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Every year at the end of summer there is a local parade. For many of the businesses on Main street they take that Saturday and close up shop. No one is on Main street to shop they are on it to sit and watch the parade. But we decided to open. Heck we do not open in the mornings and we decided to open for this Saturday morning.
We do not have a breakfast menu and do not open till 11am most days. But this Saturday we saw an opportunity. Why not set up a table in our door way and sell items. We always have baked breads and specialty rolls on the menu. My wife also makes the baked goods for a local coffee shop. Our kitchen is no stranger to acting like a bakery. So for the days leading up to the parade we did extra baking during any down time. We made up cinnamon rolls and a number of sweet breads. We priced everything at $1 each and made the sizes so that we got some profit yet people felt they were getting more than a dollars worth of food.
Come the morning of the parade we got up to the store early and set up a table in the door way. We stocked it with inventory, and some menu handouts. People were quickly coming up to buy. Many were new customers who had never been into our restaurant before. Others were people who had been in many times but due to a busy summer had not been in all summer. We also saw a number of regulars. For all the new people and folks we had not seen in months we made sure they got a menu handout with their order. Even many people who did not buy walked off with a menu.
In the end we made a few dollars profit and got to see the parade. Even if it was not a banner sales day I think that by talking to people and handing out menus we did more "good will" and word of mouth advertising buzz than any level of buzz a TV or Radio advertising spot would have done for us. I will keep you posted.