When Augustus Beaupierre was a barefoot 15 year old, before teaching school in his native Dominica, he borrowed a pair of sneakers, wore them in the classroom and washed them on weekends. With his first paycheck, he returned the sneakers and bought his first pair of shoes, a $4.95 pair of moccasins
This same spirit of determination has sustained the entrepreneur through an almost 50-year career. Beaupierre’s independent streak and his natural curiosity have characterized his working life – schoolteacher, police officer, restaurateur and baker. He was declared 1988’s best pate maker on St. Thomas.
Today he still revels in the world of food, but gone are those dynamite pates. Now he specializes in fresh produce. You can find him manning his current enterprise, AJB Sales, peddling a brilliant array of fruits and vegetables almost bursting out of his truck: bright orange grafted mangoes, small yellow kidney mangoes, purple eggplants, bananas, pineapples, pears, glowing red tomatoes and green avocados. His staples are tania, sweet potatoes and onions.
Most of his produce comes from St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic.
"I’d l love to have local produce," he says, "but there’s just not enough."
Usually you can find him around four in the afternoon on Main Street across from A.H. Riise, chatting with locals and tourists, fully enjoying himself while he drums up a little business. It’s not just produce.
"I’m going to make a million dollars," he says, and produces a T-shirt he has designed, covered with bright pictures of vegetables and French fries. On the front, it reads, "Eat more fruits, less French fries." The back reads, "Catch the fruit, drop the fries," illustrated to that affect.
"People are already asking for the shirt," he says. "They love it."
Beaupierre taught for four years on Dominica, where, he says, it was common for teenagers to become teachers, though they had only an elementary education themselves. Then he took his first career jump — a big one: He joined the Royal Dominica Police Force, where he served for three years before moving to St. Croix, and soon found himself drafted into the U. S. Army.
"That was 1966, and I didn’t want to go to Vietnam," Beaupierre says. But he had an out: "Only U.S. citizens could be sent overseas, and I just had just a green card."
After a stint in the Military Police, Beaupierre took advantage of the G.I. bill, graduating in 1976 from the then-College of the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas with a bachelor of arts degree in business administration. He immediately put that knowledge to use as manager for Pueblo Supermarkets’ Long Bay store.
Beaupierre is a tall, even-tempered man, with a wide and easy smile. He rolls with the punches. And he doesn’t hesitate to tell about it. About three years of working for someone else turned out to be enough.
"I hate punching a clock with a passion," Beaupierre says. "I left to find something that would satisfy me."
And, with that thought firmly in mind, he embarked on the restaurant career for which he is still remembered today. At one point he ran three popular restaurants on St. Thomas, starting with the Little BoPeep Ice Cream Parlor in Barbel Plaza across from Charlotte Amalie High School.
"I later converted that into a restaurant for lunchtime," he says. "I kept three restaurants running.”
There was another branch of BoPeep by the airport, and a Back Street restaurant, where Cuzzin’s is today.
His independent streak had its price, once forcing him into bankruptcy. After Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, "I lost everything, the houses, the cars, the businesses – I hadn’t a penny.” He continues, “I’d had insurance, but it had lapsed. In less than a month I lost everything, a world record."
He rallied, moving to Dominica for a bit before returning to St. Thomas.
"It’s my home, after 43 years," he says.
That is evident: "Hey, BoPeep," folks hail him.
"People love me," he says with a smile.
Though Beaupierre has no nose for politics – "Too much melee; not in my nature" – he exercises his community spirit: "I’m treasurer of the V.I. Taxi Association.”
Right now his interests lie in the as-yet-modest fruit-and-vegetable empire he is building.
“I want to get two more trucks so we’ll always have a backup,” he says. “One truck can do fruits and vegetables, and fish on the other."
Beaupierre is a happy man.
"My rent is paid, I have no debts, no credit cards – I’m stress-free,” he says. “I just love living. I like to help others. If I’m well, I’m happy."
