Charmingly Adorable.

The most interesting thing I can tell you about today is that we bought a second double-door commercial freezer for PJP. And now I’m a woman who owns two commercial refrigerators, two commercial freezers, two commercial stand mixers, and two commercial double stack convection ovens. I’m pretty glamorous, you know. Ahem.

If you are curious - and I would be - commercial freezers aren’t terribly expensive. For just over $2,100, our freezer will be delivered AND brought inside AND set up. You would think the bringing it in and setting it up part would be a given, but I’ve learned the hard way that ordering appliances on the Internet just means an exhausted truck driver leaves it on the sidewalk for you and wishes you well. If you own a business and never remember another thing I say here, please remember that. You’re welcome.

And so, as more things go into PJP so that we can make more things to sell at PJP, the overly anxious and excessively competitive part of me has been thinking…NOW WHAT FOR PJP? Soon, we will celebrate our one-year anniversary in our new location and so, what should we do next? And I think we all know that I’m low-key thinking a second location for our sweet store. I’ve even gone to look at a few potential locations, full of bravado and excitement of TWO storefronts. And then we tour them and I get back in my car seconds away from a full panic because the potential to fail is ENORMOUS. (And well, the potential to succeed as well, but I’ve never been good at running with the positives first.)

We looked before the pandemic started at a space and today, the landlord emailed me to ask if we were still interested and I said: “Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. I just need a huge shot of courage and a plan.” He didn’t answer me, but then again, what did I expect him to say?

So, for a second location, I envision a smaller spot that is charmingly adorable and it looks and feels just like PJP Nifong (because she is charmingly adorable). We would make all the pies at the Nifong location and the second store would sell the baked pies. Think of our current store, minus the kitchen. In summary, one baking kitchen, two retail outlets. Oh, and a cute van to deliver the fresh pies to the second store. Just to set the scene in your head - the cute van is a very big part of it for me.

Now cut to what Jeanne envisions: a charmingly adorable replica of PJP Nifong, complete WITH full kitchen. Both store are baking all the things and selling all the things. And we become women with double the commercial kitchen equipment we now own. Jeanne feels the second kitchen build out is pretty essential to creating the delicious smell at PJP. And I can’t argue with that.

But in counterpoint, commercial kitchens are expensive. We have an exhaustingly long way to go to pay for the one we just installed. And in terms of running two stores, maintaining quality in one kitchen seems more realistic. But then, what if no one buys pies at store #2 because it doesn’t smell like fresh baked pie? Or what if a second location cannibalizes sales from our current location? Or what if it doesn’t? How long do you want to keep this conversation up…because I have a lot more hypothetical worries about a situation that may never happen because there is nothing wrong with having just one store and being satisfied. It’s just that two stores sounds like a good fit for #worldpiedomination. MAKE ME STOP.

So, look, I have NO ANSWERS. Clearly. I’m just putting the idea out in the universe. Do with It what you will.