IN A PICKLE

Millions of pickles, pickles for me: South Jersey entrepreneur peddles pickles to the people at Ocean City Pickle Company

“LIKE a kid in a candy store.”

It’s a phrase you’ve surely used a handful of times in your life, describing being overjoyed and excited about your surroundings in a way that's equal parts whimsical and uncontrolled. However, if you were to ask GiAnna Weller about this turn of phrase, she would humbly say that the candy store’s time has come and gone.

It’s all about the pickle store now, and it’s a good thing, too, seeing as GiAnna is the owner and founder of Smithville Pickle Company and its newer sister shop, Ocean City Pickle Company.

“Almost every single person that steps foot in the store, their jaw drops,” GiAnna said. “They’re shocked and excited about all the different things. Everyone that comes in, it doesn’t matter age or gender, they’re so excited.”

Both Pickle Company locations offer more than 100 flavors of pickles from 30 craft vendors. And it’s not just pickled cucumbers, either. There’s a variety of pickled vegetables and eggs, along with a range of pickle-flavored treats, such as popcorn, cotton candy, pretzels and condiments. The list goes on. Without putting the cart before the horse, GiAnna said to be on the lookout for apple pie-flavored pickles this fall, too.

Nothing is mass produced. GiAnna prides herself on featuring handmade, small-batch products from small businesses.

“I call it the circle of life,” she explained. “I support small businesses helping them grow, and the public supports me. We all thrive and grow together.”

GiAnna’s store is unique. It’s one-of-a-kind in this area; there isn’t a store out there that’s specializing in pickled products like hers, which is by design. GiAnna did enough research to see there wasn’t a pickle shop around. So, she built her empire on the back of the pickle trend that took social media sites like TikTok and Instagram by storm in recent years.

It’s almost impossible to open a social media app without seeing someone unboxing a fire engine red chamoy pickle, or someone else making homemade half-sour pickle chips to pair with homemade bread on their sandwiches. The accessibility one has to share family recipes with millions of people is part of what makes the pickle so popular.

“Thanks to social media, people getting out there and promoting their product, you see a ranch-flavored pickle and think, ‘You love both of those things. You need to try it,’” GiAnna said. “You see it’s not just dill or bread and butter. With all the fun flavors and kinds of pickles being released, that’s what’s making it grow rapidly in popularity.” The pickle’s ability to evolve with the times is part of what’s making it so popular, too. The pickles out today aren’t your grandma’s pickles. Sure, no self-respecting pickle lover will turn down a dill from the barrel at a local deli. And who doesn’t love the pickle spear that comes on the side of their burger at a diner? The classics are still good – GiAnna proudly admits they’re her favorite food group – but the pickled cucumber has come a long way from the three styles millennials and older generations grew up with.

From ranch and horseradish flavors to the variety of shapes including spears, chunks, halves and wholes, there are countless options at the ready for anyone who steps into any of the Pickle Company locations. The 30 small business owners GiAnna works with develop their own flavors and style of pickles. Each vendor has a recipe that is unique, they each put time and love into their products, from growing and harvesting their fruits and vegetables to developing different brines.

“You can taste a difference,” GiAnna said of her vendors and their batches –and even in comparing them to the factory style of pickle that is common in box stores. “One thousand percent, you can taste the difference.”

After being maligned for what feels like a millennium, the pickle is finally getting the respect it deserves. After all, the pickle is a good luck symbol in German-American culture. Legend says whoever finds the pickle ornament on the Christmas tree is in for good luck at the turn of the year.

Although the pickle game has been changed, the humble beginnings are what made GiAnna fall in love in the first place. She boasts that she has a picture of her with a pickle in each hand like Buckwheat in the 1994 movie, “The Little Rascals.” She added that while it’s hard to argue with a good pickled cucumber, her current favorite snack at the shop is the pickled popcorn and spicy pickled popcorn.

So, when you combine the pickle’s popularity with the seemingly endless options at hand, GiAnna’s love for all things pickle and the dedication to supporting locally owned small businesses, it’s easy to see why the new phrase should be “they were like a kid in a pickle store.”

Boy, how times have changed.

Ocean City Pickle Company is located at 1324 Asbury Avenue, Unit A. For more information, visit Ocean City Pickle Company on Facebook.