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Apr 26, 2006 9:55 pm US/Central
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'U' Student Turns Love Of Salsa Into Side Job
by Amelia Santaniello
(WCCO)
University of Minnesota student Nick Beste is making money selling his favorite salsa called Village Hot Sauce.
"It's not real chunky," Beste explained. "It's not real watery. It's just kind of that fine texture that is good on tacos."
The freshman finance major is from East Grand Forks, Minn. He was surprised that he couldn't find Village Hot Sauce on local store shelves.
Beste said he loved the salsa and couldn't figure out why no Twin Cities stores sold it.
"It's so popular back home, I would think it would be popular here," Beste said.
Beste decided to become the middle man.
"The day before classes started I started I called Cub and asked them, 'If I have a salsa I want to put into your store, what do I do?'"
A Cub Foods manager hooked him up with a distributor, who then helped him ship the product to Minnesota stores.
"The first week we were in 10 stores initially, and then it just multiplied," Beste said. "Now we're in 50 to 55 Cub Food stores."
He earns a small percentage on each sale and it's paying off big time.
"From January until now, (we've made) probably over $10,000," Beste said. "That's pretty good considering we've had to pay out a lot of money."
He wants to add Village Hot Sauce to Lunds and Byerly's.
The college businessman had this advice for people who want to follow in his footsteps.
"The world is yours. You can make whatever you want of it. If you want you can do this and retire and when you're younger and enjoy life a little bit," he said.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)