Oklahoma Gourmet Popcorn is decorated with an air of nostalgia. It’s full of buckets and tins waiting to be filled with popcorn. Posters of comic book superheroes and old films line its walls, and the store offers cold soda in glass bottles and varieties of candy for sale. The overall effect recalls childhood and the movies — an apt choice for a popcorn store.
Its decor and layout suggest Oklahoma Gourmet Popcorn has been in business for years, a place for grandparents to show their grandchildren what life was like in the good old days. But, in fact, the company is not yet two years old. Even more impressively, its founder opened it right out of college.
In the fall of 2015, DJ Boles was a senior at Oklahoma State University and was taking a class called “Retail Management.” One of his assignments was to write a business plan.
Boles had wanted to own a movie theater his whole life, but his professor encouraged him to write a plan for a more unconventional or niche business. Drawing inspiration from movie theaters and his dad’s work for a concessions supply company, Boles decided to write his assignment about a popcorn store. He called it “Oklahoma Gourmet Popcorn.”
“Midway through writing it, I thought, ‘I could maybe actually do this.’” Boles said. “That paper actually got me my business loan for this store.”
While still in college, Boles leased a retail space at 1021 SW 19th St. in Moore for his company. After graduating from Oklahoma State in May 2016, he spent the summer buying popcorn-making equipment and learning how to use it. Oklahoma Gourmet Popcorn opened Aug. 2 of that year, nine months after Boles came up with the idea.
The company offers over 60 flavors of popcorn, from sweet — Oreo, the best-selling variety — to spicy — jalapeño cheddar, Boles’ personal favorite. Each one is available in a variety of sizes, from mini bags that hold about 3 cups to extra-large buckets that hold over 6 gallons. Prices range from $1.25 for a mini bag of original popcorn to $119.95 for an extra-large bucket, which contains 110 cups of popcorn, of one of the store’s chocolate varieties.
Cambrye Moore, a sophomore at the University of Central Oklahoma, has worked at Oklahoma Gourmet Popcorn since it opened in 2016. She said she’s been impressed by how much customers appreciate the business.
“I always have fun whenever I come here,” Moore said. “People always leave here really happy. It’s always a happy environment.”
One such customer is Sandy Flaming, a regular at the store. She said the popcorn is her go-to gift for any number of occasions.
“They’ve got everything,” Flaming said. “I can buy (popcorn) for any age, my nephews love this. It’s just good. Good people are working here, and good people run this place.”
Boles takes special pride in his work at Oklahoma Gourmet Popcorn because he both owns and operates the company.
“A lot of people, when they hear you have a business, they automatically think you’re rich and you have the life,” Boles said. “But, in fact, you start out with no money. You work all the time, and you have to put everything you have into it.”
After over a year and a half in business, Boles shows no signs of slowing down. In December 2017, Oklahoma Gourmet Popcorn opened a second location at 3209 S. Broadway in Edmond.
Talking about his business’ fast growth now, Boles still seems surprised.
“That paper was supposed to be a paper, that was not supposed to be my actual plan,” he said. “But I got lucky.”
