Pickle pops: sell the brine instead of pouring it out
The pickles were never the whole jar. What is left at the bottom costs nothing, and it is worth almost as much again.
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Open the calculatorMost stands that sell pickles buy them the same way: a gallon jar, a pair of tongs, a stack of snack bags. You sell the pickles, and when the last one goes, somebody carries the jar to the sink and pours out what is left.
What is left is about half a gallon of brine. It cost you nothing extra, because you paid for it when you bought the pickles. Frozen in a popsicle sleeve and sold for a dollar, it is one of the most profitable things a stand can put on the board.
The jar you already pay for
A gallon jar of whole dills holds 15 pickles. At two dollars each, that is what the jar is for, and most stands stop counting there.
Take the pickles out and look at what is still in the jar: roughly 64 ounces of brine. A pickle pop takes 3.2 ounces, so one jar’s brine makes 20 pops. You do not have to buy anything to make them except the sleeves.
What a pop costs
Here is one stand’s pickle pop, costed the same way as everything else on its menu.
| What goes in | Portion | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Popsicle sleeve | 1 | $0.03 |
| Brine | 3.2 oz | $0.00 |
| Total | $0.03 |
The sleeve is the whole cost. They come in packs of a few hundred, which works out at about three cents per sleeve, and one pack covers the brine from fifteen jars. The brine is free, and it should be counted that way: you bought it for the pickles, and charging part of the jar to the pops would only make the pickles look cheaper than they are.
| Item | Price | Cost | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dill pickle | $2.00 | $0.45 | 77.5% |
| Pickle pop | $1.00 | $0.03 | 97.0% |
A pickle is already a good item, and a pop is a better one. Very little on any concession board keeps 97 cents of every dollar.
What it does to a jar
Put the two together. The same jar that used to sell 15 pickles now sells 15 pickles and 20 pops.
That is two-thirds more in sales from the same jar, and nearly twice the profit. The pickles do not change at all. The extra money comes entirely from something that was going down the drain.
The ratio holds as long as the pops sell. They will not sell themselves: a pop that sits in the freezer all night earns nothing, so put them where people can see them, and say so on the board.
Doing it on Friday
You need popsicle sleeves (the long plastic freezer-pop kind, which seal at the top), a funnel or a small jug to pour with, and freezer space.
- Pour the brine the day before. Fill each sleeve to the same line so every pop is the same size. A clear mark on the jug makes that easy for whoever is pouring.
- Freeze them overnight. A full freezer takes longer than an empty one. Lay the pops flat at first so they freeze evenly, then stand them up once they are solid.
- Use sleeves, not cups. A sleeve is something people can hold and walk away with. A cup of frozen brine needs a spoon and a bin, and it costs more.
- Treat the brine like food. Keep the jar covered and cold once it is open. Pour with clean hands and clean equipment. Do not pour brine that has sat out warm, or brine from a jar somebody has been reaching into all night without the tongs.
- Label the batch. Write the date on the freezer bag or tray. If pops are left at the end of the season, you will know how old they are.
Then put them on the board. A dollar is an easy yes for somebody who already has change in their hand, and something frozen is an easy thing to want on a hot night.