One-time nightclub owner and Coventry native Barry Blair has long been a man about town who ran his business with a focus on going above and beyond for any customer.
Blair’s newest entrepreneurial venture is selling his Prep N’ Pop vegetable helper on QVC, the popular home-shopping network, since March 2010.
“[A product like this] comes around once in a lifetime because it is born out of necessity,” Blair said. “What happened with this tool is that when you try to go back to peel a potato by hand, it doesn’t make any sense anymore.”
Prep N’ Pop is, so far, the sole product being sold under the Doodads LLC brand that Blair began in 2007. It is a kitchen utensil that peels a potato hands-free and then pops the potato out of its cylinder.
The company was incorporated six years ago, but the idea came to light about 2004 and the story of how it came about goes back much further.
Blair grew up as the grandson of the owner of the locally famous Kid Blair’s Showboat, a popular Rhode Island wedding venue until it was destroyed by a 1976 fire.
“If you didn’t get married at the Showboat, you probably didn’t get married if you were from Rhode Island or southeastern Massachusetts from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s,” Blair said. “It was very, very popular and it was a real devastating loss.”
The Blair family business moved to Warwick and Barry’s father, Norman, suggested they open a restaurant that, unfortunately, did not do well. It was then, in 1979, that Barry suggested opening Barry’s Nightclub.
“Through my experience and my tenacity, we came up with some ideas that worked. It was a really special place,” Blair said. “There are a lot of great singers and then there’s a Michael Jackson. They have a special quality and gift. Barry’s was one of those things that happened in any field once every 50 years.”
Blair said the nightclub remained a success for more than two decades because it provided a great social experience for his customers, to whom staff regularly would offer rides home. Names were always remembered.
About six months before he closed his doors, Norman Blair, a part-time inventor, presented his son with a handled-gadget that peeled a potato. Two weeks later, the invention had a spring-loaded shaft on it.
“When I saw what he did, I had an epiphany,” Blair said. “I said, ‘Wow, you’ve really got something there.’ ”
The next six years were spent going through more than 100 design changes, with Barry Blair typically putting in 60-to-70-hour workweeks trying to perfect the product.
He did workshops with students at Bryant University and a group of home cooks and professional chefs.
At that point, his longtime friend director Michael Corrente came onboard to shoot a short commercial that Blair then shopped to investors.
It was a chance encounter that made a connection with QVC, where since its debut Prep N’ Pop has sold 141,000 units in the seven-minutes-per-month, standard time allotment the product is on air.
It retails for $17.25 and comes in six colors.
“These are the numbers that allow you to go into retail, which is the next step,” Blair said. “The bulk of the market is retail and international [sales].”
Prep N’ Pop recently made its retail debut at Providence’s Eastside Marketplace, which is serving as sort of a test run for larger grocery-store chains, and Blair has been in talks with others.
Prep N’ Pop also recently received the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
Meanwhile, the company will continue its QVC run that is going into its fourth year – something that’s not usual for the network, Blair said.
Blair also is considering additional products that people have pitched to him after tracking him down through his QVC appearances.
He said he sees great potential in an app for tuning musical instruments. There also are other kitchen gadgets.
“That’s pretty exciting stuff,” Blair said. “That’s where my company is heading. Full-time on the Prep N’ Pop and entertaining other investments.” •
COMPANY PROFILE
Doodads LLC
Owner: Barry Blair
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Potato-peeler manufacturer
Location: Wunnegin Circle, East Greenwich
Year Established: 2007
Employees: Five full time; two part time
Annual Sales: WND
