We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bernie Dickson, one of the 3 owners of Mom & Pop Shop. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bernie below.
Hi Bernie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
As new moms, our vision was to transform the traditional ice cream truck experience by offering a healthier alternative and incorporating artistic and crafty elements for kids instead of conventional plastic toys. While we didn’t plan on selling traditional ice cream, we opted for popsicles as a treat to grab people’s attention. We also aimed to operate a small business, and during brainstorming sessions, the phrase “mom and pop shop” surfaced. It suddenly dawned on us – we are moms selling pops, and we envisioned a shop that offered pops and small toys. The name felt almost too obvious, but as we began using it, “Mom & Pop” became our natural choice and a perfect fit for our business.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
We are an all natural ice pop company, run by three moms, artists and best friends on a mission to make life a little sweeter (and shhhh!…also healthier!).
The owners are Angie, Bernie and Julia, and we have been friends for over 20yrs. Our journey started with a simple idea to make healthier treats for our children while retaining the nostalgia of everyones’ favorite summertime treat, the ice pop. Angie came up with the idea of Mom and Pop Shop while taking her (then) two children on a jog and stopped to get them a treat from an ice cream truck and thought, “here I am running to improve my health but I am getting my children, fatty, sugar-filled trashy food, there has to be something better??” Health was also at the forefront of her mind with her second child having a rare genetic condition, heterotaxy, she had to monitor his diet and exposure to anything potentially harmful to his immunities. She had the vision to combine her fun-loving sense of style, desire for something sweet (seriously she has the BIGGEST sweet tooth ever!) and need for a wholesome treat option in the market into…Mom and Pop Shop!
Angie first brought on her art college roomie, Bernie. Bernie is the company cheerleader. You will never meet anyone more positive and uplifting! Bernie too brings a great deal of design to the company as a university graphic design professor, social media marketer and amazing photographer.
Lastly, Angie’s high school BFF, Julia was brought on to make the pops. With a background in academia and a career in social justice and chronic disease prevention research at UCLA, she decided to pursue her lifelong passion in food and became the popsicle recipe chef. She is the creative mad scientist who troubleshoots through flavors to craftily marry healthy ingredients and yummy nummy goodness! Her two children are her happy taste testers!
We constantly strive to put out the best product and that includes researching latest nutritional studies, getting involved with local charities and exploring eco-friendly packaging and processes.
We are always looking for new ways to help our community thrive and want to use our voice and company to make life a little sweeter.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
We had to unlearn theory that people should “never get into business with family or friends.” That seems to be the most common saying people would tell us when we first started out. The beauty of working with your friends is you can be transparent with one another and know it is out of love and honesty and respect. Of course there are times when we get frustrated, but that would happen with a friend or family member or co-worker no matter what. The best part of working with your friends/family is being creative, having grand ideas and making it realized together. Traveling is so fun and meetings are fun because we have the opportunity to spend more time together. As we get older, and our kids have complicated schedules, this keeps is in constant communication.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In 2017, Bernie was going through a personal journey. Recognizing the need to take a step back from the business, Julia and Angie stepped into the role of unwavering support like no others. Not only did they gracefully manage the challenges during one of the businesses busiest summers, but they also provided genuine friendship and emotional support. It was a challenging season for all of us, but their commitment to being there, not only as business partners but as true friends, demonstrated a remarkable resilience within our team.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mompopshop.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/momandpopshoptruck/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/momandpopshoptruck
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/18770269/admin/feed/posts/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6kKFe4vtRx6lteGEd-c5QA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mom-and-pop-shop-los-angeles