A new food trailer operating at the northeast corner of Webster Street and Aurora Avenue near Water Street is the creation of 2018 alumna Brittany Harriman and her brother Trevor, a rising junior at Central. Sno Problems serves shaved ice with flavored syrups, more commonly known as snow cones.

Brittany started the process back in May, when she first thought of the idea. 

“I came up with the idea in quarantine,” Brittany said. “I was on FaceTime with my friend and we were talking about how coronavirus meant we lost all our jobs and internships. When we were talking about how to find a job, we noticed that there are no shaved ice places in Naperville, so we came up with the name and that was it.”

Sno Problems sells flavored shaved ice from the back of an outfitted trailer. Ice can be flavored with a variety of sweet and fruity flavors, along with gourmet flavors and sweet cream. They sell two sizes, a large for $5 and a small for $3. 

 It’s situated on a lot owned by Marquette Management, a real estate management service based in Illinois. 

“[Marquette Management] has been super helpful allowing us to set up here in downtown Naperville,” Brittany said. “We can get foot traffic and people can park right here.”

The whole Harriman family was involved in creating the business, which took shape  in the span of just a couple months. Sno Problems had just received its finished trailer three days before its July 2 grand opening. 

“The original trailer was lime green,” the siblings’ mom Laura Harriman said, “but it was the only one that we could find that came with some food service equipment.”

The trailer still had to be outfitted with the proper equipment and painted to fit the theme of their business. 

“We knew we wanted it to be white and have some wood on the front,” Laura said. 

Advantage Trailers in Carol Stream outfitted the trailer with all of the proper equipment and gave it an outside makeover. 

“We knew what we wanted from looking at Pinterest,” Brittany said. “They just totally brought it to life for us.”

Sno Problems will donate a portion of its profits to agencies involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, and uses eco-friendly wooden spoons and biodegradable plastic cups.

“I knew that if we were going to [start a business] it had to reflect our own family values,” Laura said. 

The Harrimans plan to operate Sno Problems for the remainder of the summer, but once schools start back up, most of its employees will be heading back to various colleges, leaving Trevor in charge. “The plan is for me to start managing it when Brittany goes back to school,” Trevor said. “We’re going to hire more high school workers during September to work weekends and football games.”

Sno Problems hopes to become a regular summer fixture in the downtown Naperville area.