Sacramento photo company shifts from booths to fun activities for adults and kids
Sacramento photo booth company Giggle and Riot Funbooths is taking its crafting know-how to a new business model, which hopes to support local businesses and provide a bit of fun for stir-crazy locals.
Co-founders Josh Daniels and Caroline Winata say that the cancellations for their photo booth business started to trickle in at the end of February and they continued to snowball. According to Winata and Daniels, Giggle and Riot’s typical itinerary would have seen them setting up shop at the de Vere White’s annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration and a laundry list of proms. The two say that their latest venture was born out of a need to stay afloat amid the mounting number of event cancellations due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.
The pair’s latest venture, Giggle and Riot Fun, offers entertainment in the form of craft kits and curbside crawls, which aim to highlight local businesses who remain open or are have restructured.
“You can buy cocktails now to go. And from that, we thought about what businesses are open and doing that?” Winata said. “There’s also a lot of businesses that are not restaurant based, that have curbside pickup or shopping, and they need our support now more than ever. We thought about all those businesses.”
Having just launched the week prior, the company’s first scavenger hunt is tailored to the midtown area, with similar curbside crawls planned for Oak Park and downtown.
The midtown crawl includes businesses like Time Tested Books and Pushkin’s Bakery, while also featuring local landmarks such as murals found in the Ice Blocks and the Warehouse Artist Loft.
Giggle and Riot Fun also encourages participants to snap photos and selfies, while donning costume pieces, or holding signs with messages such as “grateful.”
According to Winata and Daniels, the two have found solace in creativity, which they’ve lent to inventing items for their craft kits.
“Things are very fluid, which seems to be the phrase going around right now. It’s just really a matter of necessity,” Daniels said. “We need to keep moving, and we want to protect our employees. It’s been a lot of sitting around, talking, figuring it out, having some fun and laughing. We’re testing things, doing trials and prototyping daily.”
The co-founders say that the new business, while impromptu, has been a natural evolution from creating props for photo booths to the get-ups, signs and coloring pages, which have been made with materials already in hand.
Craft kits can be purchased online and picked up through a curbside service in keeping with social distancing guidelines.
Winata said that the idea grew from involvement in Facebook groups catered to mothers, who were frequently grasping for ways to keep their kids entertained.
“We’re still very much interested in providing a fun experience for our clients, whoever that might be,” Winata said. “We wanted to think of a way to still have a product that brings happiness and joy to other people, while also maintaining as much of our business and employees as we can.”
While fun may be Daniels’ and Winata’s day-to-day jobs, the two have also shifted gears to create personal protective equipment for local healthcare workers, as the company’s resources are also being allocated towards the creation of 20 to 30 fabric masks a day, which are being donated to places like Sacramento VA Mather Hospital, UC Davis and Kaiser.
“I think that’s the beauty of this time. All of the makers and creatives are coming out and doing what they can. People who want to do something are stepping up,” Winata said. “Trying to give back has made things better. It makes things more bearable, and it makes us feel more connected to people. Even though we’re just kind of hunkered down.”