Thanksgiving 2020 Recap
So, I didn’t mean to fall off the grid for a solid seven days, but uh…THANKSGIVING. And for all of you that have emailed me, Facebooked me, and texted me to see if we survived and how it all went…here you go:
We did, in fact, survive. I almost venture to say we thrived, as we experienced our busiest Thanksgiving in PJP history. In fact, for you who like numbers, we increased sales last Wednesday by just under 40% comparative to the pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday in 2019.
We also did not run out of ingredients and endured no madcap runs to Hyvee, Aldi’s, Walmart, or Sam’s. Do you remember that year we had to go to Hyvee and buy all their pumpkin and they said no? I do. And not repeating that level of pumpkin desperation is a crowning achievement in my professional life.
We also did not run out of pie tins, pie boxes, or bags. WHO ARE WE? WHAT IS GOING ON?
Now, all that said, making around 2,800 pies is no easy feat…even if you have the ingredients and the packaging materials. So let’s not for a hot second imply that I didn’t question all of my life choices at least five separate times last week.
Team PJP, as you might guess, was the MVP through it all. It takes a special group of people to look at a baking schedule that asks for hundreds of pies and not be daunted by the day ahead. Or to still be there at 7 pm - 12 hours later - making YET ANOTHER round of Pumpkin Pie.
And when I say it takes a village, it really does. We worried about managing large crowds during COVID, but everyone was exceptionally patient in the line, easily observed social distancing, and for the most part, the average customer was in the store and checked out in under three minutes. One feedback submitted said “[e]fficiency at its best”. My work here is done.
Oh, and you might have seen on social media that PJP was featured in a national ad campaign for Facebook and Instagram. We had no idea it was going to post last week, so add in a non-stop ringing telephone with questions from people all over the United Statesabout what we do (bake pies), where we ship (United States), and where we are located (Columbia, Missouri).
And while all that went down, Team PJP just kept baking.
I didn’t even cry once last week. That’s a PJP first. I’m not sure if I should be worried about myself or proud of myself.
And if you are curious, I heard no less than four Team PJP members express today how happy they were that Thanksgiving - and all the stress we were under - was over until next year. Tru dat. (Also, I ran a Cyber Monday sale on Jelly Jar shipments and received several hundred orders. I figured this might be the wrong time to tell them. Gulp.)