Suspicious

In all honesty, PJP never does well with just an average week. We tend to excel in the weeks that are busy, challenging, and overwhelming - that’s where we REALLY shine. And so when someone called last week and asked for 204 Jelly Jar six-packs to be shipped out this week, I did not hesitate one tiny bit in my agreement. (But I did hesitate a bit before I opened my office door and alerted all employees of the news…just because 1,224 jars is a lot of jars, any way you present the offer.)

While they thought I’d lost my mind, I worked on gathering all the supplies. Our local suppliers of jars only had 40 cases in stock, shorting us 62 cases. And calling around to every open store in the mid-Missouri area only resulted in finding about 15 extra cases. And you know what that means…AMAZON PRIME. That’s a worrisome proposition under time constraints. Purchasing $1200 in jars and relaxing on the promise of the arrival on Monday takes an iron constitution (and a Xanax or two). We also needed 1,224 tiny forks and a couple of rolls of stickers to mark the boxes perishable. Oh, and a box of packing tape. I forgot about the last one, and that’s how I learned Hyvee sells packing tape at a premium price. But rest easy, all supplies arrived today…and all delivery drivers asked what we were doing with all the supplies. (As a side note, we also ordered a new rolling pin and the box arrived with a big hole in it and no rolling pin. That begs the question of whether someone stole the rolling pin by ripping a hole in the box…or if the box was accidentally ripped and the pin slid out. And so now I keep thinking about the UPS truck out there right now with a KitchenAide rolling pin sliding across the floor every time the truck turns a corner.)

Because we work best in manageable increments, we decided to ship out 68 sampler boxes a day, starting with today. It seemed like a number that could be accomplished each day without too much stress, plus we were certain that many boxes could fit in the back of my Yukon for transport to the local FedEx delivery drop-off location. That happens to be the Postal Annex in the Forum Shopping Center, who didn’t even think we were weird when we came in to explain my car was full of 408 pies, mostly still hot. They even trusted us with an extra wide dolly and I’m not sure I would have, given our dolly driving skill set.

Oh, and hey in spite of all that, we fully stocked our store today like we were just normal people not making pies in jars for hours. And we didn’t even cry. Hmmm. Suspicious.

I can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow.