GIRL SCOUTS FOLLOW THE DOUGH AT AUNTIE ANNE'S PRETZELS
April 08, 2009
At 5 p.m. on the dot at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, the one in the Northridge Fashion Mall, at the corner of Sears, across from Footsie, beside Journey’s, kitty-corner to Forever 21 and the Perfumella booth, a Girl Scout troop suddenly materializes. To drum up some business in these slow economic times, the intrepid owner of the franchise has invited the girls of Huntington Middle School troop 235 into the pretzel kitchen. Fresh off an exhausting cookie season, the Scouts nonetheless are up for the challenge of additional carbohydrates. Their mothers, being perhaps somewhat less attuned to the motto “Be prepared” and somewhat more distracted by the Banana Republic sale, materialize some time later.
“Have any of you ever thought of owning your own business?” asks owner Linda Reed, who, in her youth, was a Camp Fire Girl. The girls stare blankly at their Converse sneakers. One examines her black nail polish.
The captive audience of a half-dozen 13-year-old girls presents an irresistible opportunity for a little bit of market research. “Have any of you ever been to an Auntie Anne’s Pretzels before?” Reed asks, and is greeted by enthusiastic nods. “As you know, it’s a really tasty product. Everybody asks me if I’m Auntie Anne. I’m not. I wish I were,” says Reed, who then describes Anne Beiler’s ascent from single Pennsylvania pretzel-store proprietor with an eighth-grade Amish education to nationwide baked-goods empress. “I wouldn’t recommend only an eighth-grade education, but she’s a very successful person,” Reed offers.
The scouts watch a video on the history of pretzels, narrated by a cheeky-faced teen boy of what seems to be Dutch heritage. The laptop on which the video plays is located beneath a laminated sign that reads: “If a mall is open 10-9 p.m., the possible increase in sales by selling only 4 more pretzels each hour ... 44 pretzels @ $2.00/pretzel = $88 increase/day, or $616 increase/week, or $32,032 increase/year.” As anyone who has ever unwittingly gone home with 10 boxes of Thin Mints knows, the Girl Scouts are no strangers to the power of compounded interest.
To earn today’s “Let’s Get Cooking” badge, the girls learn the proper way to gauge if they’ve washed their hands long enough (sing “Happy Birthday” while you do it), the most efficient way to twist a pretzel (roll it into a garden snake-sized tube, then whip it around in the air), and the effects of handling food with unwashed hands (lots of gross germs).
“The more you teach them the importance of washing their hands, the better,” says one mom, “which is fine by me.”
“Clean and busy, that’s our motto,” says another mom, a former high-powered contracts litigator–turned–Girl Scout troop leader. “Actually, it’s ‘Be prepared.’ But we like to keep the girls clean and busy. And it works.”
“I feel so special — we made a pretzel,” says pretty blonde scout Natalie Spaulding, halfway through the sugar cinnamon–coated pretzel she baked herself. It has the classic Auntie Anne’s texture and consistency of a bagel. “I always wondered how they made them.” Spaulding wants to be an interior decorator.
“Oh! I want to be an architect,” says her fellow scout Janice Chang. “We can work together.”
The next badge they will earn is the “Fitness to Fashion” badge. It will involve a highly anticipated tour of the Prada flagship store in New York City. “Will it be a Prada badge?” one girl asks.
“Wait. Why wasn’t I told about this?” Ilana Basseri wonders. After her cheerleading career runs its course, Basseri intends to take over her parents’ dry-cleaning business.
“They’ll probably give us goody bags,” one girl, an aspiring Vogue magazine editor, says knowingly.
It’s career day at their school the next day, and Friday, and a short school day; the girls are in an ebullient mood. Their troop also includes a budding newscaster, a future tennis player and an aspiring novelist. Quiet redheaded Abby Shamray poses obligingly as her father snaps a photo of her wearing a paper hairnet, a potentially traumatizing experience that may or may not be featured in her debut novel some day.
Fortified with free pretzels, coupons for more free pretzels, an Honorary Pretzel Roller certificate and a badge embroidered with the image of a pretzel (an image they’ve just learned represents the crossed arms of someone praying), the scouts rate the Auntie Anne’s badge as one of the most delicious they’ve earned — second only to the one they earned from a tour of the Razor scooter factory, which was not so much delicious as it was exciting.
“If anyone wants to stay,” Reed tells the scouts as they pack up, “we’ve got a shift that ends at 9.”
Sources from: http://www.laweekly.com/2009-04-09/columns/
girl-scouts-follow-the-dough-at-auntie-anne-39-s-pretzels/Boundary Embroidery Weaves Unique Gifts
Apr 14, 2009
If you have ever been to the Farmers' Market and seen the pretty lady wearing a straw hat in the booth full of unique embroidered items, then you have already been introduced to Boundary Embroidery Services and Gifts owner Phylliss Moore.
Phylliss specializes in creating innovative products that use embroidery to deliver branded messages.
"The customer gives me a picture, I digitize it and create the product," said Phylliss. "I've done a lot of work for local businesses, schools and government agencies, and have a lot of repeat customers. I have some purses in A Bit of Paradise and have done work for Athletic Connection. I've also done contract work for three AKC dog clubs."
Phylliss said that she has been doing machine embroidery for six years and that this is the third year of her home business.
"I've been a crafter and a sewer all my life and have done things like painting and soft sculptures," she explained. "I first learned to sew in high school, in England where my dad was stationed with the military, but I wasn't very good at it. I sewed for my children when they were younger because I enjoyed doing it. I sewed things like Christmas dresses with pinafores for my daughters. I needed something that was totally different from my career, so my crafts and sewing were my own creative outlet.
"When I retired after working in the dental field for 35 years, I wanted to stay around people, so I incorporated my love of crafts and sewing into this business. The sewing evolved from my crafting, and embroidering evolved from my sewing. It was good to have another element to work with so I didn't get bored on the same machine all the time. I like creating things that are different that you can't buy in a store."
Before moving to Boundary County, Phylliss and her husband, Bill, had traveled quite a bit in the northwest. When they decided to retire and leave northern California, they originally intended to move to Coeur d'Alene, but decided that it was too crowded and decided that Bonners Ferry was the right spot for them.
"It's so friendly and receptive," said Phylliss. "I have liked everyone I have met since I moved here, and I love everyone at the Farmers' Market. It's nice to not be rushed all the time like it is in northern California."
Phylliss said that Boundary Embroidery does a huge variety of different jobs. Aside from embroidering company logos on clothing, she said she can do custom sewing, make blankets, put embroidery on blankets that others have made, create custom purses, diaper bags, tote bags, business signs, baby items and unique gifts. She can embellish towels and personalize items for weddings such as the wedding album cover, and mother-in-law and father-in-law hankies.
Phylliss also does alterations and repairs.
"I sell a lot of Badger items to kids, teachers and alumni at the Farmers' Market," she said. "And the teenage girls seem to really like my denim purses because each one is unique: no two are the same."
Phylliss explained that she can digitize a customer's design or logo, can create and digitize her own designs, and has also bought a large supply of commercial designs. She has over 8,000 designs for children. She owns two commercial embroidery machines, two sewing machines and buys supplies and fabric all the time. She often brings unique fabrics back to Boundary County when she visits her family in California.
"I do courtesy digitizing for customers and give them a finished sample to preview before they commit to the order," she said. "I also do pick-up and delivery in order to work with my customers' time constraints. I can work up a design and take it to the customer's home if it makes things easier for them."
Because she works out of her home, Phylliss said that she is able to keep her overhead expenses down, making her products more economical. She said that customers can bring in their own clothing for her to embroider or that she can order clothing and hats wholesale if that's easier for the customer.
"I've had a really good response from people at the Farmers' Market," said Phylliss. "The response started picking up over these last three years as people began to know me and become familiar with what I sell. I also sell homemade candy."
In the future, Phylliss said she would like to be able to offer sewing and machine embroidery classes. She said that she knows several people who have embroidery machines but don't know how to use them.
"I just love to keep busy, be creative and help people. I started with about 12 customers 3 years ago and now have quadrupled that number. It's busy enough for me," she laughed.
