Hard No

If someone called me tomorrow and asked for 150 White Chocolate Strawberry Jelly Jars for the day before Thanksgiving and then they mentioned they would be driving to New York City on a pedicab with just a lunch box cooler to hold the jars and do I think that would be ok, I LITERALLY WOULDN’T BE SURPRISED. Welcome to the week before Thanksgiving, where there is no end to implausible pie scenarios.

So Thanksgiving orders closed on Saturday at 5 pm. The relief to be able lock down a final set of data was palatable in our house. We ended just around 3,000 total pies on order for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week. And now the only thing left is to figure out how to make this all work in two different stores. This isn’t my first Thanksgiving rodeo, but it sure is my first in two locations. It seems like it should be straight forward enough, right? But it is an adjustment that our entire time won’t be in the same space and having the same experience. I have no idea how Jason and I will ever be able to recap our days in the short amount of time we will have at home at night before it is time to go back to our respective stores in the morning. (Jeanne plans to bounce back and forth. She blows in and out like the wind, so she’s on her own schedule.)

When Team PJP gets nervous about next week, I remind them that I survived the first PJP Buttonwood Thanksgiving and it was a legitimate nightmare, so I’ve really seen the worst that things can be. (But then I think to myself: Have I though? Have I seen it? What if I’m taunting the universe by saying that?)

Two weeks ago, our team of architects visited from St. Louis to tour both the Nifong and West End stores. Both have attributes we love and both have room for improvements. Our architects are working to develop the perfect prototype store that could work for the next 30 stores. And yesterday when we worked all day at PJP Nifong on Thanksgiving prep, I said to Jason: HOW CAN WE HAVE MORE STORES WHEN WE ARE ALWAYS AT THESE STORES? I literally have no idea. (Asking myself anything in the week prior to Thanksgiving is completely pointless because it’s the time of year I’m questioning 98% of my life choices.)

But I’m not questioning White Chocolate Strawberry Jelly Jars on a theoretical pedicab in a tiny cooler. That’s a hard no.