Very Fancy
Well, in evidence that time goes by so quickly, would you believe that Peggy of Peggy Jean’s passed away 17 years ago today? It almost seems impossible to me but also, she passed the day before my daughter was born and I can hardly believe she will be 17 tomorrow…so here we are. Milestones literally break my heart.
At any rate, the further we find ourselves in this journey, we find the following: 1) People assume this is a franchise because they ask where they can find other PJPs or ask if I’m the franchise owner…or 2) they assume Jeanne or I are actually Peggy. And whatever, I’ll consider them both compliments. To begin with, we must look like we have it together on some level for someone to assume that we are packaging this off and selling it to people opening other PJPs, right? They are always thrilled to find that I actually own this when they meet me, so I don’t tell them that I’m far too controlling for a franchise model because that makes me look a little crazy. And I usually don’t correct anyone when they call me Peggy. It’s a long story to explain that she was Jeanne’s best friend and they already charted this pie selling territory in the 1990s. Plus, Peg would have loved all this.
So in honor of her, here’s all the things that are different from Peg’s PJP Version 1.0 and our PJP Version 2.0.
For starters, THE TECHNOLOGY. The first PJP existed in a world where the Internet was the very earliest version of itself. And zero social media existed. Peg worked the crossword puzzle in the Columbia Daily Tribune every single day and wouldn’t be impressed by the online version of crosswords. At all.
I can’t even remember how people were checked out at PJP Version 1.0. I promise it wasn’t by barcode scanning. They had an 1800s cash register at the first location of PJP. It weighed 100 pounds and the cash drawer left splinters when you put in the dollar bills.
They baked every pie in a glass pie dish and you paid a $4 deposit for the plate. Then you could return it or exchange the empty for a new pie in a new plate. That was a cool business model for the 1990s and I still think about how we could incorporate it in a fun way. But now those plates are $15.99 each because inflation ruins everything.
PJP was one of the first to serve fancy coffee before fancy coffee was a thing. I remember they bought an espresso machine and that was VERY FANCY. We don’t serve coffee now because I don’t want to learn to make a half-caf, non-fat oat milk shaken espresso with two shots. And that’s probably the least weird coffee order that fancy coffee attracts.
Oh, and they provided a full breakfast and lunch menu. People still come in and talk about Peggy and Jean’s chicken salad sandwiches. I would be a terrible waitress and never contemplate this business model with a breakfast and lunch service included…but I did learn the chicken salad recipe for home, so I’m set.
Most of all, I think she would be THRILLED that the Peggy Jean’s name has carried on and that all of us who were so close to her are working together to keep building the brand. She’d probably wouldn’t miss the fancy coffee, but she would appreciate some Folger’s and the crossword…
