The Great Shortbread Cookie Smack-Down - Episode 11

When dealing with the general public it is clear that there is great need for the patience of Job. This is one of many lessons learned by your intrepid entrepreneur on her journey to turn $50 into a successful business.

If you are new to the Blog, welcome! Or if you have missed any previous episodes you can CATCH UP HERE! So let’s get on with the story and discover if our heroine held her tongue or if she had visions of breaking out “The Chair” again J

July 2014

The response to my cookies was awesome. The operations manager loved them, the area manager loved them and it was just a matter of finalizing a few details and they would be placing their first order. Happy much? I’d say! 

There were no words to describe my joy and relief. It was so exciting to think that in just a matter of days my cookies would be selling right across the country.  This was just the kind of break I needed.

A couple of days passed and I had not heard from the operations manager so I decided to go to the head office. On arrival I was told that there was a “concern” about my cookies. I asked what the concern was and I was told. “We think there will be a lot of breakages”.

BREAKAGES?

What do you mean breakages? I thought. The great thing about my shortbread cookies is that they are nice and thick as a traditional shortbread ought to be. So I really was not understanding why they thought they would have a lot of breakages.

So I asked the operations manager why she thought there would be a lot of breakages.

“Because our staff members are not professionally trained and they can be quite rough at times”.

QUITE ROUGH?

Sooo, would they be throwing the cookies at their customers? I wondered.

I guess she saw the look on my face and proceeded to try to explain further. I wasn’t buying it at all. According to her, the staff, are so incompetent that she believed they would man-handle the cookies and cause breakages.

My first thought was if your staff are so terribly incompetent why exactly are they still YOUR staff? But hey, mine is not to reason why. My concern was letting her know that my shortbread was not to be trifled with. My shortbread has grit, (figuratively speaking), stamina and could stand up to the rigors of man-handling by staff members.

I had a brain wave and I decided to go with it. I asked the operations manager if I could give her a demonstration to ease her mind. She agreed, so the next day I went to her office armed with six of my Ninja shortbread, a pair of tongs and a roll of foil.

I was shown into the staff lunch room and asked to wait. After a short time the operations manager joined me. I took a piece of foil and laid it out on the table. I then opened the container and took out a cookie with the tongs.

I went to great pains to grab the shortbread as roughly as I could. I then literally held the shortbread above my head and let it go. It dropped with a bump on the foil.

IT DID NOT BREAK!

Just for effect I took it up again and held it above my head once more and dropped it. This time a few crumbs broke off around the edges but still the cookie did not break. And to make sure there was no more doubt in her mind I took up the cookie one more time and dropped it. Once again some of the edges crumbled but again it did not break.

With a smile of self-satisfaction I held out the tongs to the operations manager. I suggested she do it and handle the cookie the same way she believed the staff would. She picked up a cookie and hit it on the edge of the table. My heart skipped a beat! What the hell!

Although my ninja warrior shortbread was robust enough to take a fair beating they were not bullet proof. They were still cookies after all.

A larger piece broke off but once again it did not break completely.

In my head I was doing a happy dance. But I did notice the slight look of disappointment on the operations managers face. It was almost as though she wanted it to break. Hmmmm!

We chatted for a few minutes and she agreed that my shortbread had stamina. I had almost completed a smile when she said she was still concerned about breakages and wanted to look into packaging them individually so that the staff would not have to put them into bags using tongs.

Is she for real? I thought. Or is she just a goat? I literally just threw my cookies all over her staff kitchen and then she would turn round and tell me she still has concerns! She hit the damn thing on the edge of a table for Christ sake. How much more evidence did she need?

A jack hammer?

Across the head perhaps!

WOOOO SAAAAAHHHH!!! Breath, relax, be calm.

The operations manager informed me she would continue to try to source individual packaging for the cookies and she would get back to me by the end of the week. I took up what was left of my ninja warrior shortbread and departed.

Disappointed! Confused! Frustrated!

And worst of all…Back to square one.

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Will our intrepid entrepreneur ever catch a break?

Join me next time to find out.

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Carol xx