Potato by mail

I have always told my students that there is no such thing as a stupid idea, and that every idea is worth investigating. Now here comes the proof.

According to yesterday’s Guardian there is a start-up offering to deliver potatoes by mail in place of greetings cards. In fact there are at least three and probably more crowding into this possible niche market. The biggest company is apparently PotatoParcel.com.

PotatoParcel, founded by Riad Bekhit, has a claim to be both the first, and the largest, potato-sending company in the game. With between 25 and 50 orders a day, Bekhit told the Guardian that his company was processing between $10k and $20k every month in sales.

MysteryPotato is the second largest site offering this invaulable service, and the newest contender is Mail-a-spud. According to the Guadian,

Mail-a-Spud specialises in sending just the potato, with no packaging; sticking postage on the legume itself. MysteryPotato is a more boutique outfit, moving around 10 potatoes per day.

And here is a fourth competitor I found on the web:

No sirree, there is no such thing as a stupid idea, and almost no end to the ways an idea can be tweaked. With box or unboxed, with name or anonymous: the potato is the limit.