This is 3Bits & Change, an email about building a service and retail business. This one written to some KCRW streaming out of LA.
Rain… loads of rain.
It’s been every other day for the last ~10 days. We get some sun… then comes the rain. Shoppers in our area go to the indoor malls on the rain days. They’re packed. And they stroll our area on the sunny days. It turns out staffing needs are way more weather dependent than I had anticipated. #learning
Anyway, here are three things I’ve been working on recently.
//no.1 - I’m here for guilt free sharpening
~90% of the kitchen knives in America are dull. When asked, very few people have positive emotion about their kitchen knives. When using a sharp knife nearly everyone remarks about how great it is - often with sounds before words.
There are sharpening solutions… however, they’re not meeting the customer need. If they were more of us would have sharp knives.
A few weeks back I added a blurb about guilt free sharpening to the Edina location page. Not long after folks dropping off knives for sharpening would mention that they’re here for guilt free sharpening.
Wild. I’ve been paying close attention to the language people use when discussing their knives and decisions. I might be reading too much into the words and tone. But, I don’t think so. How much of NOT sharpening kitchen knives is about guilt?
//no.2 - The alley is a giant asset?!
Until last Friday, the messaging about traffic closures for the new E-line rapid transit construction, planned for just outside our front door, was that one lane of France Ave. was going to be closed at a time for a few weeks at a time. No big deal
At a construction meeting the 50th & France business district learned that the new plan is for East and West bound traffic at 50th to be closed for 14 weeks.
At the meeting, the Mayor asked if construction crews were prepared to work around the clock to shorten the impact and suggested city council would modify noise ordinances. I confident that the design of the project is in the favor of the construction company and costs vs. the impact it’ll have on businesses. It’s not a stretch to suggest that we’re looking at a +$50k top-line impact for each business.
I flipped between frustrated and proactive positive in my mind all day.
On the frustrated side, the shop is just getting around the corner on being “new.” It’s finishing well - the wall is almost in, etc. Summer is almost here and people will be walking around. Reasonable revenue projections included some minor north and southbound one lane traffic disruptions. But now?
On the proactive positive side, I was chatting with some friends and suggested a knife shop in an alley as a brand or marketing tactic. it’s kinda fun. Maybe the alley can discount knives? Maybe it can just be really memorable? Maybe it can make the process kinda, I don’t know, fun? It’s early but here you go… the draft is live. alleyknifeshop.com
//no.3 - The Wall!
The installation is in progress. It changed the space in all the right ways. So good!
Sum
I wonder… how much guilt is there driving people to suffer in silence at home with dull kitchen knives. We’re going to need loads of creative and hustle this Summer to outperform our previous revenue projections. I dreamt of a wall and now it exists and it’s so… so good. And now let’s emphasise the alley? Wild.
Change
New cotton bags arrived with a rather large vivront logo on the side arrive this week. And, they’re reusable. The cost of the old white bags from ULINE + the new charge the city is adding for non-reusable bags makes these new ones about even.
The Zanmai, MCUSTA beyond series is back in stock! Even the bunkas. But, only three of them. Watch out. Both Josh and Peter love these knives. Act fast or those two will sell them to someone else.
A new order from Opinel arrived Friday. It had a new-to-shop cheese board knife. I know you’re going to take your high camp flask and picnic with ‘em. Take this cheese knife too.
The Vivront knife rolls are shipping next week. Super stoked to get those in hand.
The power lunch series is slow on sales as sandwiches. We’re thinking about doing a salad series in June. Thoughts?
We’re building a restaurant kitchen staff intro to knife edges course to cover stropping and honing, etc. Ping me if you’d like more.
It’s grilling season and Peter made some spice mixes. I’ve been asking him to do this for YEARS… and now they exist. Wahoo! Add a kit to a knife purchase when buying in store.
The edina art fair is coming up. I thought there would be 50k people on the street over 3 days. Turns out the estimates are 190-200k people. New plans are being hatched to have makers in store. Excited.
These are on their way again. They sell fast too. Sign up to be notified when they come in.
On Your Way
Grab your knife. Cut a tomato this week. Does it look like this?
Have a package shipped. Share with a friend. Try to do it in less than 10 clicks. HERE. If you have shop pay set up and you’re sharpening 4 knives with no loaners you can get a pack ordered in 5 clicks. Dare you.
Warm Regards,
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Order kitchen knives sharpened or give the gift of sharp at Vivront.com.
sharp knives and dark alleys are a natural.