Week 28

OH MY LORD!

First of all, thank you and welcome to all the new customers who discovered us via last week's article in the newspapers. I am super thankful to have been mentioned that high in the ranking, by a jury of professionals. It is, of course, a subjective ranking based on one special day, and everyone has its own opinion, but it brought a lot more new customers to the shop these past 10 days.

In my opinion, it is also a bit unfortunate that it arrives this early in our development. I am still in the process of hiring kitchen staff, and in the meantime I cannot meet the demand. Which is frustrating for you and for us, as customer satisfaction is at our core since the opening. Niemeijer came by on Saturday and told us it was the same for them, it was somewhat comforting.

We also encountered two massive issues: The line and its management.

We were not expecting such craziness as summers are usually quiet period for pastry shops and bakeries, so the front of house was staffed as usual. Little did we know, some people queued for 50 minutes before entering the shop.

On the usual, the wait is minor when walk-ins and pick-ups are in the same line. Walk-ins rely on the "first come first served" basis. People coming to pick up their orders can come in and go, but a lot of the time, they want to order extra. Do these people should remain in the walk-in line ? Do we stop pre-order for better fairness ? Do we only do pre-order to better manage the flow ? Are we going to lose our regulars ?

After long hours of debates, we decided to keep it the way we are working right now, but with a few changes : - We will have one more person from this weekend at the front. - We will also have one extra pin machine for a faster check out. - A line will be dedicated to pre-orders on the Churchill-laan side of the shop. - You cannot add products when you pick up your pre-order (unless it is coffee and/or wines) - If you want more products/ viennoiserie with your pre-order, you need to join the walk-in line on the Maasstraat.

Keep in mind that this is a try out, in order to make the line go faster. We will take your remarks into account for next week if that was not successful. And hopefully the hype wears off soon.

This week, we will not offer any dessert of the week, and only focus on viennoiserie. I would like to know how much one can produce in a week, and how to match the demand as well as possible. Today I managed to cut and roll an average of 180 croissants/hour (mixing and folding time not included). This gives us a good indication of productivity, and some headaches if we want to try to match the 1000+ items sold last Saturday. You guys are crazy.

See you tomorrow ? Saturday ?

Customer's punchline of the week : "You should open more days and work harder"

Reminder : - Pre-order your treats for Saturday is recommended (if sold-out, there will be no restock). - Tomorrow, we will be open from 8 to 12. - Saturday, make sure you come at the right time based on your time slot. No worries if you are a bit late. - Some products will be available on the counter for walk-ins.