TPS Reports

Early each morning, Jeanne and I make a baking schedule.  It is a pretty simple document - it lists all the pies in all the sizes we offer.  We look our scheduled deliveries to Lucky's and any orders on our board for that particular day and then we add in what we think might do well in the shop that day.  As you can tell, it is all very scientific.  Ahem.  It usually goes down like this at 5 am: Jeanne: Do you want to do some Mixed Berry today?

Me:  Ok, sounds good to me.

But is making our baking schedule based on our unscientific predictions and our whims the very best way to make it?  I'm starting to think it isn't.  Perhaps being proactive in creating our baking schedule is the smarter way to go?

Now that we are charging into our 10th week of business, we have enough data about our sales from our Square point-of-sale system to tell us stuff.  And I use the word "stuff" because I'm not even sure what sort of data that thing spits out, but I'm guessing it is along the lines of ALL THE DATA.  After trying to explain to Behind-The-Scenes-Tech-Guru Jason what sort of information I was looking for, he disappeared with the laptop and came back with a ream of paperwork with category titles like "price point" and "cumulative sold".  And please tell me that I'm not the only one who had this run through their mind...

But as I started to look through the information he had given me, it was actually really interesting.  The top five selling baby pies on Tuesdays over the past six weeks are:  Key Lime, Gooseberry, Strawberry Rhubarb, Banana Cream, and French Silk.  That information completely surprised us both...I certainly wouldn't have guessed Gooseberry or Key Lime at all.  Those are types that we make as an afterthought if we have time, despite knowing that they are really popular and sell quickly when in stock.

Our top five selling nine inch pies on Tuesdays over the past six weeks are:  Gooseberry, White Chocolate Strawberry, Key Lime, Mixed Berry, and Peach.  Again...completely surprised.  I probably would have bet cold, hard cash that Gooseberry wouldn't even make the nine-inch list.    And Old-Fashioned Peach is one that we feel doesn't really sell well and so we often leave it out of consideration.  Huh.

So, in the baking schedule I did earlier today for tomorrow, the only pie on the schedule that was also on the Tuesday report was French Silk.  Which means that I obviously need a new baking schedule for tomorrow.  Which means that I've now become someone who says "well, what do the reports tell us about pie sales on Tuesdays?"  before making Tuesday's baking schedule.

Which means that I don't even know who I am any longer.  I am a person who apparently now reviews data and asks for reports.  If you find out that I've asked Behind-The-Scenes-Tech-Guru Jason to start graphing this data, be worried.