Pi(e) Day 2020 Recap
You might have heard by now that Saturday was National Pi(e) Day. To celebrate, we sold all of our baby and nine-inch pies at a $3.14 discount. And despite starting our baking in the middle of the night (literally), we were barely able to meet the demand all day long. Perhaps you saw video on Instagram of customers waiting outside for our 10 am open or our fun TikTok video of lines inside PJP reaching all the way to our backdoor? Without question, it was an epic day for PJP.
Here is a breakdown of how it all went:
Our earliest customers arrived before 10 am, enduring a long wait on a brisk and rainy March morning. Nothing makes Team PJP move faster than a line accumulating down the sidewalk to Hyvee.
As it turns out, there would be a line inside the store all day, with the exception of approximately six minutes around 3 in the afternoon. The line was so long at 1:40 pm that I questioned aloud if some sort of tour bus had dropped all the people off at once.
That said, this year we could actually accommodate lines INSIDE of the store, rather than forcing people to wait outside because of space issues like years previous at PJP Buttonwood. And for that, we are thankful.
Wait, can people even be on tour busses during Coronavirus? Unlikely.
Without question, we achieved more in quantity production than in any previous year and a marked level in the increase of flavor options than in any previous year. I know a lot of people may not have found their tried and true favorites on the shelf, but nonetheless were excited to try something new, especially at a discounted price. We appreciated all the kind words and patience. We truly do have the best customers.
We did have quite a few new visitors to PJP. I couldn’t stress it enough to them - WE ARE NORMAL PEOPLE EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR EXCEPT PI(E) DAY AND THANKSGIVING. Goodness, I hope they come back on a regular Saturday and find all sorts of options and 100% less stress.
We did suffer from some whipping cream shortages, more due to my poor planning with our food supplier than anything else. Except running short in a pandemic presents specific challenges, like grocery stores putting limits on items purchased. One store had a limit of six on whipping cream, so we visited six times with six different Team PJP members. And oddly enough, the store had plenty of whipping cream for everyone because that isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when stockpiling for the unknown.
Team PJP was a delight, as always. This entire week we’ve started baking early and stayed late. When kids in their twenties show up at 5 am without being asked, my heart just about bursts with pride at their level of commitment to making PJP the best.
I did feel the energy waning as we rolled into the mid-afternoon, but everyone was wiling to do everything possible to make more pies. We were certain to give everyone a gift card (not to PJP) this morning as a thanks for all their hard work.
And when you look at all the numbers, we outpaced last year by 23%. I remember thinking last year that we had made all the pies humanly possible…and here we are this year, 23% more pies. #WORLDPIEDOMINATION