10-year-old entrepreneur Micah Harrigan bought a school bus for his lemonade business
He and his mother are having the bus set up for his sales. They hope to operate in South Philadelphia in the spring.
Micah Harrigan, the South Philadelphia 10-year-old who won hearts and Instagram followers last summer for his Micah’s Mixx sidewalk lemonade stand, is a step closer to a permanent business: a food truck.
On Thursday, he and his mother, Danielle, drove to New York to buy a yellow minibus, which will be fitted out with a window, counters, and refrigeration for his lemonade sales.
She said she hopes to have the work performed on the 2006 Chevrolet, once owned by a private school, in time for a spring rollout. They are considering parking it near 24th Street and Oregon Avenue, near their rowhouse.
Micah, a fifth grader at Girard Academic Music Program who made the honor roll last marking period, got the Micah’s Mixx business idea last winter. That, of course, was not the ideal time to sell cold drinks outside. In March, just before the shelter-in-place orders, he started packaging the lemonade and iced tea in bottles and then bags — “like big Capri Suns” — but that proved too expensive.
By June, he hit upon 16-ounce clear plastic cups with lids, and set up a table beneath a blue beach umbrella. Someone posted Micah’s arrival on a neighborhood Facebook page, and Micah added a post to his Instagram account, @micahsmixx.
Micah’s Mixx sold out and he came back the next day. The sales snowballed, and he began to do pop-up events at such businesses as OCF Realty and his current affiliation, Mac Mart, the mac-and-cheese shop near Rittenhouse Square.
Micah has been saving his profits from the sale of 1,500 bottles. Donations and help — cash and supplies — poured in from private individuals who admired his pluck. Danielle Harrigan had considered buying a trailer to hitch to her car, “but I can’t handle driving that in the city.” She then began scouting minibuses on the internet.
They paid $4,000 for the bus, and created a Micah’s Mixx GoFundMe to help raise $10,000 toward the fit-out, which she estimated would cost $10,000 to $15,000.
Micah said his goal is “to make this successful and to pay back my mom for everything.”