“It’s an awful hot day, so a smoothie sounds pretty good,” customer Charlie Wing said Thursday, seeking temporary refuge from the lingering 80-degree heat beneath the stand’s multi-colored umbrella.
Wing was out with his sons, Xander and Chaz, and dog, Chewbacca, when the smoothie stop caught their eye and Chaz recognized his Brunswick Junior High School classmate, Roy.
So far, Rong Yuan Chen, who will be a Brunswick High School junior in the fall, said that business is trickling by, with about 20 sales a day, “but we just started,” she said. To a point, Rong Yuan Chen said, the hot weather can be good for business, but the scorcher on Wednesday kept foot traffic fairly low.
“If it’s too hot, we’re not going to get many people walking by,” Rong Yuan Chen said.
That lesson is just one that the siblings’ father hopes his children learn from the experience.
“I just wanted to have them learn how to run a business,” said father Charlie Chen, who also owns Golden Chopsticks at Cook’s Corner.
The brother-and-sister team plans to manage the stand six days a week, taking on all aspects of the business, including applying for a license from the state.
“I tried to help her,” Charlie Chen said, “but she said, ‘No, I want to buy the supplies on my own.’”
That entrepreneurial spirit was with Chaz Wing, too, who subtly mentioned to a reporter Thursday that he also operates his own business and will be participating in the Brunswick Downtown Association’s communitywide yard sale this weekend by selling plants.
What kinds of plants?
“Perennials,” Chaz said.
As for the Chens’ smoothies, the market is seasonal.
Roy and Rong Yuan Chen said they will be out in front of Asian Garden, at 168 Maine St., from around 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Saturday, throughout the summer.
dfishell@timesrecord.com
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