Meet Kate Weimer and Jeremy McLennan of Zero’s Unlikely Snacks in Silver Lake

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kate Weimer and Jeremy McLennan.

Kate and Jeremy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We started thinking about the concept for Zero’s while traveling abroad last winter, and the idea just kind of stuck. We’ve always loved working together and were working separately on a freelance basis as a musician and graphic designer, so our schedules allowed us to start taking the idea more seriously. We were set on having the store focus primarily on regional and international foods, but we didn’t realize how difficult it would be to track down some of the products we wanted to carry. It’s been a crazy learning experience but it’s really rewarding when we get it right. We’re a little obsessed with finding new products and tapping into new parts of the world, and customer requests drive most of our buying. We’ve found out about so many treats we never knew existed because people are excited to tell us about them.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s been a pretty smooth road, but as a niche business we did choose a difficult thing to sell! We run into issues importing from certain countries all the time, and it can be tough to keep our stock robust because shipping economically from other parts of the world can take over a month. We also self-funded the shop and neither of us were working with much of a budget, so we’ve had to be selective about what’s worth the investment. There’s still so much we’d like to do with the concept.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Zero’s Unlikely Snacks – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Zero’s offers snacks, candy, drinks and ice cream from around the world. Candy is a lot of fun because it’s a common denominator for so many different people, and the international element brings back childhood and travel memories for a lot of our customers. Those nostalgic moments make it all worth it for us. There are plenty of markets around Los Angeles where you can find some of the items we sell, but none that offer products from so many diverse countries all in one place.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
We are both grateful for the community we have in LA. It’s motivating to be around so many creative, hardworking people. At least in our part of the city, most people seem to be more interested in standing out than blending in, and they usually do so in ways that are meaningful to them. That always inspires us to keep challenging ourselves and work to be better at everything we do.

You probably see this answer much more frequently as a favorite thing about LA, but we honestly can’t stand the weather. We both love clouds, rain and seasons. We set our alarms early on days that are supposed to be overcast so we can get the most out of every minute.

Contact Info:

• Address: Zero’s Unlikely Snacks
  2217 Hyperion Ave Los Angeles, CA 90027
• Website: www.zeroshyperion.com
• Email: hello@zeroshyperion.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/zeroshyperion
• Facebook: facebook.com/zeroshyperion
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/zeros-unlikely-snacks-los-angeles

Image Credit:
Zero’s Unlikely Snacks

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