S. Justin “Say Say” Rivers ’21

Beckon Ice Cream, Allston, MA

This summer, I completed a sales and marketing internship at Beckon Ice Cream LLC., a lactose-free ice cream start-up, in Allston, Mass., during which I was able to bring my enthusiasm, energy, personality, and creativity to aid in the execution of the company’s sales and retail marketing programs. As a small team, there were numerous opportunities for me and my fellow interns to gain a broad and varied experience while working both in the office alongside the founders, Katy Flannery and Gwen Burlingame, and travelling to retail events around New England—and, for me specifically and uniquely, New York as well.

My work week consisted of being in the office on Tuesdays and being in the field Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I did work one weekend this summer too, aside from my New York demos. While in the field, I conducted a morning demo of three to four hours in a previously scheduled Whole Foods, Roche Brothers, or Market Basket. These demos would begin at either 10 or 11 in the morning and end at two o’clock in the afternoon. I would then merchandise and get set up at the next store before demoing there from three o’clock in the afternoon to six or seven o’clock at night depending on the grocery store.

For my demos, I always had to show up to a store 30 minutes in advance so that I could merchandise the product, meet the frozen food buyer, talk to the store manager, check in at customer service, and set up my table. My demo table consisted of a Beckon Ice Cream table cloth, a pyramid of empty pints displaying all five flavors—vanilla, chocolate, espresso, mint chocolate chip, and sea salt chocolate chip—dollar-off coupons, informational postcards, plastic gloves, sample cups and spoons, and an ice bucket. I then purchased pints using free-pint coupons to sample to the general public. I also had a cute little pop-up trash can that I would put a produce bag in for discarded cups and spoons. During this process, I simultaneously completed various forms on the Repsly application that we used to keep track of sales data.

Once I was set up, I would then give my “pitch” and sell the product to employees and shoppers. You must have patience and tough skin to do this. It’s really hard to sell products because you must convince people of their need or want for the product over others that may be cheaper. I one hundred percent noticed the varying levels of price sensitivity and friendliness in the different stores I went to. Typically this difference coincided with the different chains of stores and not the geographic location—albeit the chain in a general area has to do with the demographics of the people there which can relate to the geographic location of the specific store. Being the personable and kind individual that I am, I often made friends with the employees and customers I would come into contact with.

Every Tuesday was my one in-office day. On this day, I would present my weekly PowerPoint presentation to the group, which included the founders, Katy and Gwen. My presentation would be a compilation of all the sales data and insights from the past week. The rest of the day I spent working on my summer-long marketing project which was an audit of various sales channels and concluding whether or not they would be realistic for Beckon and be worth pursuing. The sales channels I audited were Prime Now, Amazon Marketplace, Fresh Direct, PeaPod, Thrive Market, Uber Eats, Jet.com, goPuff, InstaCart, and Good Eggs. I presented my findings on my last day of my internship.

I was hoping to participate in the “Scooper Bowl,” which was a food event I learned about at orientation, but unfortunately I needed to be on campus for my duties as a Reunion Ranger. I did, however, participate in our Ink Block Event and I got to be their Headliner and complete demos in some Whole Foods in New York City. As a local New Yorker, it was great to be back home.

All and all, I did not mind my time at Beckon. I learned that I am not someone who likes to be in the field all the time. I would rather work in an office. Maybe if being in the field was not always dealing with the general public trying to sell items by giving out samples, I would have liked field work more. I learned that this aspect of the food industry is not for me. I definitely learned more about working in a professional environment and about marketing and sales and how the consumer works. I also learned a lot about the food industry and how hard it can be at the start-up level.

I would like to thank those generous members of the Class of 1966 who contributed to my internship. I feel like I can bring a lot from my experience back to Williams. This year I am co-president of two clubs, the Society of the Griffins and the Gaius C. Bolin Chapter of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, and I learned at Beckon that I can incentivize and keep the people around me engaged through real, short term, and tangible rewards. I can equally utilize all my people skills from all the demos to connect better with the people around me regardless of race or gender or age. I want to reiterate how grateful I am for the generosity of the Class of 1966 for giving me the chance to explore this opportunity.