I had a great time at Peppers in Rehoboth Beach, DE on Saturday, and I'm definitely looking forward to my next promotion on July 24. Considering the weather was very nice -- shop employees told me they get most of their traffic when the skies are overcast and folks aren't flocking to the beaches -- I thought I did pretty well; I sold about five cases of spice mix and pepper sauce combined.
While sheer numbers are important, I always place more weight on the percentage of people who buy my products after sampling them. Generally I sit around 40 percent, but I'd say that about half of the people who sampled my chili and fresh salsa (both of which were made using my spice mix and garnished with my pepper sauce if desired) bought at least one bottle of something. And while many folks in the Mid-Atlantic region don't think the summer heat is conducive to hot chili, I was pleasantly surprised at how many people were not only eager to give my chili a try, but asked for more as well!
Overall, I met a lot of nice folks and got to talk about my products and about food and cooking in general, which is always the best part of these types of promos. I think the best compliment I got all day came from a 12-year-old boy on crutches who kicked up his chili sample with the pepper sauce and said, "The hot sauce has more flavor than spice." I could've given him a hug. While it definitely has a nice heat level, anyone can put heat in a bottle -- the one thing I want people to remember about my pepper sauce is the lingering flavor, so this meant quite a bit from a kid who probably spends the majority of his time eating chicken fingers and fries.
With that, here are a few photos I was able to snap to document some of the experience, but because I had to fly solo this time I don't have too many. However, my wife and son will be with me for the July event and I plan to have at least a couple Stiff Willi Girls in tow as well, so it should make for an even better time. But I want to send a huge thanks to all the folks at Peppers for their generosity and help in making Saturday such a memorable day!
I set up shop under a 10x10 tent outside the store and got a lot of compliments on the sign.
I can't recall this guy's name, but he is friends with Stephen "The Murph" Murphy, who was in town from New York City to promote The Murph's Famous Bloody Mary Mix, and helped me polish off a quart of the bourbon lemonades I brought to keep myself hydrated.
This is a shot of the inside of Peppers, and as you can see it's a rather large store. The gal in the gray and black picked up a bottle of my spice mix to use as a BBQ rub that afternoon. I sure hope she liked it!
Considering Peppers has the largest collection of hot sauces in the world, I think it's pretty cool they hooked me up with all this shelf space. As I'm learning very quickly, that is a commodity that is hard to come by!
The Peppers gang! The man in the red is Chip Hearn, the reputed "King of Wings" and owner of Peppers along with his father Luther. If you're in the neighborhood, be sure to stop in for all your fiery foods needs and tell them T-Rev sent you. Maybe they'll even throw some T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili Pepper Sauce on some wings for ya!
