Whirlwind

We’ve had a whirlwind few days, so let’s discuss:

On Monday, we celebrated National Pie Day. So many people questioned this decision because culturally March 14th has become National Pie Day, but the American Pie Council set this January date and didn’t consult us. (Honestly, I would guess they chose a January date to help push some business through the door because January is just a dumpster fire for retail sales. Or let’s hope. I can’t imagine that the pie council isn’t aware of the significance of 3/14, though they are very much an organization for large commercial distribution bakeries, so it’s possible.)

Historically, we’ve always celebrated with $3 tarts for the January celebration. This year we put some thought into what might be different and fun for a bit of a change and we settled on a 23% off all dessert pies and merchandise. We had zero expectation since it was a new way for us to celebrate, plus it was a Monday event and those are always difficult to anticipate. So we did what we do best, which is make some educated guesses about a solid baking schedule and hope for the best.

Thankfully, it was a lovely day. Actually, it was the sort of day that made me forget my disdain for January. Plus holidays like National Pie Day are generally just fun because people are excited to try new flavors or excited to find their favorite pies at a promotional price. And most importantly, the day wasn’t particularly difficult or dramatic or overwhelming, despite being very busy. If you’ve been reading here for long, you know THAT IS A SERIOUS ACCOMPLISHMENT. It definitely felt like we unlocked the next level of entrepreneurial achievement. (I’m certain we are destined for a 3/14 pie day that will about slay us - that’s how this works.)

And then yesterday, we went to St. Louis to meet with our architectural team who has been working for the last several months on developing a prototype PJP store. There are things we like about each of our current stores and things that could certainly be improved in each. And if we look at the big picture of PJP growth, designing a footprint for the next 30 stores is a priority goal.

After the architect visited us last fall, we’ve anticipated their vision for our future spaces. We knew we needed to get through the rush of the holidays to take a day away from our current stores to discuss future stores. Obviously, we were super excited to meet yesterday and see some ideas and talk through some design concepts. And it DID NOT DISAPPOINT. We spent a bit over four hours working through some plans and looking at several possible concepts.

Notably, this is early, early, early planning. Even if we settle on a plan, we need to have some very real conversations about where a third PJP would go. And since Columbia is probably well covered and we would be looking at a completely different city, how the heck is that going to work? The list of things I have no answers for is so much longer than anything I do have an answer for, so I’m basically driving myself crazy. (But that said, #worldpiedomination basically demands more than two stores by definition, right?)

And that’s the long way to say that our brains were so full of information to process in the last 24 hours that today felt like an impossibility to focus on regular Wednesday stuff. The architects are headed back to the drawing board to work on our changes to the plan, we’ll see what happens next. We’ll move it to the back burner for a bit because have Valentine’s Day to think about. Oh and National Pie Day, round two.