Apples, Popcorn, and Passion: The Story Behind Crunch Time’s Success
The Success Story of Crunch Time
Lindsey Stark’s passion for food businesses first began with an in-home bakery and trailer. She would go to fairs and festivals selling gourmet apples, cupcakes, and cookies. Yet everywhere she went the apples were a top-seller.
After personal reasons caused her to pause the business and sell everything, Lindsey continued to get requests for her famous apples. She thought about how much she missed it and knew she wanted to find a way to get back in the business. She couldn’t survive solely on selling dipped apples, so she and her dad went to work researching other products. They found there wasn’t a gourmet popcorn shop nearby, so popcorn would be the perfect pairing with the gourmet apples.
Getting Introduced to Gourmet Popcorn
To get started in gourmet popcorn, Lindsey did more research and came across Gold Medal. She sent a message and got connected with Mike Dydynski. Mike showed her the ropes, popping up batches of popcorn and teaching her how to make a bunch of flavors. He taught her how the equipment worked and the proper supplies to use. Before long, Lindsey was ready to open her shop. She chose Gold Medal equipment including hydraulic stands, tumblers, cookers, caramel warmers, candy apple warmer, and the PopClean® popper with touch screen controls.
She owned the Dairy Queen and had a party room that was not used. Lindsey thought she could transform that space into her apple and popcorn store. The name Crunch Time came to her, and she knew that was what she would name the business.
Crunch Time Opens for Business
Crunch Time opened in October 2024 featuring gourmet popcorn, dipped apples, fudge, candied nuts, and cupcakes. The shop operates with six main popcorn flavors (butter, caramel, cheddar, kettle, OREO, and caramel with nuts and chocolate drizzle). Plus, there are six additional flavors that rotate weekly. Customers love the variety, and many bring in their popcorn tins on a regular basis to refill it.
Why Choose Crunch Time?
What makes Crunch Time different is their genuine love for creating different flavors of apples and popcorn. They test a lot of unique ideas to find the just-right flavor. Some of the most popular are cheddar, caramel, OREO, and anything Buffalo.
To help get the word out, Crunch Time has a Facebook page where they post daily. They run ads on Facebook, do digital road sign marketing, and advertise on the local radio station. Crunch Time has been a huge hit in the community. They do fundraisers with local schools, dance companies, and nonprofits. People love to sample all the different flavors. The positive reviews and feedback from the customers are so important.
For future plans, Lindsey is working to expand her current building, and a second location may be coming down the road.
Her advice to others interested in a fun food business is, “You must love what you do. The popcorn business is a lot of work and if you don’t enjoy it, you won’t be successful. Be willing to sacrifice and work hard and it will pay off.”
If you’d like to read more inspiring success stories like this, visit the Gold Medal blog.