Hannah Garrity

Portland FRINQ
02/17/ 2015
The Scoop Behind Salt and Straws Success
There are endless artisan businesses in Portland, ranging from foods to
bikes to dentistry and more. An artisan is a craftsperson or company, that
makes a high-quality, distinctive products either by hand or using traditional
methods (Harper). There are many factors that contribute to being a
successful artisan business. The artisan businesses, in Portland thrives
because the community supports and sustains the craftsmanship, helping
businesses be able to grow. Not many artisans in Portland dream about
becoming a nation wide business, but just want to do what they love, and
contribute to the community. The ones that want to grown their business, but
can only grow to a certain point, until they cannot keep the title of artisan.
Salt and Straw has become a tremendous success as an artisan business
through their community presence, unique style, and meeting the needs of
the consumers.
Salt and Straw is a small ice cream business that started up in
Portland, Oregon in 2011. They offer many unique flavors like Coconut with
Petunias Salted Caramel Bars, Pear & Blue Cheese, Strawberry Honey
Balsamic with Black Pepper, Honey Lavender, Arbequina Olive Oil, and more.
The two cousins and owners, Tyler Malek and Kim Malek never planned on
starting up an ice cream business together. Kim however, wanted to open up
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an ice cream shop by herself since 1996, but her dream didn't become a
reality until 2011 when her cousin Tyler and her reconnected.
Tyler started his young adult life exploring Asia and returned to the
states to achieve a business degree. Once he finished school he became a
car salesman. However, the car salesmen life was not for Tyler because he
was let go for being too nice (Brooks). He decided that the business life
style was not right for him and he decided to attend culinary school. The
cousins got reconnected from Tylers urge to move to Portland and came up
with the brilliant idea of starting an ice cream shop. Through culinary school
Tyler learned that ice cream was mostly fats and the marrow in bones also
contains lots of fats. With this knowledge he thought of the idea of
interchanging the two different fat contents which fashioned their unique
flavors for the business in the future. The two cousins started up their
company as a food cart in Portland and after three years have three shop
locations in Portland and recently opened a location in Los Angeles,
California.

Expanding this much

means Salt & Straw's revenue
(has grown) by more than 1,500
percent in three years.(Portland
Business Journal). Salt and Straw
has also been recognized in the
New York Times, the Portland
Monthly, Bon Appetit, Saveur,
Los Vegas Review and more. The
Maleks shop is now recognized
all over the country from their
publicity. I visited Salt and Straw
on 23rd Avenue Portland, OR
1pm on Monday, January 26th, 2015 and sat inside the shop with a few other
people who were enjoying their ice cream. Outside it was almost 60 degrees
which is a very warm day for winter in January for Portland. I didn't expect to
see very many customers come in at this time because it was the middle of
the day during winter. However considering the fact that most people were
most likely working or in class at 1pm on a Monday, there were more
customer than I imagined there would be. Salt and Straw has started to
develop a reputation for itself as a popular brand. Portland citizens have
given Salt and Straw positive and high reviews even though it is quite

expensive. If the prices from Salt and Straw are compared to industry made
ice-cream shops, like Ben and Jerrys, it costs a bit more. However, the reason

this brand is able to charge high prices is because of the way they conduct
their business.

From a consumers viewpoint, a businesses that charges more for their

product must have a better product. If a product is priced too low, it is often
a turn off to customers, because it is considered cheap, meaning the quality
must be also. William Dodd and Romeo Jean, writers for Journal of Business
and Psychology, explain how brands affect what customers think about the
quality of a product: Customers use price, as well as brand name, as an
indicator of quality. (251). This means that because Salt and Straw charges
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more for their product people think that this is a higher quality ice cream.
This idea that quality and price are even isn't always true, but it can be,
which is a reason Salt and Straw succeeds. Hand crafted ice-cream from Salt
and Straw is a lot of work thus the customers believing the quality is better.
I conducted a survey at the Salt and Straw on 23rd ave in Portland, by I
asking customers why they chose to come to Salt and Straw. Many people
said they had been recommended to come and try it. This positive response
towards Salt and Straws branding has brought in many customers. Fifteen
percent of people surveyed explained that they chose to come to Salt and
Straw to support a local business. Why support a local business? There are
many reasons. Local businesses provide: better customer service, more
choices and invest in the community (Hess, 156). In this city, Portlanders
are very interested in supporting local businesses, some people say its
unlike anything they've ever seen (Heying, 78). Doing this helps create a
sense of community. Because of these reasons many Portlanders would
rather spend a little more money, supporting a local establishment than go
to put their money else where.

Local artisan businesses contribute to the community and truly care for
their customers. Being a local business makes it easier to meet the needs of

each individual customer, compared to a large corporate businesses. Salt

and Straw has outstanding customer service in their shops because
everything seems to have a personal touch. There is a rustic theme
throughout the shop, everything gives the idea of old, wor

For the Strange Flavors

18%
Its popular/ trendy

It was recommended/ close

18%
To take a picture to post

15%
26% a local business
To support

Its cheap

9%
3% 12%
Its delicious!

n, and

handmade. The menu is written on large chalkboards behind the counter, in

very neat handwriting, making it very personalized. Local businesses only
have to meet the needs of the communities preferences, and are able to
have an easier connection with their customers. Salt and Straw also meets
the needs of Portlanders through their strange and wacky flavors.
Keep Portland weird is the motto in Portlands and Salt and Straw
This is a survey I conducted at the Salt & Straw location,
at 838 Northwest 23rd Avenue Portland, OR, on Monday,
January 26th, 2015. Customers were asked why they
came to Salt & Straw, and didn't choose a different ice
cream shop.

most defiantly lives up to this title. They have a wider variety of ice cream
flavor, than larger ice-cream store because they stray away from the typical
flavors. Hess explained there are more choice variety involved for small
businesses. This ice cream shop is always creating and trying to find new
flavors to meet demand. They have flavors that rage from savory to sweet,
and have seasonal flavors using all local ingredients. Salt and Straw
accommodates their flavors to the area to which they are located, using the
resources they have and the tastes of the community.
Salt and Straw uses all ingredients from resources that are near by.
Even in Los Angeles they have created all new flavors with the resources, in
California. In Portland the ice cream is crafted from local ingredients as well,
they work with local breweries, chiefs, coffee rosters, bakers etc (Brooks).
There are many artisan and small businesses to support, so why does Salt
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and Straw stand out? Because they make craft their art from locally made
foods. Heying explains theres no shortage of artisan food in Portland; what
draws eyes is how much of it is grown or made locally (75). The Portland
community want to know where their food is coming from and how it was
grown or made. Supporting local establishments, like Salt and Straw, also
supports other local businesses
because Salt and Straw gets
ingredients from other local
businesses.
Turning ice cream making, to
ice cream crafting clearly
qualifies Salt and Straw to be
labeled an artisan business. But it
cannot continue to grow at the
same rate, and keep up with the
title of an artisan craft. Heying
names four different categories
of artisans, Purist artisans,
Localist artisans, Custom
artisans, and Scale-to-Market
artisans. Scale-to-market artisans
will scale up as much as they

can, while still keeping their creativity in their product. Salt and Straw falls
into this category because not only have they expanded locally, they have
also expanded to Los Angeles, California. But he explains, scaling up should
not compromise quality (276). Even though they have grown, the quality
and creativity has to stay in the ice cream, in order to still be considered an
artisan product and business. The other three artisan categories are focused
on staying smaller, more personal and local, but Heying explains that if a
business does not scale up than other more aggressive firm(s will) take over
it (283). Businesses that have a distinguished idea, have to upscale
themselves or another business will try to take over it. An ice cream business
that learned this was Ben and Jerrys.
Ben and Jerrys started as a small artisan ice cream business in
Burlington, Vermont. In 1977, the two 26 year old men, Ben Cohen and Jerry
Greenfeild, started making their ice cream at an abandon gas station and
even distributed it out of an old Volkswagen. In 10 years they had almost 90
franchises, even in Russian. Ben and Jerrys bought most of its ingredients
locally, in Petrozavodsk, Russia (Dana, 488). In 1977, just a year after
opening Time Magazine claims that their ice cream is the best in the world
(Dennis, 387). This business started up a lot like Salt and Straw, but they
were a small business (whose owners) lost control of their compan(y) after
going public (Hess,157) and were traded to Unilever. Because the demand
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for Ben and Jerrys was so large, the two men could not meet the needs, and
decided to sell their business to a larger, more capable company.
Ben and Jerrys ice cream was once an artisan ice-cream shop, but they
are no longer considered that. After they upscaled as much as Ben and
Jerrys has, the methods for making ice their cream has changed. It was once
handmade and now is made in an industrial way. Each tub of ice cream
cannot be hand crafted the old fashioned way. This makes Ben and Jerrys a
corporate business and they are no longer called an artisan business. If Salt
and Straw continues to grow as much as they are, they too can lose the title
of an artisan craft. The Maleks said they don't have goals to become big.
(O)ur business is focused on highlighting whats local (Portland Business
Journal). Salt and Straw has grown, and had tremendous success through
their coincidence of reconnecting, being in a community with lots of support
and taking risks. They are expanding, but there is possible a limit on how far
they are able to grow before they have to compromise their artisan title.

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Bibliography:
Brooks, Karen. "Frozen Frontier: How Salt & Straw Captured the Heart of a City- in an Ice
Cream Cone.. Portlands Monthly. 1 Aug. 2014. Print.
Dana, Leo Paul. "Ben and Jerry's." British Food Journal Vol. 101.5/6 (1999): 488-90.
Googlescholar. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00070709910278488>
Dennis, Bryan S., Christopher P. Neck, and Michael G. Goldsby. "The Scoop On Ben & Jerrys
Inc.: An Examination Of Corporate Social Responsibility." Journal of Managerial Psychology
13.5/6 (1998): 387-93. Googlescholar. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683949810224363>
Dodds, William B., and Jean B. Romeo. "An Investigation of How Similarity and Price Influence
Consumers' Responses to Brand Extensions." Journal of Business and Psychology 6.2 (1991):
247-63. Springer. Web. 3 Feb. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25092333>.
Garrity, Hannah. Survey. Why Salt and Straw?. Monday, 26 Jan. 2015.
Harper, Douglas. "Artisan." Def. 2. Dictionary.com. Random House, Inc, n.d. Web. 12 Feb.
2015.
Hess, David J. "Declarations of Independents: On Local Knowledge and Localist Knowledge."
Anthropological Quarterly, 83.1 (2010): 153-76. The George Washington University Institute for
Ethnographic Research. Web. 3 Feb. 2015. &lt;http://www.jstor.org/stable/20638703&gt;.
Heying, Charles H. "Brew to Bikes: Portland's Artisan Economy." Portland State University
PDXScholar 1-1 (2010): 1-300. Web. 1 Jan. 2015.
<http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/usp_fac/52>.
Malek, Kim. "About - Salt & Straw." Salt Straw. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
<http://saltandstraw.com/about/>.
"PBJ100: No. 2 Salt & Straw Grows Workforce Tenfold in 2 Years - Portland Business Journal."
Widgets RSS. 14 June 2014. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.
&lt;http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/feature/fastest-growing-companies/2014/pbj100-no-2salt-straw-grows-workforce-tenfold-in.html?page=all&gt;.

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