Jim Nicholson can sell 350 snowballs a day in the dead of winter.
"Cold has nothing to do with it," said the 31-year-old owner of Deep South Snowshakes. "I don't care how cold it is outside, as long as it's warm inside."
Even when snow and sleet hit Anne Arundel County Wednesday, Mr. Nicholson's sales stayed strong as customers, bundled in long wool coats, scarves and hats, hovered around his stand in Annapolis Mall. On the weekends, business more than doubles, and he serves close to 1,700 icy treats.
Mr. Nicholson's seven-year business strategy has been simple: Take snowballs out of the neighborhoods and into the malls. Now, the traditional summer favorite is being rediscovered as a winter delight.
"Every day I try a new flavor," said Kathy Nims, 28, who works at Yestertime. By yesterday she was up to flavor number nine: chocolate.
"Where I grew up, we used to have a snowball stand," Ms. Nims said as she plopped down $2 for a large strawberry daiquiri ice. "I've never been much of an ice cream person."
In a year, a stand can gross $200,000, serving more than 200,000 snowballs, said Mr. Nicholson.
He has five stands in Maryland malls and others in Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
In many ways, the Fayetteville, N.C., native has turned the snow ball stand into an upscale business. Gone are the makeshift wooden shacks, sticky counters and plastic jugs dripping syrup. Instead, his stands are custom-made and neat, and the syrups are kept in tall glass bottles.
He also stacks lemons, grapefruits and honey tangerines for his all-natural "snow squeeze" -- shaved ice with fresh-squeezed juice poured over the top.
"I like to see this as the Haagen-Dazs or TCBY of the snowball business," said Mr. Nicholson, who lives in Brooklyn Park with his wife, Julie, and six children.
Winning converts
Judging by the 1,000 samples Mr. Nicholson gives out each day at Annapolis, he's winning converts to flavored ice. On a recent day, Ingrid Moorkamp stopped by for a sample.
"This is crushed ice?" she asked, puzzled. "This is great. Can I have another one?
Mr. Nicholson hasn't always been the self-proclaimed snowball connoisseur he is today.
He started selling them after he filed for bankruptcy in 1988. His two Subway shops in Fayetteville folded after the chain opened four stores within two miles of his stores. He looked for the quickest way to bounce back to support his wife and two toddlers.
So he went to Hechinger's, built himself a snowball cart and pushed it onto nearby Fort Bragg, a large military base near Fayetteville.
"I don't know much about snowballs, but I know what tastes good," said Mr. Nicholson. He sold 8,000 snowballs a week, enough to convince a Greensboro, N.C., mall to let him set up a cart.
Because business started out slowly, he began entertaining while he served customers. He'd flip the snowballs, the ice heaped two inches over foam cups, catch them and plop them down. He'd raise the bottles of syrup above his head and shoot sugary streams into the ice.
Magic tricks
He'd also pull out a few magic tricks he learned in college. He'd make dimes dance, rings disappear, coins pop out of a patron's ears.
Slowly, he won the crowds over and managed to sell a few snowballs. In 1990, two years after starting his business, he sold his stand and started expanding into northern malls.
Though his business thrives today, Mr. Nicholson still works 12 hours a day and opens up each new stand himself.
This year he plans to open stands in Atlanta and St. Louis and test-market a line of flavored iced teas.
He says he's not sure how long he'll keep up the pace, but he'll always work the stands.
"I can never see me getting out of this. That's why I flip cups from open to close," he said.
;/ "This is fun, beats working behind a desk."