You are probably up to speed on how bad the Covid cases are going. We have been paying close attention, both on any changes to the business requirements, but also just on a human level. I think everyone was anticipating a fall spike, which is where we are at now. In anticipation of this, we had planned some natural steps to help be a part of keeping our community safe. We have four things are changing now, or imminently, and I wanted to let you know about them. Here is the TLDR version:
1) We added heaters to each of our outdoor tables under the canopy. Tomorrow we will be adding the “walls” to the canopy to keep everyone dry and (somewhat) warm.
2) We are going to limit eating and drinking here to the outdoor space (even more heaters arriving in a few weeks).
3) We are creating a new way to order online that will launch probably tomorrow. It will be simpler, but so much easier, than our current version. We want a system that works well, and is easy to use. We’ll be changing up items monthly, and adding fun things.
4) Also ready by next week will be a simple way to get growlers of beer to go (a growler swap program).
Bonus reminder: Makeworth starts serving coffee here this coming Monday.
You want the full versions?? Continue on…
Heat Outside!
Not much to add here, except that we have one for each table under the canopy, and we have additional bigger heaters for the space coming in a week or two. All the data we can find says outdoor seating is so much safer than indoors.
Inside is for shopping. Outside is for eating and drinking. Starting today.
I would LOVE to be able to go out and have a beer, especially if the worst I had to worry was catching a cold. I miss those days SOOOO badly.
We have been anticipating that things could get worse, and so we invested in the outdoor space. It’s not finished (we have more lights, more decorations, more heat) and we’ll keep adjusting/improving as we go. We are very happy with the setup.
But the math is there. Anyone can see the cases exponentially growing. This is putting a LOT of pressure on the relationships of those who work here, and we just can’t wait until something goes wrong, until someone gets sick. We knew it was possible things we go bad, and so we have the outdoor seating ready!
And also we want people to be able to come in and shop without having to worry about others without masks inside the space. As people aren’t leaving town or getting together much this holiday season, we are anticipating potentially more customers coming in to get nicer beverages to celebrate at home with (yes, my family just cancelled our Christmas plans, what was a fun annual Suncadia trip with my parents, siblings and inlaws. And am pretty bummed out about it. Trust me, I’m having a niiiiiice beer on Thanksgiving and Christmas. And NYE.). So we need the space inside for what is about 85% of all our sales.
New Online Store
Our current/previous store was a labor of love. It was the huge project Charles and I, with our website guy Keith, took on and made work while the store was shut down for four months. It was great.
As long as we didn’t have actual customers come in to the store.
Once that started, inventory became a total disaster.
If you’ve bought from us, you know this. I doubt there is a single person who bought online that we didn’t have to call at least once to say “hey… so we are out of four of the 13 items you bought…” And the site has just continued to get worse as time goes on.
So we hit a hard reset, and decided to go to about 20 items, that we can do well. We are going to focus on mixed packs we put together, specific brewery packs, and apparel. And hopefully pizza. We have some hurdles to overcome on that.
Here is a screenshot of a prototype:
Growler Swap Program
We have been hesitant to fill growlers here, as it is very tough to do without cross contamination. Using a hose we connect to the tap, which goes into a container that may or may not be sanitized. And then using that same tube into the next person’s growler… just felt like that wasn’t going to be a good scenario.
We have talked about it, and come up with a way that we can have sanitized growlers here available for purchase, OR available for a swap, if you bring us a standard sized growler (64oz) with standard sized lid. We’ll have like six that you can choose from (if you care), and we’ll take yours from you, and thoroughly sanitize at the end of the day, before putting it back out on the shelf for the next day’s swap. Should be pretty straight forward.
That’s the news for now. Just trying to stay on top of it, and making sure you know what is happening here.
Cheers and Courage
