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,
I’ve been scouting a spot for sunrise. The conditions I set were that it needed to be within 20 mins of my house, have a farm, be on high ground when looking east, etc. I’ve scoured topo maps here and there over the last months and finally made it out to a spot for sunrise this week. It did not disappoint.
I don’t know what it is about little frivolous sunrise runs. But, I know I love them. I find such a huge amount of energy generated from such a small investment in time.
Happy sunrise!
Sharpening by…
Through a series of conversations and a few books I’ve come to believe that sharpening by mail is the wrong way to talk about that service. I’m convinced the product needs a new name. I’m convinced it needs new design. I’m convinced the channel (pure online) is wrong too.
Standby. Updates coming on the flip of the year.
As of this morning that’s the only way you can gain service from Vivront. I closed the Wayzata store. We’re not able to reliably staff it while I’m gone in Japan. And, I bet it’ll stay closed now. We’ll simply open back up in Edina, earlier.
Luxury products
Jim Cuene from Business driver, by Fahren posted this week about AI content being the Greta Van Fleet of brand content.
They seem good because they have some talent, and the semiotics suggest they are “cool” and “authentic”. However, they are bad because they are so clearly mimicking something amazing (uh, Led Zeppelin) but without the soul of what made the original so important.
I’ve had a number of conversations in the recent week about handmade knives from Takefu vs knives made with lots of Automation in other parts of Japan.
There are differences between picking up a blade manufactured with automation and a blade made by a high craftsperson (one of the skilled ones - not an apprentice, yet) in a specific physical place at a certain time.
Customers often say things like “that one speaks to me” and chefs say things like “that one just feels right” when picking up the high craftsperson made blade - even when we don’t tell them which is which.
So also with content? At least… with AI content so far.
It’s like the content made by humans, specific ones, from a particular place during a particular time are going the way of luxury products.
Shop Age //no.3
“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.” — Reid Hoffman
As I look back on photos from last November when the shop opened I’m appropriately embarrassed. It was so early. It was so young!
It’s been a great test store, tucked behind a gas station.
Aaron Keller of Capsule was the first to describe the store with the word “test.” It’s very accurate. There is a load of confidence, systems, vendor relationships, customer and chef interactions and more that have been built over the last year that have all come from tests. They set us up well to hit the ground running when Edina opens.
Toward that end I wanted to capture what we have built and commissioned a photo shoot a few weeks back. I’m quite happy with how things have evolved and super excited to expand on what we’ve learned - and go bigger.
Sum
The sun continues to rise on more learning.
Change
I’m headed to Japan from Wednesday of this week to the Wednesday of next for some research and to attend a large kitchen knife festival. I’ll increase the post volume here again during my travels.
On Your Way
Go find a sunrise! :)
Follow Vivront.com on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
Follow @josephrueter on Instagram or Linkedin.
Order kitchen knives sharpened or give the gift of sharp at Vivront.com.
Keep chasing those sunrises!