Do You Sell Pies?

One of the biggest issues that we've struggled with since opening PJP Buttonwood is the visual merchandising of our pies.  Even in the very best of circumstances (a PJP fully stocked with pie boxes of all sizes AND every pie variety sticker), we have found our customers aren't always exactly sure what pies are available. Most new visitors walk through our front door and proceed immediately to our front counter and ask if a) sell pies, and b) if so, what sort of pies, and c) are those pies available for sale.  And then we point out the entire wall of pies for purchase and new customer usually says "oh, I didn't notice all those pies!"  And then 30 seconds later, said customer says "what are the prices of your pies?"  And that the customer has to ask about the available pies or the pricing is an epic fail on our part.  Imagine what we could sell if both of those pieces of information were quite apparent upon walking into our store?  Hmmm...

Suffice it to say, we've known for a quite a while that something needed to be adjusted.  But what?  We couldn't quite decide or chose a course of action.  We knew undoubtedly that the natural color of the wood display and our kraft pie boxes blended together...

Taken last August, this picture shows our display unit with several nine-inch and baby pies but you may not notice them.  It also highlights our VERY FANCY Avery stickering system that we used at the time.  I am actually embarrassed for us when I look at that picture.

Jeanne has had some ideas for the past few months about a display unit upgrade.  And because she built the display unit and because she is far better at this sort of thing than I am, I was pretty much willing to go along with whatever changes she suggested.  And when she said "we could paint it", I said "um, sure...sounds great".  We conferred with our friends at Johnston Paint & Decorating, chose a color, and promptly did nothing about it for four months.  We are nothing if not consistent in our approach.

Until yesterday.  Yesterday, Jeanne spent all day working on our new display and oh, I AM SORTA IN LOVE WITH IT.

You'll note a massive color change.  You'll also note a consistent home for each type of pie.  And behold pricing information written on chalkboard tape...

We have a few more tweaks in mind, but can we all agree the improvement is intense?  And let's agree to file this entire project under "Stuff We Should Have Done Months Ago, Thanks For Asking"...