Hello again,
I want to express my appreciation to every person who took the time to fill out the survey from our last newsletter. Over the day and a half since it was created, there was an incredible amount of response that helped us immensely in gathering information in order to make decisions on what to prepare for this weekend's first round of curbside pickups as well as when it is best to do them. Most important thing that I took away from the survey results though was hope. I was blown away to read all the comments left on that last open-ended question...alongside lots of useful suggestions, they were mostly messages of love, support, and encouragement. This is undoubtedly a dark time for the entire restaurant and food service industry so to see you all try to fill us with light and hope meant the world. Thank you.
Late last night I finally finished working on getting our website ready to accept pre-orders for this coming Friday and Saturday's pickup. I'm definitely not the most skilled e-commerce web person so I did my best with what I had to set it up to be as friendly to use and filled with as much info as I could think of. You'll find pickup dates/times, notes on how to proceed when you arrive to pick up your order, a policy on refunds, and a link to purchase e-gift cards for future use at the shop. Please read through it all when ordering. My plan is to update the order menu options at the beginning of every week moving forward.
Here is the essential information for this week:
FRIDAY 3/20/20 pickup times will be from 8am-2pm
DEADLINE to place Friday orders will be 12pm THURSDAY
SATURDAY 3/21/20 pickup times will be from 9am-1pm
DEADLINE to place Saturday orders will be 12pm Friday
We will reevaluate and adjust pickup days and times on a weekly basis to make it convenient for everyone. Based on the importance of product rankings from the survey, we are only going to make bread and pastries available this week but rest assured that we plan to offer all the other items people have asked for in the future.
These changes have been thrust upon all of us very suddenly so please know that we are going to do our best to adjust on the fly...I know the first round of orders is getting cut off in only 24 hours so it feels rather rushed and I know that it will take a lot of cooperation and coordination to navigate curbside pickups this weekend. I think once we see how it goes this first time, we will be able to work out any kinks that come up.
Given this unique situation, minimizing loss at all turns is of paramount importance for us to survive this in the long term...that means not losing valuable time, not losing raw supplies that are going to be increasing in cost due to shortages, and not wasting staff efforts by risking the possibility of unsold products being left over at the end of the day. For this reason, we will only be accepting pre-orders thus having no products available for "walk-ins". When the shop is open on Friday and Saturday, it is for pick-up of those prepaid orders only. So without further ado, here is the link to our website where you can find the menu:
Folks, also please don't hesitate to email me with any questions - I will get back to you with answers as soon as I can. We are not at the bakeshop at our regular hours so there may be no one to answer phone calls there.
Thanks again and talk to you soon,
Jojo