Story By LUCIA BERMUDEZ – Print Variety Editor
Video By KARLA DOUGAN – Broadcast Editor
Local business owner Angie Tillman fulfilled her dream with the opening of her new storefront Phickles Phun Foods earlier this year.
Six years ago, as she stood on her front porch selling jarred pickles by the dozen, business owner and Clarke County School District parent Angie Tillman could never have dreamed she would have the life she has today.
Angie created her company, Phickles Pickles, so that she could use her passion for pickles to support her family during a financial bind.
“We started around back in 2009 because of the economy, just kind of a survival mode I was in. And it was like ‘I know how to pickle things so I’ll just see if somebody will buy my pickles for a little bit, just for some extra cash,’ and I just turned it into a real business,” Angie said.
Angie and her family started the business by selling pickled goods to friends through Facebook and having them retrieve their items off of her front porch. Her products slowly came into high demand, and as the business progressed, they became popular with local Athens consumers.
“It’s great to see that people really want to support the places that are local mom and pops,” Tillman said. “(Athens is) very artsy I mean you have great food and we’re trying really hard to hold onto that small town feel with our Phickles.”
In March of 2015, Angie opened her storefront Phickles Phun Foods as a way of expanding the Phickles Pickles brand, while still staying local. Phickles Phun Foods is located at 720 Baxter St., across from Raising Cane’s and next to Top Dawg Scooters.
The store open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. However, they are open on Saturdays during the University of Georgia football season. Angie and her family run the storefront along with a few other employees.
“My husband is here all the time and then sometimes on a Saturday you’ll find our son and our little girl Rosie here too,” Angie said.
The Tillmans sell their homemade goods in the store as well as other artisan products from locally owned businesses around the Southeast. Their own goods include Phickles’ signature pickles as well as other pickled goods such as carrots, okra and other vegetables.
Phickles Phun Foods sells their goods to customers in the Athens community. However, when it comes to selling to other businesses, Phickles only sells to locally owned stores, a choice that has been important to Angie from the beginning. Angie has made conscious efforts to ensure that other businesses in Athens will be benefited from this decision as well.
“I’ve kept the pickles by the jar (in other stores) expensive, so that in bulk they’re cheaper,” Angie said. “I want people to know that when you come to our store you’re sort of buying in bulk or your buying other things with the pickles, and then the price goes down, because I want people to still go and support all the local businesses that have Phickles already.”
When Angie Tillman opened up her storefront Phickles Phun Foods, the Phickles brand expanded their variety of products. The store sells goods from other local artisan markets along with their own. “When I opened this store I couldn’t wait to bring in some of those products that were from people a lot like us,” Tillman said. Photos by Julie Alpaugh
Though Phickles only sell their stocked goods to locally owned businesses, they are aiming to expand the business by selling their line of Hot Mess cheese spreads.
“We’re looking into distribution and what I’m really hoping for is that (the cheese spreads) grow our brand into a national level, and to kind of support this fun project going on here so that we can keep doing the pickles the same way we are, but let the mainstream part of our brand support the fun run,” Angie said.
The store is family-driven and operated, and shapes the lives of all members of the family, especially Angie’s oldest daughter Kat, a senior at Classic City High School.
“Phickles really is my life, honestly, because it’s a family business, so we’re constantly involved with it, (and) constantly bringing it up into conversation every single day,” Kat said. “I just feel really fortunate to be brought up into a family that does cool things like this.”
Now an established storefront, Phickles Phun Foods has a steady flow of customers. The welcoming atmosphere and warm environment in the store attracts a wide range of customers from around Athens.
Business owner Angie Tillman started her company Phickles Pickeles in 2009, and opened up her storefront, Phickles Phun Foods, in March. Angie says Phickles Phun Foods has received positive feedback and support from the Athens community. “It’s pretty cool to see that you can (be) locally owned and do OK doing that,” Tillman said. “I hear all the time that people go to certain places in town to eat just because that’s where the Phickles are.”
“I love that it’s just local and I love to support local. It’s good quality stuff,” customer Valerie Langley said. “Pickled carrots I love, pickled okra are my favorite and I tasted the Hot Mess last time I came and it was fantastic.”
Angie has noticed a great deal of college students walking around and coming in the store due to the store’s proximity to downtown Athens. Clarke Central High School graduate Mariah Elam believes that the store has a lot to offer these students.
“Since we’re like a college town, I feel like it’s good having something that supplies for a certain demand,” Elam said. “I love pickles and I’ve tried their pickles before and they were really good. I would definitely go there and spend my money on pickles.”
Angie has future plans to tailor the store to benefit college students.
“It’s a while to Kroger, Earth Fare, the nearest grocery stores, so I’m trying to work on the back section here–a mini grocery–just to have little scroll quick staples that you can pick up here, (such as) really simple sandwiches, nothing pretentious,” Angie said. “They’re white bread, they’re in a ziplock bag, you just pick ‘em up and go.”
Tillman not only values Athens’ college students, but the community as well, and hopes to build a legacy for her brand, for her store and for Athens.
“There is such diversity (in Athens). We’re really trying really hard to hold onto that small town feel with our Phickles,” Angie said. “Athens, Georgia is on that label for a reason and we really want one day for people to say that we put Athens on the map.”
