By Johnathan Ciolek
Both sweet and savory smells of fresh popcorn fill the air as Stefan Coker enters his store. White walls are contrasted by dozens of custom stamped bags filled with various flavors of mouth-watering popcorn ranging from sugary and fruity white chocolate raspberry to the fiery spice of mango habanero.
Coker, owner of What’s Pop-In’ Gourmet Popcorn, 418 West Ferry St., opened his storefront in November 2019. Since then, he has hustled and travelled across the United States to put his business on the map and to prove all of his doubters wrong.
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| Stefan Coker, top left, with a staffer and his two children |
“The concept is really just a joke, just messing around, but the more people that said we couldn’t do it or create it, the more I was like well wait a minute, you know, now we got something here,” Coker said.
Like Coker, there are others looking to make their ideas a reality, but this comes with some difficulty.
Dr. Susan McCartney, the director of the Small Business Development Center in Buffalo, has worked with many small businesses across the city and helps with advising people how to get the most success with their businesses.
“There are many challenges that come with starting a small business,” McCartney said. “At times it can be directly related to the entrepreneur themselves or in other cases the challenge is the shifting market.”
Coker has successfully been able to identify that shifting market. According to AlliedMarket Research, a market research and advisory company of Allied Analytics LLP, the value of the global popcorn market is projected to increase to just over $15 million in 2023, a $6 million jump since 2016.
Despite being in a pandemic, Coker is not letting that stop him from continuing to feed off this market and keep his business successful.
“When COVID hit, we were one of the first small businesses on the street who shifted immediately to delivery,” Coker said. “We were all over Western New York pretty much doing five bag minimum deliveries and we just flourished. The pandemic did not hurt us.”
Due to COVID, a little more than 132,500 total business closures have been reported according to Yelp. What’s Pop-In’ has continually made it a point to not fall into those statistics.
Part of this success can be attributed to Coker’s strong social media presence and determination to stand out from the rest.
“There’s certain popcorn businesses that I respect,” Coker said. “But none of them were hustling like we were. I’m very adamant about posting every day because content is important.”
Customers can go on the Instagram and Facebook page of What’s Pop-In’ and see daily postings about the business, new flavors, and the people that make it all possible.
Coker is not content with just selling popcorn on the West Side. He is actively looking for different ways to get out and enhance people’s taste palates with his creations and cash in on this booming market.
“We are really setting up shop in different cities because it’s more than Buffalo,” Coker said. “Some people get into business in their city or their hometown and I guess some people are content with that. I want to be this household name. I want to take over the popcorn industry.”
What’s Pop-In’ is approaching it’s one-year anniversary, but Coker refuses to rest on his laurels and acknowledge the success so far.
“I’m afraid to step back and be like look what we have done,” Coker said. “I don’t have any feelings on being open a year because as far as I am concerned, our job’s not done.”
