There was a place in the 80s that made caramel corn in one of the local malls. It was great, and you had to get it because it smelled up the mall when you walked in. They eventually went out of business. So I set out to figure it out myself and created my recipe. Just for me and the kids. Would occasionally bring it to a potluck. Inevitably, someone would say ,”you need to Market this”. To which I would reply “no”. One of the main reasons I kept saying no over the course of 20 years was that my main business at the time was, ironically, in the nutrition industry. You can see the problem. Over time, more and more people started to order it from me and it got to the point that I would only make it at Christmas time. I brought it to a Chamber meeting around the holidays and passed around a bag and said what it cost. Figured I’d make a little extra money. I ended up with 17 orders and the owner of a little shop telling me we needed to talk. I was still doing this out of my kitchen. I found a (new) portable cement mixer and found a place downtown that sandblasted it and coated it to be food-safe. So I believe I have the only food-safe cement mixer in the world. I ended up with a little 400 square-foot Deli off the lobby of the Avondale Civic Center Library. I also did soups salads and sandwiches. because the city of Avondale loved what I made so much, my catering business took off. That wasn’t what I intended. And the caramel corn started to go as well. Later I moved into a 1300 square foot shop in historic Avondale. I had been with the Coyotes, the Phoenix Suns, Rattlers, Mercury etc., in all of the AJ’s Fine Food Stores and more. I did just gain the Arizona Cardinals; they put me in all of the concessions and I didn’t have to be there with a stand. We carry a locally-made Karen’s Creamery ice cream, locally-made cake pops that are little pieces of Art from sugar on top cake pops, make smoothies and snow cones and marshmallows from scratch dipped in Ghirardelli chocolate with all kinds of variations. We are the best place in town to be bad. So while we are a minority and woman-owned small business, we support two other women on small businesses also http://www.its2Di4.com
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