And our update
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.
