Wednesday, March 16, 2011

VALDIR'S POPCORN - EXCELLENCE IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Lee Swain from my hometown of Sao Paulo, Brazil, has a great blog called
"Eu e meu Chapeu" or "My hat and I" , his blog is as original as you can get and SUPER PAULISTANO in my opinion, so I have fun reading about Sao Paulo thru Lee Swains point of view and his Linux camera.
A GREAT POST that I recently read had this interesting video about a great popcorn vendor in the city of Curitiba, state of Parana.
Valdir, the popcorn business man from Curitiba shows great talent in business management, excellence in customer service and an awesome "Entrepreneur" spirit.
I think even if you are not fluent in Enlgish, you will be able to understand what a great business this popcorn stand has become.
For the folks that are still not 100% fluent with Portuguese, I will highlight a few points that will help you understand the whole interview;

1-Valdir created a fidelity card to reward loyal customers with free popcorn.
2-He sterilizes everything with Alcohool, he is super clean.
3-He wears a different spotless super clean white uniform for each day of the week, to prove his customers that fact, his uniforms have the day of the week printed on one of the pockets.
4-He replaced the corn oil for sunflower and canola oil for a healthier popcorn.
5-After the customers handle the money to pay him, he cleans their hands with anti bacterial gel, so they have clean hands to eat their popcorn.
6-He gives every customer a "hygiene" kit with each purchase, which includes a napkin, an individually wrapped tooth pick and a breath mint, all neatly placed in a clear plastic bag with a small brochure describing Valdir's business and advertising all his other popcorn flavors, and loyalty program.
7-He is foucused on popcorn, he doesn't sell candy and ice cream along with the popcorn like his competition, he says being focused helps him be the best popcorn maker he can be.
8-One of the things he is more proud is the fact that he does all this for the same price as the competition 's popcorn, not a dime more expensive.
9-People walk from all over downtown to buy Mr. Valdir's popcorn.
10-He has a peculiar southern Brazilian Portuguese accent, a good practice for you folks learning the language :)

So, you should try Valdir's popcorn next time you visit the great city of Curitiba, I know I will!


4 comments:

Rachel said...

Love this guy!

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

Rachel,

I definitely thought about you when writing this post. I know you are an avid popcorn consumer and I thougth you would like this guy after your comment on Itaipava beer with the cap ;)

Zoe said...

I loved this! I would definitely buy from him. I love Curitiba, too. My Paulistano husband thinks it's boring, but it's my favorite city in Brazil.

Anonymous said...

I will go find this guy next time I go to curitiba!!