It Takes A Village (To Ship Pies...)

We expected to make this next statement with an absurd amount of fanfare (envision confetti, perhaps a marching band, weepy soliloquies from a podium on a red carpet...), but instead, we offer it with the simple gratitude of finally being able to say it: PJP is now a pie shipping company.

Finally.

So, as a recap, we've been working on shipping pies for some time now.  We've shipped nine-inch pies to Charlotte, our Director of Publicity and Something-Else-I-Can't-Remember and each time, we've had marginal success.  (Think delicious pie with tragically broken crust.)  Retreating to square one after our last failed shipment, it occurred to me that shipping our completely adorable jelly jar pies just might avoid all of our previous logistical roadblocks.

And I wish I could say it was as easy as thinking "I'll ship jelly jar pies" and then it happened the next day.  First, we needed a box that would transport jelly jars pies...and not arriving as a box of broken glass and pie crust, so we enlisted Mike from Pratte Industries.  And we needed the help of our friends Spencer and Kyle at Worldwide Express to figure out the how and the everything-else-we-don't-have-time-to-think-about when it comes to two-day air shipping.  We also wanted to step up our game a little bit in terms of packaging and so we enlisted the help of our favorite designer, Caroline Leemis, and Derek and Josh at Minuteman Press for new stickers for the jars. It takes a village to figure out how to ship pies.  Did you know that?

All that said, look what our village did together...

Finally, the image in our heads of the perfectly shipped pie package came to reality in the picture above.  And because we just wanted to send the cute factor into overload, we purchased miniature forks and tied six together with a ribbon for inclusion in the box, along with one of our "Pie Is Home" cards.  After this picture was taken, we all swooned over the package...

This particular package was leaving in transit to the headquarters of Worldwide Express in Dallas (they have been following our shipping shenanigans and perhaps the intrigue became too much for them to just not order).  Next Tuesday, 29 packages leave for destinations all over the United States from a local businessman who plans to thank his customers for their business in the most delicious way we can think of - six packs of apple jelly jar pies just in time for the Independence Day holiday.

So what are the next steps at PJP?

1. We are ordering 1,000 boxes.  The more you order, the cheaper the cost...storage options be damned, we will take the cheapest option, thanks for asking.
2. These boxes come flat packed and must be assembled.  Anyone wanting to lay odds on how long my sanity holds together in the face of never-ending box assembly can stop by PJP Buttonwood and let me know.
3. 29 packages of six jelly jars for shipping on next Tuesday is 174 jelly jar pies.  Thankfully a charter member of my Inner Circle can get me jars in mass quantity, thereby allowing me to avoid desperate trips to Wal-Mart.
4. Behind-The-Scenes-Tech-Guru Jason is working diligently on opening the e-commerce section of the PJP website.  The goal is to allow you to order a six-pack for shipping in the store, on the PJP page, or even (just maybe) on Amazon.com.

Our boxes should take seven to nine days to arrive and once they do, outbound shipments on Tuesdays and Wednesday should begin.  Do we think the UPS guy will appreciate it if we rent a red carpet for his arrival on the first day of scheduled pickup?