Del's Popcorn Shop is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year by taking its trademark popcorn and sweet concoctions to an ever-expanding global fan base, and the Springfield Del's location is expanding to handle the additional demand.
"Last December we became one of the top-selling products on Amazon in the popcorn category," said Del's chief operating officer Tyler Jacobs, whose family owns the business. "This expansion gives us the production and storage ability to handle all of the orders we are receiving, which may include up to 10,000 tins of popcorn alone, not counting our other products."
Those are big numbers for an operation that still uses the original 1934 recipes for its popcorn, fudge and peanut brittle that continue to draw fans from the Springfield and Decatur areas. Those numbers are likely to increase as Del's opens a downtown Chicago delivery hub and franchise stores come online.
"If anyone is within a certain radius of downtown Chicago, they'll be able to get Del's products for quick delivery through Uber Eats, DoorDash or Grubhub. We'll be going head-to-head with some of the most popular brands in the United States," Tyler said. "It gets cooked here in Springfield and trucks with the Del's logo will drive it up to Chicago on I-55. Our products are cooked fresh, and they're meant to be eaten within a few days of production."
Company origins
Del's Popcorn has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1934 when print-shop owner John Baldwin began cooking and selling popcorn and roasted peanuts at his Decatur business. In the 1940s, Del Barnett, who had just returned from service in World War II, joined the operation and ran it for several years before he and his wife, Emily, bought it and changed the name to Del's Popcorn Shop.
"My sister bought that shop in the 1970s and started a store in downtown Springfield in 1980," said Del's CEO Rachelle "Shellie" Jacobs, one of the family business owners. "I bought the business from her in 1984, so I've been with Del's for 40 years this year."
Shellie said the Springfield store was first located at 206 S. Sixth St. and then moved a few doors down to 213 S. Sixth St. Del's opened its current west-side location at 3013 Lindbergh Blvd. in 2012 and closed the downtown store during the pandemic in order to consolidate the Springfield locations. Del's also has a store at 100 W. Debby Drive in Mount Zion.
"We still use the same recipes that John Baldwin and Del Barnett developed," Shellie said. "We've added a few more recipes along the way, but things are all produced the same way, and we remain very customer-focused, whether you walk into one of our stores or you order online."
The owners of Del's are aware that the business has become a central Illinois institution.
"Del's has been in business for so long that as people move away from the area, they always come back to one of our retail stores when they are in town visiting," Shellie said. "We are happy that Del's Popcorn Shop is a must-see when those folks return."
Tried-and-true recipes
Trudy Jacobs is the largest shareholder in the family company and recently retired from working at Del's after starting there in 1979. Del Barnett's brother, Bob, passed along the Del's recipes to Trudy shortly after she started working at the family business.
"The popcorn is popped over an open flame. We keep it warm after it's popped, sprinkle on very fine salt and flavor it with warm corn oil," Trudy said. "When corn oil cools down it doesn't solidify like butter does, and that keeps the popcorn crispy for several days."
Through the years, customers keep coming back for their Del's favorites.
"Our most popular items are caramel, cheese and specially-seasoned popcorn, and of course our fudge and peanut brittle," Trudy said. "Our seasonal caramel apples are a big hit – we did 20,000 of those last year. The apples are fresh-sourced from area orchards and are all hand-dipped, wrapped and bagged. We've even rolled some of them in bacon pieces and we have poison apples for Halloween that have a darker coating and a candy worm sticking out."
Angel Moore is the retail operations manager for Del's and is based in the Mount Zion store. She makes sure that area customers are taken care of and also helps fulfill larger orders placed locally or online for occasions such as baby showers, wedding receptions and corporate gifts.
"People come into our stores and can sample many of our items to help them choose what they want, and we are also the leader in developing those larger relationships with corporations," Moore said. She also tries to accommodate special requests. "We actually had a guy come in and wanted us to hide a ring in a box of popcorn so he could propose to his fiancee," she said.
When orders come in, whether large or small, it's up to production manager Rika Rhoades to put everything together and get it shipped out in a timely manner. Rhoades has prepared and shipped orders to most states in the union, Puerto Rico and to overseas military bases.
"It can be a massive undertaking, and we can have five or six huge cookers going at once," Rhoades said. "But it's still the same 90-year-old recipe. We still put the same ingredients in copper kettles, just in much larger quantities."
Expanding to a global audience
Del's is now offering its tasty experience for a global audience by combining the nine-decades-old recipes with the latest online and social media marketing and sales tools.
"Things like the small batch, the natural ingredients, the things that make us Del's have to remain," said family member, co-owner and chief digital officer Zach Jacobs. "But everything we're building on top has brought the company into the 21st century. We are bringing a new world approach to what has historically been a very old-fashioned company."
How old-fashioned?
"We sold thousands of popcorn tins to people across the country this past holiday season, and we sent hand-signed letters in hand-addressed envelopes thanking each and every customer for their order," Zach said. "Those sorts of things may not be done forever, but little touches like that may help as we have opened ourselves up to 300 million potential customers versus the 200,000 who have known about us in the past."
Improved packaging was developed for Del's products, which historically have a very short shelf life, so they can retain their freshness while being transported and delivered to increasingly farther destinations. Another key to expanding the business was making the employees feel loyalty toward Del's Popcorn with full-time positions and a full-benefits package. Franchising is one more growth area for the business.
"We are developing a set of tools to make a Del's Popcorn franchise a very profitable and attractive business," COO Tyler Jacobs said. "We can ship to franchise locations the packaging and raw goods and they can cook the products themselves for smaller customers. We can also have them take orders in their store and we can ship those orders directly from our main production centers in Springfield and Mount Zion."
Del's has also instituted fundraising programs that allow local entities such as schools to sell the products, and those goods can then be picked up in Del's stores or shipped directly to the customer. The process eliminates the possibility that Del's products sit for long periods of time while the school tries to get the fundraising orders delivered. Del's also has a food truck in the works that can be scheduled for special events.
Then there's the popcorn itself, the raw product grown on farms. Del's purchases as much popcorn as it can from farmers in the region, but the family also grows its own corn through Jacobs Farms and uses that in many of its recipes. Jacobs Farms Popcorn has been sold on a wholesale basis since the 1970s, but the Jacobs family has reinvigorated the brand and is now selling to consumers online.
Still, at its core, Del's Popcorn Shop remains what it has been now for 90 years – a local destination for fresh, tasty treats. Trudy Jacobs said her favorite experience at Del's remains the moments when families come into one of their stores, look around and try samples.
"I still remember this wide-eyed little boy looking up at his mom and saying, 'Wow, this is a candy store,'" Trudy said. "I get a kick out of customers like that and love letting them try little samples."
