This is 3Bits & Change, an email about building a service and retail business. This one was written to some groves from Apple Music.
Good day,
It started as two curious observations that lead to a design prompt.
One, why is it that most of us hate our dull kitchen knives and talk about them with such intense negative emotion while doing so little to fix our problem? Two, why do kids in America continue to run up debts for lunch as grade schoolers?
So, I started to wonder if the two problems could help each other. How might we make kitchen knife sharpening as easy as possible for the 90% of Americans that have dull knives at home while raising money to improve school lunch or else we'll all continue to hate cooking, spend exorbitant sums on pre-cut fruit, regularly order empty calorie dinner delivered with our thumbs and keep running up lunch debts.
We've invented super easy ways to sharpen kitchen knives by mail (even serrated ones and scissors) - like one tap Apple Pay / Google Pay easy (postage and packaging included) - and brought it to market to learn that it's not only easy that customers want, we also NEED to trust our sharpener.
And, to that end, we're going for it.
We're moving to a flashy retail part of the Twin Cities, 50th and France, in Edina. In early Nov we'll exit from behind the gas station in the suburbs to bring our luxurious take on the knife shop experience, our pro sharpening expertise, our one of a kind assortment of kitchen knives from around the world, skills classes and general kitchen curiosity to our wider community nestled among numerous restaurants and complementary co-tenants on two bus lines.
If you or a friend live in the area, love food and kitchen things and are looking for fun PT hours, please share our story and reach out. We're growing our team of curious kitchen folks.
We're excited to host you and yours in the new store for classes, sharpening services, knife fittings, fun and more starting in November.
Just beginning // no.1
I started dreaming of a 50th spot over two years ago. It’s been a run I’ve written about on this thread. I’ve been quiet lately because there was not much to say. Just to work of doing. On the other hand, I pinched myself while setting up the transfer of keys meeting. It’s happening.
The space is ours in 4 days.
There is much to do.
Suburban Detour // no.2
While I reluctantly took the detour to the 532 square feet in Wayzata, it turned out to be a fantastic test store.
We learned through iteration. Originally I was thinking the store would be all sharpening and that the mail portion of the business would be bigger than it’s been - see the point above about trust.
During the holidays last year, folks purchased way more retail at our store while dropping off their knives than I thought they would. Each week I’d add a few things folks would pick ‘em up and bring ‘em home.
When things slowed post holiday I started working with urgency to obtain both more knives and more foot traffic for what I’ve learned is a unique and successful knife shop experience.
Schedule //no.3
I put a slew of my construction skills to work in building out the first shop. There will be some of that this time too. However, I’ve been recruiting more help and working out schedules so that much of the space modifications (walls and floors) and new custom cabinets can be built and installed while I’m in Japan in early October for the yearly kitchen knife festival in Seki.
Wish us luck!
Change
We’re growing the team. And, we're looking for your prosumer homecook friends, your recent college grads with hospitality, restaurant and/or bartending experience, your FOH and BOH team members in network that would like more hours on Sundays and Mondays, your metalworking craftspersons, your retail sales friends that like food and anyone you think would enjoy learning and talking about food and kitchen knives for a few hours a week. Here is the job post.
On the universal meals front, bills have now been submitted in both Chambers of Congress (S.1568 and H.R.3204) to make what is a reality in a few states a reality in all states.
Sum
Hip, hip, hooray. We’ll soon be positively impacting even more kitchens from our new home in Edina!
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Order kitchen knives sharpened or give the gift of sharp at Vivront.com.
congrats man!! So cool to see this become a reality for you.