Today I took a drive over to Whole Foods Beverly Hills to check on Aunt Erma’s stock. The shelves are pretty well loaded. I counted at least 2.5 cases of mandel bread on the shelves. As expected, sales slowed during the week, and I expect things to pick up again as we roll in to Yom Kippur on Sunday. Meanwhile Crystal and I have been scrambling to find another rental kitchen to meet demand. We’ve talked to Yummy Cupcakes, Martino’s Bakery, Cupcake and Company, Temple Sinai, and Essential Desserts. There’s also an incubator kitchen in Pasadena that looks interesting though we’d have to do a bigger volume to make it cost effective. Our food distributor Robin at GS Foods says he may have some leads for us too. Halfway through our mandel bread fulfillment I had the ‘duh’ moment, realizing we should be using a hot glue gun to seal the bottoms of the boxes, instead of blowing through the loads of avery labels we’ve been using, which cost a fortune. We’d been popping in on Beverly Hills to make sure the stickers are keeping the lids closed (my newbie error in ordering the boxes, I didn’t create a re-closeable flap), and I was surprised to find that two of the hot glue gun bottoms had popped open. Unfortunately I didn’t have any stickers with me (Crystal went on a recon mission last week with stickers, to make sure all the flaps are closed) but I wasn’t as prepared. Tomorrow is Thursday, this time a week ago we sold out 2 cases. So I’m not sure what to expect. I’ve also been thinking about some type of mandel bread slicer flipper do hickey. Maybe some sketches tonight.
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I remember one year watching the Super Bowl ads and I saw this commercial for UPS. A bunch of people sitting around a computer, they had just launched their web site.
They waited anxiously, staring at a computer monitor, on the screen the words “ORDERS”, with a flashing cursor next to it. Suddenly the cursor changes to a 1, then 5, then 10 – The people all cheer! Success! Then the counter starts to go faster, 100, 1000, 10,000! The look on the faces of the entrepreneurs turns to panic. This is how I felt this morning when we woke up. Crystal wandered down stairs about 6:45 am and glanced over at our computer. An email sent at 5:11 am from Eddie at Whole Foods Beverly Hills. “Only 5 boxes left, send 5 more cases.” Crystal ran up stairs to share the exciting news. Our very first grocery store shipment of Aunt Erma’s mandel bread almost completely sold out in one day! Celebration! Then the panic set in. It had taken us long in to Wednesday evening just to get 2 cases of mandel bread baked . We’re almost out of flour, sugar, butter, case boxes, labels. Completely unprepared for the sudden success of our product. The day was a blur. It’s 2:00 am now, and we’ve managed to fill 3 of the 5 cases in the order. We realize we need to dip in to our capital and scale very very quickly. Off to bed….
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At the end of July I took a sample of Aunt Erma’s to Eddie, the Grocery Team Leader at the Whole Foods Store in Beverly Hills, Ca. After 3 attempts, the first time meeting the assistant buyer, the second time meeting Eddie, and the third time hustling over there to give Eddie product info. (insurance policy, nutritional and legal stuff) to input to the regional office. On August 13th Whole Foods regional contacted me about getting bank account information so that I could be “in their system.” Figuring I was “in” if they were asking for bank account info. I went ahead and posted “an official announcement coming soon!” (Aug 13th post) A week later Eddie went on an extended vacation, with instructions to check with his assistant buyer to see if I was “in the system.” Each time I called, the response was “nothing in the system.” After 5 long weeks, I dug up an old email for Eddie’s email address, and in the threads I saw the Whole Foods Regional correspondence with the subject line ” VENDOR – IRMA ” – They spelled Erma wrong! Unbelievably, I was in the system all that time, but with only the assistant buyer around to check my status, he could only check what I asked him to check – Erma. E – R – M – A. Eddie returned this week and placed an order for 2 cases of Aunt Erma’s Mandel Bread. With the jewish holiday coming Saturday, Crystal and I stayed up late (until 1:30 am) baking the first order. A few little late night hitches, like the case boxes I purchased could only hold 11 boxes (not 12 like the sticker says), and we ran out of box sealers – but we managed to get everything baked. At 6:30 am I ran out the door and made it to Beverly Hills a little after 7:00 am. Took a guess at how to pull up to shipping and receiving (which was a little funny, our little Prius sitting there next to a big bunch of food delivery trucks). Checking in the product was Joe, who said he couldn’t accept the mandel bread because there was no invoice number. I said “What is that?” He said each store I deliver too should have a code. I said, ” Well, you’re my first so how about ‘one.’ Anyway, Joe was nice enough to show me how the guys in the big leagues do it, I left the two cases. Crystal went on a recon mission with one of her girlfriends at lunch and snapped these photos from the store.
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I started this blog as a personal diary, our journey in to the food business.
I work in animation, that’s my day job. I have lots of screen credit, even an emmy award. But like lots of people who have worked for ‘someone’ for a long time, I have dreamed about having my own thing. My Aunt Erma’s mandel bread recipe was the inspiration for this business, and I’ve learned lots of stuff along the way. So for you folks who have thought “Hey, I’ve got a great family salsa recipe,” or “My mom’s apple pie is so great she should sell it!” Here are a few shortcuts to earlier posts that tell you how to get it done! Enjoy! Phil
So, where in the world do I get a nutritional panel?
What kind of things do grocery stores look for when you talk to them?
I need to bake lots of cookies and I need custom equipment.
You know that bar code on the box, where the heck do I get one of those?
Do you know any reliable printers for creating packaging overseas?
How about the biggest and best food trade show for my new product.
Ok, so I have boxes made overseas, explain how clearing customs works.
Should I go kosher?
I live in California, explain all the business taxes and licenses I’ll need.
Oh man, I know nothing about the web, and my site got hacked.
Lots of other posts, please feel free to scroll through. Or send me an e-mail, phil@auntermas.com
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I’m on the edge of my seat awaiting our first big announcement and wanting to share how the simplest little thing can cause delays. But that’s for another post. Last weekend we went to the totally cool Diddy Riese cookies in Westwood. These guys have been baking cookies and serving ice cream over by UCLA for about 26 years. What is interesting about the place is not so much the cookies (they are hot and fresh) or the ice cream (it’s Dreyers), but the price. Cookies are 35¢ each. Scoop of ice cream is a buck. The lines are out the door at the place all day long. For those outside of the area, Diddy Riese is in the Westwood Village, a high rent shopping area adjacent to UCLA. Amazing they can do so well selling cookies for 35¢. Really got me thinking about a mandel bread store front. Something very upscale lookng, like Peet’s Coffee , but priced like Diddy Riese. Limited menu, maybe just a few types of mandel bread and a really great cup of coffee. 2 sticks of mandel bread and a cup of joe for 2 bucks. And maybe in an upscale part of town like Westwood.
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Last night I watched episode 4 of “The Shark Tank.” An acquaintance from the LA Fine Food Group is Jeff Cohen, founder of Granola Gourmet. Jeff was lucky enough to get a shot on The Shark Tank last night, but he was pretty skewered on national TV. The worst was when that Fubu guy said he didn’t like the way Jeff’s bars tasted. Jeff disclosed a bankruptcy from a former business and one by one all the Sharks were out. I disagree with the Sharks, they are totally missing what is happening in what one of the Sharks called the ‘me too’ market. The low sugar trend might seem over, but I think that fitness people, and people looking to lose weight are understanding now that controlling blood sugar is one of the important keys to dropping the pounds. The low sugar bars on the market are crap. I’ve tried many of them. Atkins, Think Thin, Promax, they all suck, and have nutrasweet or sucralose – causing lots of gas and bloating. Jeff’s bars are low glycemic, and all natural, and Ive tried his chocolate espresso bar which tastes pretty damn good. My only issue is packaging and price. Whole Foods retails them for something like $16.00 bucks for 8 in a tub. A little too pricey for my budget. I hope Jeff can get the extra financing to get them individually wrapped and produced for a lower cost, because I think if he achieved that, it’s a home run for the Granola Gourmet.
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