Going Postal…

For the past 8 years, I have been pretty dead set against the idea of outside catering, delivering, selling our products outside the realms of the coffee shop. It always felt like it would pull me away from the day-to-day running of the shop and leave me slightly disconnected. However, in recent years the cakes and bakes we offer have seemed to become more of a focus, and I have felt that with the publication of two cookbooks and an emphasis on our gluten-free/dairy-free/vegan offerings, I have naturally pulled away from the coffee side of the shop all on my own. This has started to lead me down another path and, as is usually the way with me, a seed has been sown by one thing and another, and a week later, I have a tree I want to climb!

I have done the odd commission bake over the years, mainly for customers with specific allergens to contend with and a lack of confidence on the baking side of things. I have welcomed these little extras as it makes people happy, and I know they will come back to buy more at the shop. When I say the odd commission, I mean 3 or 4 a year (not exactly stretching us to capacity), and the customer will always collect the item from the shop, so we can guarantee safe passage until it leaves our hands.

However, I received a message on Instagram not long ago, asking if I could bake and send a traybake in the post. Now, I know that this does happen – there are whole businesses built on the idea of sending cake in the post, brownies being the most prolific; but the idea just made me nervous, so I apologised and politely refused the request, sighting the concern that I couldn’t guarantee that it would arrive in one piece.

Enter the seed. I had worried that I had refused this request without giving it enough thought, so I started researching postal brownies and cakes, how to package them, send them etc, and I was amazed at how many businesses do it, and do it successfully. Naturally, I bought a couple of boxes from other companies to see how they wrapped/prepared them and see how they travelled (and to taste the contents of course).

The roots of the idea are now well on the way. I’ve started to look at pricing from other companies, taking into account their production size (some are national companies, others just deliver locally) and general workplace practices – are they eco friendly like we are, or do they use lots of plastic packaging, do they send the goods fresh or frozen, what dietary information do they provide etc. I need to know if it’s actually worth my time on a smaller scale, I don’t want to be losing money in this economic climate.

However, as a food business that has been making these cakes for a decade, I know what is needed to sell to a third party rather than directly like at the coffee shop, and it is slightly more involved and complicated, but doable. So that side of things doesn’t really phase me at all.

My question is – is there truly a market for postal traybakes to you guys and the world beyond (as long as its within the UK)? Would you buy a box of baked goods from us and have us send it to you in the post? Think, birthday parties, corporate events or just for yourself at home (all bakes will have a decent shelf life and will be suitable for freezing too). You could send them as a present to friends and family – maybe someone has been poorly and needs a treat, a relative that may not be able to leave the house (for whatever reason), a friend has just had a baby and needs the pick me up after a sleepless night, or just because you want to let someone know you were thinking of them. We could add a message card and personalise it, add a candle if it’s someone’s birthday etc.

At the moment I’m thinking a core range of 6 traybakes as standard – like Super-seeded Flapjack, Ginger Slice, Coconut Florentine etc (ones that I know will survive a potentially bumpy journey) with options to buy either a box of 6 (of one flavour or selection), and then look at ideas like a vegan box, a gluten free box etc. Possibly having seasonal additions or limited-edition bakes.

You could look at buying whole trays of single flavours for bigger events, which can be left uncut to portion yourselves or cut into specific portions. There would also be scope for conversations and bespoke orders to cater to specific dietary requirements (within reason). However, with all this there will also be a decent amount of lead time needed for orders (I’m not Amazon I’m afraid). We would also offer collection from the coffee shop of course so you wouldn’t need to pay for postage.

So, I am going to ask you again – is it something people would be interested in? If so, I will look at setting up a new page on the website with flavours, prices, all relevant information, as well as a way to order, as I will probably keep it separate from the day to day running of the shop to spare my staff.

This won’t be instantaneous; it will take me a few weeks/months to work out the kinks, but if it’s got legs, I’ll happily run with it!

Also, slightly disturbing side bar, I googled the term ‘Going Postal’ as I thought it was a nice play on words and knew it to be the title of a Terry Pratchett novel (my Granddad was an avid Pratchett reader). How shocked I was to discover that the origins of the term were actually a series of mass shootings perpetrated by postal workers in America. Yikes.