With Easter Sunday right around the corner, many Easter egg vendors have begun popping up around street corners to sell the traditional and colorful shells that families use to celebrate the occasion.
One such vendor is Garie “Papa” Chrismer, who set up his shop in a Subway’s parking lot near the intersection of 23rd Street and Trenton Avenue in McAllen.
Chrismer, who’s been selling Easter eggs for the last couple of years, has been receiving plenty of attention online through Facebook posts his own clientele has been creating.
He says some of his customers mention how they saw him online and decided to drop buy for a carton of 30 eggs for $5.
“It’s been like this since I got here at 8 a.m.,” Chrismer said. “I haven’t been able to sit down for five minutes.”
Chrismer started selling Easter eggs when his daughter got married.
Her father-in-law had already been selling the eggs for years when Papa began to help the family business.
The vendors pay for permits from the city in order to be allowed to set up shop.
Permits themselves cost $100, so some of the profits from selling the Easter eggs help cover the cost, Chrismer said.
This year the family has 13 locations around the Rio Grande Valley.
Chrismer believes his Easter egg fame began when his daughter made the first Facebook post.
“My daughter started and then their friends and then their friends, it just spread like wildfire,” Chrismer said. “Within a couple of hours, I was a famous person.”
Hanging around and under his canopy, Papa also has bags filled with 100 eggs that go for $15 a bag.
Boxes filled with other empty boxes that had previously held plenty of cartons sat beside his chair. They had all sold that morning.
Despite nearly selling out that day, Chrismer says there’s still plenty of eggs left to be sold.
His son-in-law’s family collects the egg shells all year long in preparation for Easter.
“I’m here from eight in the morning until sundown,” Chrismer said. “I’ll be here all week and even on Easter Sunday evening for those scrambling to find eggs.”
