This business makes $25,000 a month sending messages on potatoes

Dubbed the 'stupidest idea ever', the venture called Potato Parcel brought $2,000 in profits within two days

News Desk March 14, 2016
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photo instagram potato parcel
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/ Potato Parcel
A unique business that lets you send personalised messages to your loved ones on potatoes is becoming all the rage these days.

A 24-year-old man named Alex Craig started the business in May 2015 in Dallas, US, charging $8 to $10 a piece. Dubbed the “stupidest idea ever” by his girlfriend, the venture called ‘Potato Parcel’ nonetheless brought him $2,000 in profits within two days.

Five months later, Craig sold the business to an entrepreneur Riad Bekhit for $40,000. Now based in San Bruno, California, Potato Parcel recorded its highest sales to date, $25,000 in February. The business buys Idaho Russet potatoes from local grocery stores and uses Pilot G2 gel roller pens to write the message.

Man buys photograph of organic potato for €1 million

“We’ve made our investment back within a few months,” Bekhit told Quartz. “There’s just something about receiving a potato when opening a package—it’s something people don’t forget.”

Bekhit has also added new products, which include Potato Pal (a potato with a picture of someone’s face) and Potato Postcard (a postcard pasted onto a potato). Further, he’s also created holiday-themed spuds, such as the Lump of Coal Potato (a potato that’s spray-painted black) and Spooky Tater (a potato painted to look like a pumpkin).

Potatoes were also surprisingly popular gifts for Valentine’s Day as sales for the first 12 days of February exceeded $1,000 each day, says Bekhit.

Man plans to live only on potatoes for a year

Bekhit aspires to make Potato Parcel a global business and has expanded to the UK, Canada, and Australia. However, a host of copycats, including Mystery Potato, Mail a Spud, and Potato in the Post—has sprung up since the launch of Potato Parcel.

“Potato Parcel is the originator. … The competitors do not have as much web traffic as we do,” he says.

And not the same innovation either. “None of them add images to the potatoes,” he noted.

Potato to web: Internet outsourcing in Pakistan's mountainous north

Here's a look at the kind of potato messages people have been sending to their loved ones:







https://twitter.com/TomasARead/status/697870861257175040









https://twitter.com/betchinger/status/705041194250854400



https://twitter.com/jamierusso_/status/680844996275253248







This article originally appeared on Quartz
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