The brains behind the St. John Spice Cam are those of a couple of hard-working transplants from Boston.
Ruth Ernst and Ron Piccinin bought the St. John Spice business in 1999. Then, the shop was buried off a corridor at Wharfside Village. Then in 2005, they moved the shop downtown, in a second-floor retail space right at the end of the ferry dock. While such a space location can be death for retail, The Spice couple's offerings, and low prices, draw a steady line of people up the stairs.
The store is best known for its collection of spices and hot sauces, hundreds of them. The Cruz Bay Grill Rub, created by Ernst, is a top seller at $5 for 2.5 ounce or $27 a pound(!) The Grill Rub won a dry rub/seasoning honors in the 2009 competition staged by firey-foods.com.
The Spice Cam certainly has helped St. John Spice's business. To date, the Web site has had 1.3 million visitors. And it's not uncommon to see people using the Webcam to send messages by, for instance, writing their names in the sand and hen calling friends to check out the Web site.
St. John Spice