing and discussing other businesses. What makes walking into Buvette, Do or Dine, or Porsena so heart-warming? What specific elements render the Hotel Saint Cecilia so magical? What puts Costco at the top, and Wal-Mart at the bottom, of employee-happiness rankings, even though they’re in the same business?

One of the organizations I’ve most admired over the course of my biz-ucation is Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which opened thirty or so years ago as a Jewish deli and has now grown into a “community” of 13 businesses (coffee roaster, cheesemaking dairy & publishing house, to name a few), still based in Ann Arbor. These peeps take corporate culture creation to another level, so I read founder Ari Weinzweig’s “A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Building a Great Business” with deep and abiding interest, marking up my copy until it was more ink than paper. Then I sent copies to Dave & Joel.

Last month, having spent enough daiquiri-sipping beach time to have gathered a modicum of perspective on our 2011 season, we got together for a “visioning” exercise that the book describes. Before meeting, we each spent an hour individually painting the most positive shape we could imagine our business morphing into in five or ten years, if everything we did from now til then went absolutely perfectly. Then we shared our visions.

A small business can either run you, or you can run it. There are so many daily fires to fight that years can elapse before you lift your head and take stock of where you’ve ended up. The point of the visioning exercise is to set down goals and chart a course to them, allowing you to move ahead proactively rather than reactively.

To no one’s surprise, our visions matched very closely. Even the three of us had never formally “visioned” together before, we’ve spent enough time discussing and debating our philosophies and dreams for them to have meshed into ones we hold collectively, and our business is very much a child of that. Despite that, it feels really good to set our sights on a landmark ahead, instead of adrift in an infinite sea.

It’s hard work, analyzing who you want to be (and, just as importantly, who you don’t). But that’s what gives organizations like the Saint Cecilia and Zingerman’s their identity, and determines why the people who work there care and love it.

The harder work is still ahead, though: holding ourselves to that vision and executing it.

End of Season 4

After a little bit of this....

(yes we did sell pops when it was SNOWING, never again please)

We did a little bit of this....

(closing down the shops for the season)

Tomorrow, there'll be a little bit of this...

(Joel & Danielle GET MARRIED!!!!)

and then, we'll all experience a little bit of this...

Thanks for another GREAT season, y'all!

We're out!

(keep in touch....lots of good stuff brewing.......)

Season ends soon!

And now, a little poetic interlude....

Summertime came and went

But thanks for all the times well spent!

Unfortunately our time is almost through

Making our delicious ICE POPS for you!

So stock up now, while you still can

Before everything's packed away in our People's Pops van....

The fabulous Christine wrote this poem to commemorate the end of our *fourth* season, which mostly ends Oct 15, although we'll stay open in Chelsea Market until Halloween.

We're sad to go. This summer's been amazing! Our business doubled, our shops tripled, our staff quadrupled. Nathalie's toenail, which turned black from where she dropped an ice block on it in May, has finally grown back to normal. Time flies when you're having fun! Through it all, we kept our eyes on the prize: delicious pops, busy shops, great service, good times.

Who made the times so good? The troopers listed below, our 2011 crack team of perpetually smiling, very sexy, strong-as-oxen ice mongers. I present you:

Rue Snider	Meghan Sebold	Jack O'Brien
Charlie Stopek	Charlie Smith	Christine Wang
Malcolm Barrett	Sharlena Powell	Ben Silbert
Clyde Loving-Cortes	Gasky Joseph	Jaymie O'Brien
Danelle Snider	Katie Traynor	Michael Caglione
Kaitlin Winter	Justin Manley	Brian Austin
Darren Fiorello	Eamonn McMahon	Marilyn Stout

I wish I had a group photo from our midsummer party to post here, but I drank too much to remember to take one. Maybe it's best left undocumented.

But hark! It's a miraculous 80 degrees in New York as I write this (October 8), ideal ice-pop temperature. So why are you reading this? Go out and eat some pops while you still can!

Photo Shoot at Nat's Apartment

After the high last week of having achieved our lifelong dream of prime real estate on New York Magazine's approval matrix, this week's photo shoot with photographer Jennifer May and prop stylist Alana Chernila was icing on the cake.

Alana transformed my apartment into a prop shop that was everything we'd wished for: stylish, retro, imaginative, whimsical.

Caught mid-photo, the fabulous Jennifer May, with husband Chris in the background.

Lunch break for Korean food from across the street.

Joel putting some finishing touches on a cantaloupe & Campari shot.

Our type of pièce montée.

Blow-drying for the ice-pop equivalent of bed-head, that just-so sheen.

Blueberry & moonshine mise en scène.

Last shot of the day.

Such fun!!

Our last photo day is this Sunday, Aug 14th. Come by the Williamsburg Flea after 3 p.m. in brightly colored clothes--we'll comp your pop if you smile for our picture!

Scenes from the Summer

Cool fish-eye pic of Clyde at our East Village shop sent by popsi-fan Anna Kelman.

Megan, Sharlena, Katie & Joel getting buck wild in the kitchen while preparing custom pops for Grey Goose Vodka.

East Village People's Pops Cabana Now Open!

Hours:

5pm-10pm Monday-Wednesday

5pm-midnight Thurs-Friday

noon-midnight Saturday

noon-10pm Sunday

occasionally closed unexpectedly due to rain or flakiness

Dispatches from the People's Pops Email Inbox

From this week's email exchange, a picture of Nat and Dave at the MAST Academy prom in Miami in May 2000.

Joel responds:

David:

Pop Culture, Indeed

Has anyone noticed the profusion of pops in mass marketing this summer?

Here's a giant pop at Target, right next to a giant flip-flop.

Here's the window of J. Crew on 5th Ave (it's hard to tell, but the little squares in the backdrop are all ice pops)

Here's Pret a Manger in Union Square.

Anyone else seen examples of this lately?

What's New These Days

Our lives are moving by so fast that everything is happening in bullet points! (And exclamation marks!!) (And question marks?)

• Joel's talented brother made a video of our first day at the Brooklyn Flea this year. It's here...and so convincing that you almost forget everyone is wearing mittens and parkas. Thanks Nate!

• We are up on the High Line again for the summer: find us at the "Chelsea Market Passage" (right above 16th St).

We are suuuper psyched about this. If you haven't been on the High Line lately: Part II just opened, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Get thee to it, and after Wednesday 6/22 our Joel-and-Robin-designed new kiosk will also be there to admire.

• Besides our own retail outlets, you can also find our pops nesting chez these fine purveyors:

• Nolita Mart (Nolita)
• Brucie (Carroll Gardens)
• Marlow & Daughters (Williamsburg)
• Brooklyn Victory Garden (Clinton Hill)
• Stinky Bklyn (Carroll Gardens)
• Whole Foods (Upper West Side).

• For years now we've been turning down folks in Tennessee, Colorado or Florida who want to get their hands on some pops. No more! Anyone further afield and jonesin', take note: the lovely folks at Manhattan Fruitier will now ship people's pops overnight on dry ice. Wooooot!

• The other day I randomly noticed that the background pic on Rue's phone was the chalkboard from last year's Chelsea Market shop, where it's been....since last year. We have hired some awesome new people we feel lucky to hang out in the kitchen and on the shop with...but it's pretty great to get the old family back together again, too.

Every summer, the season swallows us in, whirls us around, and (eventually) spits us out. The ride is far from over, but we're optimistic. Our problems may be bigger, but they're better, too. Stay tuned. We have more news coming.