Sweet Tooth gets ready for national market

When a customer walks into the Sweet Tooth Home & Snacks store at 3012 E. 53rd St., Davenport, they often make a wrong assumption. They look at the colorful bags of popcorn and other snacks and assume this is a mom-and-pop store that is making a small profit. And perhaps there is an old-fashioned popcorn machine in the back room making bags of treats for the customers who visit the little shop. Wrong. This is a big operation that produces about 1 million pounds of popcorn a year, and is getting ready to showcase its products to a national market. “We’re not just a little mom-and-pop facility. We’re selling hundreds and thousands of units,” said Jody Britton, who, along with her husband Byron, owns Sweet Tooth.  The couple launched the business in late 2018 and have seen great growth with their snack business that focuses on providing snacks and gifts for people celebrating special events. But it also focuses on providing snacks and gifts by the semi-truck load to customers and retailers throughout the country.  As Ms. Britton puts it: If you need a birthday gift for a friend, they can do that. If John Deere needs 20,000 bags of popcorn for a special promotional event, they can also do that. Sweet Tooth provides popcorn and other snack food items to national retail chains such as T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods stores. And very soon, the Quad Cities-based snack food business will be introduced to many more customers across the nation. Ms. Britton said in the coming weeks, Sweet Tooth plans to:

• Kick off an Amazon storefront where people across the world can go to internet seller and order Sweet Tooth products. This move has been in the works for about five months and should be ready to go in about four weeks.
• In about a month, Sweet Tooth products will be available through DoorDash and Grubhub delivery services. “If your friend is having a crappy day at work, you can DoorDash one of our gift baskets to her,” said Ms. Britton.
• Also, the business plans to revamp its website in the near future.

But even though the business is getting set for a national audience, a big part of its success can be found in the characteristics of a mom-and-pop business: great customer service, knowing and caring about the customers, offering products people want, and especially helping the community. Sweet Tooth customer and fan Monica Polich Kruse, of Bettendorf, recently said this about the company: “Sweet Tooth Snacks is a wonderful and incredibly generous business. Jody and Byron are the first to step up and give back to this community. I am involved with a number of not-for-profits and Jody always happily donates to fundraisers, auctions, to our local teachers and first responders, and anyone else in need. …  Always a local business I would recommend.” Ms. Britton said she takes a lot of pride in giving back to the community. In the coming weeks, Sweet Tooth will celebrate the Easter season with a special community service – the business will have the Easter bunny (and live bunnies) in the store to entertain its younger customers. Sweet Tooth relocated in October to the storefront at 3012 E. 53rd St., Davenport. It is located in a former cell phone store and in a strip mall near the 53rd/Elmore Avenue intersection, next door to Red Wing Shoes store and several restaurants.  Ms. Britton said the location has its advantages. It’s probably the busiest intersection in the Quad Cities, and people going to the nearby restaurants will often pop their heads in Sweet Tooth to see what’s going on.

When they look inside the store, here is what they will see:

• Lots of popcorn and other snacks. Some of the favorites include Cookies and Cream popcorn, Jalapeno Cheddar popcorn, Double Spin Kettle corn, Classic Caramel popcorn, Spicy Jalapeno cotton candy, and Churros cotton candy. Currently, the best-selling items include dip mixes, seasonal popcorn and S’mores popcorn. (In fact, the S’mores popcorn is so popular that Sweet Tooth was sold out during a recent store visit.)
• Dish towels with printed phrases such as: “If you’re going to be salty, bring on the tequila,” “Nothing says ‘I mean business’ like using a cart at the liquor store,” and “Just one glass away from telling everyone what I think.”
• Cookware and food containers with phrases such as: “I didn’t make it. I made it happen.”  “Lettuce get dressed” and a potato chip bowl with the phrase “Friend chips.”
• Many wedding gift items including photo frames, a wall decoration with the phrase “Home is where all the good things are,” as well as glasses, cups and much more.
• Gift baskets that can be filled with just about anything because, as Ms. Britton puts it – “one size doesn’t fit all.” The baskets are much more meaningful if they are personalized for every customer. That’s also one of the reasons her store features home decor items. In addition to filling the baskets with popcorn and other snacks, items such as cooking utensils, towels and photo frames can fill part of the basket. That’s also why the Davenport storefront has the name Sweet Tooth Home & Snacks. Ms. Britton said that “an average” gift basket will cost about $25 to $40. “We can make it work no matter what the price point is,” she added.

The storefront has an old-fashioned feel to it with light fixtures made from Mason jars and the shelves were built by Byron Britton, who also distressed a corrugated tin panel in the back of the store to give it a partially rusty look. “The place looks fun. People love it. When people walk in the store, it feels fun,” Ms. Briton added. But that fun storefront is just a small part of the business. A lot of the real action to Sweet Tooth can be found at its Rock Island location at 500 46th St. There’s no retail storefront at that site –  that’s where the production and packaging work happens. “We have a large production space as well as a 10,000-square-foot warehouse that holds our bulk popcorn, nuts, candy, packaging, etc.  We have two semi docks as all of our materials and finished goods go on semi trailers,” she said. In the coming weeks, more semis filled with popcorn and snacks will likely be leaving the Quad Cities to customers all across the nation.

AT A GLANCE: SWEET TOOTH HOME  & SNACKS

LOCATION: Storefront, 3012 E. 53rd St., Davenport; production and packaging facility, 500 46th St., Rock Island. Sweet Tooth opened its Davenport storefront in October having previously been located nearby at Elmore Marketplace, 4255 Elmore Ave. STORE HOURS: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. EMPLOYEES: 25 full-time employees between the two locations. One full-time manager and a few part-time employees work at the Davenport store. Jobs at the Rock Island facility include warehousing, incoming/outgoing shipments, production/fulfillment, and office support. PRODUCTS: Some of the products include popcorn, gift baskets, dip mixes, candles, home decor items and much more. The store also has a wedding section filled with gift items. PHONE: (309) 607-1009 OWNERS: Jody Britton and husband, Byron. They opened the business in November 2018. EMAIL: jody@sweettoothsnacks.net ONLINE: www.facebook.com/sweettoothsnacks