Snack Invention Pops Into Couple’s Heads
Ideas can come from the strangest places.
Consider the case of Ray Comeau and his wife, Wanda. The avid moviegoers were growing ever more frustrated with popcorn. They’d order their popcorn at the movies, then go over to the condiment counter to salt and butter the popped kernels. That’s when frustration would set in.
The popcorn was seasoned properly near the top. But the seasonings and butter never reached the popcorn in the bottom half of the box.
So Ray invented the Popcorn Shaker Box.
“I actually thought of the idea and said it out loud, and he ran with it,” Wanda said.
After playing around with several ideas, Ray designed a box that’s shaped like a typical popcorn box, but taller.
That allows the box to be filled a couple of inches short of the top, so moviegoers can shake it vigorously to mix the popcorn, butter and salt, after closing the top of the box.“They’re mixing the ingredients all the way through so it all tastes the same,” Ray said.
Then it’s a simple matter of popping out the perforated opening on the side, setting the box on the lap and digging in.
Comeau estimates he’d need to order 30,000 boxes to get the price down to about 15 cents a box. That would put his new box in line with what independent theaters pay now for cups and bags, he said.
Large movie theater chains are out of reach at this point, but he thinks the country has enough mom-and-pop theaters to allow him to launch a profitable business.
Photo by Lewis Geyer.
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