Unfazed.
We are officially back from our summer family vacation and I’m happy to report that Jeanne and PJP fared just fine. I thought she might send me a blog post or two over the course of the week, but I think by Thursday she was just over it all in general. And then on Friday, someone was a no show for their shift AND the front merchandise cooler started making an odd noise and her countdown for our return officially started.
I made it my goal each day we were at the beach last week to leave my phone safely secured in our 11th floor condo so that I couldn’t spend the afternoons checking email, sales numbers, and social media notifications. On our first full day, I couldn’t help but sneak up and take a quick peek because I’m addicted to my phone and addicted to PJP. And I did have a text from one of our food brokers that said: “I need you to call me as soon as possible, I have bad news.” And when I called, HE DIDN’T ANSWER. So then my marginally relaxed self was on full alert - what could possibly be bad that he would know about? Did the store burn down and Jeanne not know? Was there a mass recall on flour affecting every single product we sell? Were eggs increasing in price by 100%? One of my greatest skills is imagining the absolute worst scenario based on absolutely no information. I’m really good at it, actually.
Thankfully, he called me back fairly quickly. And with all my worst fears at the brim, he announced the company was dropping PJP as a customer because they are focusing only on larger customers due to a shortage of warehouse workers and truck drivers. GOODNESS. Jeanne and Jason were righteously indignant but I was surprisingly unfazed in the moment. (I’ve dealt with much worse and not much surprises me these days. Plus, I had been floating around in the ocean with a Yeti full of diet Sprite, vodka, and grenadine prior to his phone call. That probably helped.) Logistically, I still understand the decision. Though, in defense of small business across America, I’m starting to work up a fair amount of indignation. Our broker had 63 other accounts to notify that afternoon. We normally work with three food vendors a week, so our options were open…but for those other accounts that don’t, what then? How is our $1.000 a week any less valuable than someone else’s $5,000 a week?
And then the next day, an email from The Kroenke Group arrived and our possession of PJP West End planned for August 6th has been pushed back by several weeks because of (wait for it…) LABOR SHORTAGES. Oh, and door shortages because of shipping delays because of container ship problems. I’m not even kidding. DOOR SHORTAGES. See why most things leave me unfazed these days?
