With so much snow on the ground and people running out of places to put it, a tongue-in-cheek startup has a novel idea: ship it out of state — and sell it for cash.
“Ship Snow, Yo” was conceived and executed in a day by Kyle Waring of Manchester. He’s offering to pack the white stuff into 16-ounce water bottles, and send it to those who might otherwise never see it in their own neighborhood. It’s $12.99.
“I wanted to get it out of my front yard, and get it to people who don’t have access to snow,” said Waring.
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While Waring admits the concept is merely a gag (he didn’t expect to make any money), 89 people have purchased snow, to ship to others, using his website, he said.
Most of those sales have come from people in Boston who want to expedite the bottles of snow to places like Florida and California.
Although he hasn’t sent the snow to customers just yet, since the site only recently launched, he did a couple of test runs with friends and family out-of-state.
The result? The product melted in transit, naturally.
“Most of the time it’s water by the time they get it,” he said. “But I’m going to take a picture of the water bottle before it’s been shipped. That way it shows that it was obviously snow.”
To remedy the melting problem, Waring is planning to package future “products” with dry ice, to ensure that by the time they arrive they’ll still be intact — and perfect for making snowballs.
But that perk, he said, will cost a little extra.
“I’m planning on offering that option in the middle of next week,” he said.
If the weekend’s forecast is any indication — an extra foot of snow could blanket the area — Waring will have plenty of product to work with.
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“I think people are going to be interested in sharing some of the bad misfortune we have had in Boston, and it makes light of a bad situation,” said Waring. “Mostly people just think it’s a funny joke.”
Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannear.