We're Not Scrooges (Really!)

I've heard that some folks are upset about my decision--yes, you can put the blame right here--to use the word "Holiday" to describe our petits fours. I've been accused of being Grinchlike and part of that PC crowd that's out to rob Christmas of its meaning.

Most of my friends will agree that I am Grinchlike most of the time, but they'll also tell you that I'm one of the biggest fans Christmas ever had. In August, they roll their eyes when they see me waving my "Christmas #1" foam finger around. The last thing I'd ever want to do is diminish the meaning of December 25, which I consider one of the best days of the year.

There's a technical reason, rather than a PC reason, why I chose the word "holiday." Some of our partner bakeries have their own Web sites and, like us, spend a lot of time and effort trying to get those sites noticed by search engines. If I use the same product names they use, we wind up competing with each other, and they get unhappy.

So whenever possible, I change the product names a little so that we're working with our own unique search terms. Our partner bakery uses the word "Christmas" for all their petits fours, so I went with "Holiday." That's all there is to it. If I was that PC, I wouldn't have Christmas Mini Cookies on the site. It was Phil Bruno's idea to call those other cookies Holiday Lites, not mine, and Phil's often annoyed at me for not changing his product names enough.

So now you know why I chose to use "holiday." I hope this makes sense, and I'll be happy to wish anyone who calls a Merry Christmas. Call in the afternoon, when I'm less Grinchlike.

Next week we'll debate my spelling of "Menorrah."

What's This Noon Stuff?

As I mentioned in my last entry, the order deadline for next-day shipping has been pushed back to Noon Eastern until the end of December. There's a couple of reasons for the change. The bakeries are busy, but just as important, the shipping companies are busy, and that's only going to get worse throughout the month of December.

I realize that the noon deadline is a drag, particularly for those on the West Coast who are still trying to find their workstations and start the day. It's a necessary concession at this time of year, and we'll be moving the deadline back to 2PM in early January.

As I've said before, ordering ahead is the best way to make sure that we get your products to you in a timely manner.

Keep an eye on our Seasonal Treats page through the first week of December, as we'll be adding a few more tasty desserts to make your celebrations warm and merry.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a busy Thanksgiving, both at the bakery and on the site. I'd like to thank all of our customers on behalf of myself and Chef Steve for helping this business to grow faster than we ever expected. In case you're wondering where the blog updates have been, I've just had too much to do over the last two weeks. That, of course, leaves me with a couple of bits of administrata to clear.

First, we won't be shipping anything between November 24 and November 28. Our friends at FedEx and UPS are taking a weekend breather before the busy holiday shipping season kicks in. They've earned it. Any orders you place between now and November 27 will ship on November 28.

Second, our Thanksgiving products are no longer available, but a new collection of holiday desserts is now online, which you can find on our Seasonal Treats page. Remember that it's a good idea to order early--our Rum Pumpkin Tart sold out before Thanksgiving, and all of our holiday desserts are available in limited quantities.

Third, as the holiday shipping season begins, we've had to make some adjustments to our Overnight Express delivery. Beginning Monday, November 28, the order deadline for next-day deliveries is Noon Eastern. This will be in effect until January 2. All other shipping will be unchanged until December 19. I'll have more information on that in the coming weeks.

Finally, as the new site gets put to the test, we're discovering a few problems with the system. For the record, this happens at every site, and I'm being more honest about it than some folks are. We've experienced occasional outages due to traffic and some minor problems with our Checkout system.

If you ever encounter a problem with our site, I do hope you'll call us at 1-800-287-9870. If something isn't working and no one tells us, then we don't know that it's broken and we can't fix it. Those calls that report problems are essential to us. I'd particularly like to hear from any Firefox users out there who are having trouble.

That's all for now. I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

No Cakes 'til Tuesday

Due to production issues, I've had to take all of our products from Bittersweet Pastries offline until Monday. This is the first time we've had this kind of a situation, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

All of the cakes and tarts from Bittersweet will be available next week, and you can continue to place orders for their products so long as the delivery date is Tuesday, November 15, or later. If you've got any questions, please e-mail me at derek@1-800-bakery.com.

And We're Live

It's here, the new and improved 1-800-Bakery.com. After four months of researching, rebuilding, rewriting, and redesigning, our site has been relaunched to reward our customers.

That's the real Chef Steve gazing out from the top navigation. Now I get to look at my boss every time I'm on the site. Joy. All that's missing is a little word balloon that says, "Work harder."

I'm very proud of the new site and all the hard work from Chef Steve, the nice folks at b2services who helped with the redesign and upgrades, the customers who offered their suggestions, and, of course, the family and friends who helped us cope during this project.

There's a ton of new information and new features available on the site that I encourage you to explore. We've moved to a faster server, so you'll be seeing it all much faster than before. And there's more to come in the next few weeks, including improved product descriptions and an online glossary. Not to mention new cookies and petits fours for the holidays.

I'd love to know what you think of our new site. We designed it to be easier to use and more comprehensive than before, and I hope we succeeded. If you've got any comments or suggestions, please send them to me at derek@1-800-Bakery.com.

Addendum: It's possible that a few of your bookmarks may have broken during the redesign. To accomodate the new font size and page layout, I had to shorten the names of Hurley's Boston Soda Breads and the New English Muffin Company, as well as the product names for our Sugar Free Low Carb Flourless Chocolate Truffle Cake and Sugar Free Low Carb Flourless Marble Truffle Cake. The products are all still there, but they've got shortened names, and our site uses the product name to generate the URL. There won't be any changes like this in the future, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Technical difficulties?

You might see some strange things happening today as we install the new site.

Wait, did I just say "install the new site"? Yes I did. And as with all things new, there's the odd technical hiccup to sort out.

So please pardon our appearance during renovation, and if the site does start acting wonky, give it a few minutes.

Florida Shipping and Holiday Schedule

We're once again delivering to all ZIP Codes in Florida, and I hope the arrival of November will put this hurricane season to bed. In case you're wondering, the list of affected ZIP Codes is compiled primarily from the U.S. Postal service. These delivery outages are a result of blocked roads or power outages in the affected areas.

I always err on the side of caution when it comes to shipping our products. Some of our perishable products simply can't take an extra day or two in shipping. But as the recovery moves forward in Mississippi and Louisiana, I'm increasingly looking at a patchwork of service offered by UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, and Federal Express.

So if you'd like to send something to someone on our shrinking list of affected ZIP Codes, please e-mail me at Derek@1-800-Bakery.com or call us at 1-800-287-9870. We'll do everything we can to get your gift delivered.

And now an ineloquent segue: Thanksgiving is coming. One of my first jobs in the bakery business was to help with customer pickups on Thanksgiving. It's the single biggest holiday for bakers, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you need to order ahead if you want to avoid disappointment. Our Jack-O-Lantern cookie sold out within minutes of last week's e-mail going out, and I'm expecting the same to happen with our Harvest Petits Fours and Cornucopia Cookie.

You can order at any time and specify your delivery date by typing it into the Comments field on our Checkout page. The deadlines for Thanksgiving delivery are November 21 for Second Day Air and November 22 for Overnight Express. But again, you could find a very limited selection available by then, so if you see something you like, order it soon.

After looking over the planned closures for the shipping companies we use, I've put together our November Holiday Schedule:

We will be shipping on our regular schedule for Veteran's Day.

For Thanksgiving, we will be closed from November 22 until November 28. This means that any orders placed after 2PM on November 22 will not ship until November 28. Our shipping companies are suspending Friday and Saturday deliveries that weekend, and if this year is like past Thanksgivings, we'll need the days off to recharge.

Shipping Resumes to Texas

We're once again able to ship throughout the state of Texas. It's good to see the number of affected ZIP Codes dwindling as services return to the areas hit by hurricanes this season.

Meanwhile, there's snow in the forecast for Boston tonight. I've got to go plan a costume that includes mittens and a knitted cap.

And now Wilma...

I'll be glad when this hurricane season is over. For those who follow these sorts of things, Wilma is the last named hurricane we can have this season. Seems they've run out of names, so if another tropical storm develops, it will be called Hurricane Alpha, unless the marketing folks step in and buy the naming rights. Hurricane Disney, perhaps?

The US Postal Service has suspended shipments across parts of Southern Florida for today. As always, I'll be monitoring the situation and keeping you up to date on our Hurricane Information Page.

Making a Friend of Monday

I'd promised a big announcement today, and here it is: We can deliver products on Monday.

That's the big announcement? Yes, and let me explain why it's so important.

We're not a network of bakeries. All of our products are bakery-direct, which means you get them from the same bakery--the bakery that created the original recipe--every time. We don't farm out your order to the bakery down the street because we know it's hard to maintain consistent quality when you do things that way. Besides, the bakery down the street doesn't have our products.

It's been a standard practice in bakery-direct e-commerce that Monday delivery was a no-no. Because we, and other bakery sites, want our products to arrive fresh, we don't want them sitting at a shipping depot over the weekend. We don't pack our products with preservatives, so it's important to protect them while they travel.

The down side to all of this is having to say "No" to customers when they ask if something can arrive on a Monday. I don't like saying "No" to customers, and I'm sure it seemed odd to you that in a seven-day week, there were really only five days when we could deliver.

After talking to our partner bakeries, I was able to find some products that can be shipped over the weekend and arrive fresh. Some of them are durable, others are packaged in airtight containers. As with everything we sell, we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee along with our pledge that we'd never sell you anything we wouldn't proudly serve in our own homes.

I'm working with our partner bakeries to expand our Monday offerings. I hope you'll find the added flexibility valuable.

Second-Day Air Returns

Good news for you cost-conscious folks thanks to the cooler temperatures of autumn. I'm pleased to announce that second-day air shipping is back for all of our cakes from Bittersweet Pastries and all of our petits fours, with the single exception that we must continue to ship our petits fours overnight to Florida. It stays hot there all year, which must be nice.

With a little forethought, you can save up to 50% on shipping costs. Everything else seems to be getting more expensive these days, so it's nice to be able to offer our customers a chance to save.

High fuel prices are a concern for everyone these days, especially in the shipping business. We're working to find ways to maintain or possibly reduce our current shipping charges for many of our products. I'll keep you informed on all the developments.

And speaking of developments, we're getting ready to do something unique in bakery-direct e-commerce. It involves breaking our own rules (just a little), but it will give us the flexibility to provide you with even more memorable gifts.

Look for the announcement on Thursday.

Long Weekends and the Holiday Rush

Officially, we'll be closed on Monday to enjoy the long Columbus Day weekend. Our friends at Bittersweet Pastries tell me that they'll be around on Monday, so if you need an emergency Chocolate Birthday Cake or a tasty Cranberry Walnut Tart for Tuesday, they'll be able to ship them out.

This is a good time to start thinking ahead about holiday orders. Bakeries get very busy at this time of year. Thanksgiving is the biggest holiday of the year in terms of sales for most bakeries, followed by Christmas, Easter, and Valentine's Day. With so many orders coming in, products can sometimes be in short supply.

While we pride ourselves on being able to ship overnight anywhere in the continental United States (except on Sunday and Monday), at this time of year, it's far better to order ahead. By ordering in advance, you can be certain that you'll receive the special tart, cake, or cookies for your holiday gatherings. As colder weather moves across the country, you'll also save on shipping by taking advantage of Second Day Air delivery. Look for that option on our products as October comes to a close.

Ordering ahead is as simple as typing the delivery date in the Comments field on our One-Page Checkout form. For more information, you can check our Choose Your Delivery Date information page.

As a bakery insider, I can't tell you how important it is to order ahead during the holidays to avoid disappointment. We'll do our best at 1-800-Bakery to take last-minute orders, but product selection may be limited as specific holidays near.

Finally this week, the government has put together an informative and valuable site about protecting yourself online. Security continues to be an important issue for responsible online retailers, and I encourage you to visit the government's site and learn how to protect yourself while you're shopping online.

Why We Don't Like Mondays

Strange things going on around these parts. But before I get to that, let me kick off October with a hearty GO RED SOX in the hope that they'll win a World Series while I'm here in Boston to enjoy it.

Now about those strange things...the weather folks are telling us that fall foliage is coming late to New England this year. Typically you don't have to venture too far north into New Hampshire to see autumn colors by Columbus Day, but thanks to a warm September, even northern Vermont is only at 20% of peak foliage. I'm convinced that the seasons around here get a little further behind the calendar each year. Snow in late March is a lot more common than it used to be, and the hottest part of summer arrives in August instead of July.

On another calendar note, Halloween is on Monday, October 31. Monday is bad for us. We don't like Mondays. Because even though we live in a seemingly on-demand world where products appear at our doorstep the day after they're ordered, the shipping companies still insist on having their Sundays off. So anything we ship second-day on a Friday or Saturday gets a one-day layover in a warehouse somewhere.

We don't like layovers because we want your products to be at the peak of freshness when you receive them, so we don't do Monday deliveries. Ever. With only a couple of exceptions that you, the readers of this blog, will know about.

I know with complete certainty that a few of our products ship well enough that we can take an Express or Second-Day Air order and let them enjoy a day of rest on Sunday. Specifically, the rugelach and pralines from Steve's Mom are shipped in a sealed, airtight gift tin that keeps everything fresh. In addition, the cookies from SuperCookie travel well. The minis are sealed in a plastic tub, and the big cookies are packed in a plastic bag.

We can't ship cakes or petits fours on Monday, but the Big Birthday Cookie is a fun and surprising alternative for someone celebrating another year.

With Halloween on a Monday, we've set up the following order deadlines for delivery on Saturday, October 30:

• 2PM Eastern Wednesday, October 26, for Second-Day Air
• 2PM Eastern Thursday, October 27, for Overnight Delivery
• 2PM Eastern Friday, October 28, for Saturday Delivery

After that, our Halloween specialties will be gone. If you're looking for one of the most unique Halloween treats you've ever seen, check out the Jack-O-Lantern Cookie from SuperCookie. One of the neatest things I've seen in a while and, as always, a much better value than a cookie bouquet.

Finally, we're able to ship throughout the state of Alabama once again. As people return to the Gulf states, we're monitoring service updates from the U.S. Postal Service each day. Look for more information on our Hurricane Information Page.

More Trouble for the Gulf Coast

With Hurricane Rita churning toward Texas, it is again my unfortunate duty to caution our customers about shipping to the area. I recommend checking with friends and family in the area before placing an order, and we will review any order we receive that has a destination along Rita's path.

All of us at 1-800-Bakery.com send our thoughts to those displaced by the hurricane and offer our hopes for a minimal impact to the region.

Should any additional delivery suspensions occur, I will post them on our Hurricane Katrina Information Page on Monday.

Everything but Guilt-Free

I'm happy to report that the number of ZIP Codes disabled by Hurricane Katrina decreased this past week. There have been few moments in my professional life as sad as having to create that list. As I typed each ZIP Code, all I could think was that this was a town, a city, so devastated by the storm that basic services which most of us take for granted no longer existed. These cities and towns were gone.

Seeing the list get shorter reminds me that there is hope and that people will someday return to many of the affected areas. In the meantime, thousands still need help. If you're in the Boston area, I'll be part of a comedy benefit on Wednesay night at 9:30 at The Office, 50 Broad Street, Boston. If you'd like more details, you can e-mail me at derek@1-800-bakery.com. You can also donate directly to the American Red Cross at http://redcross.org.

Look for another update of our Hurricane Katrina Information on Friday.

In happier news, we've got a new product on the site that's sure to please the vegans in your life. Vegan Blondies from Tipsycake of Chicago are chocolate bars made without any animal products, dairy, or eggs. They're cruelty free and very, very tasty, with a creamy, moist chocolate flavor. As someone who's suspect of anything lacking sugar, fat, or traditional ingredients, I must confess that I was quite impressed with these blondies. In fact, I wound up eating most of the sample box they sent.

I love products like this, because I know that there are vast stretches of America where specialty baked goods are unavailable. I'm always keeping an eye out for fat free, sugar free, and vegan foods with outstanding taste. Chef Steve and I look forward to bringing you more of these products in the coming months.

Katrina Update

As I was writing last Monday's post, Katrina had yet to unleash her full fury on the Gulf Coast. Levees outside New Orleans had yet to break. And America had yet to spend a weak witnessing the heartwrenching struggle for survival in Louisiana and Mississippi.

It's tempting to remove the post, just as it was tempting to remove the link to our Fall Preview on our home page. Life goes on for many of us, but our hearts, prayers, and support are with those who have lost so much in an instant, devastating act of nature.

We discussed setting up a donation drive here at the site, but we decided it's far better for those who want to help to donate to The American Red Cross. The need is immediate, and your donations will go straight to work helping those displaced by the hurricane.

We have also added a new information page on the site, which can be found at http://www.1-800-bakery.com/info/katrina.html. This page provides a list of ZIP Codes that are out of service due to storm damage. Because we use several companies to ship our products, we have chosen to use the list from the United States Postal Service, which is the most comprehensive of the three, as the source for affected ZIP Codes. We have also included areas where there are service delays as well as areas where there is no service, because we are unable to guarantee timely deliveries to these areas.

This list will be updated each Friday to reflect restoration of service in the affected areas. I look forward to the day when I can remove the page from our site, and I hope it comes soon.

Hurricane Katrina

First off, the good news: None of our partner bakeries have been closed by Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on the Gulf Coast this morning. That means that all of our products are available for delivery.

However, depending on where you would like things delivered, there may be some difficulties during the week, particularly east of the Mississippi River between today and Wednesday. We expect that deliveries to the hardest-hit areas will be impossible for the next 48 hours.

If you would like to send something to Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama this week, I recommend checking with the shipping companies ahead of time to ensure that they can make the delivery.

Change of Seasons

We got our first chilly night yesterday, a reminder that heat and humidity will soon be just another New England Memory. This is my favorite time of year in these parts, as cool nights settle in and the trees explode with autumn colors. There's also the fall harvests of apples, pumpkins, and native corn to enjoy.

The first sign of fall appears on the site today, in the form of Back to School Mini Cookies from our friends at Supercookie. Later this week, look for a preview of the many fall flavors from Supercookie, Divine Delights, and Bittersweet Pastries.

We'll also be discontinuing some of our summer items until next year. If you like Spring Mini Cookies or Golf Mini Cookies, they will only be available until August 31.

Links at Last

The great link migration of Ought-Five is complete. You'll find Gift Baskets nestled among the various Shop by Person categories. Now if I could just find a way to move petits fours to the top level navigation...might happen, might not.

The only task remaining in our cleanup efforts is to optimize all the product pictures so they look extra tasty. Those will roll out over the next week, and then something very big and exciting will put a final flourish on all the small changes that we've made since April.

Meanwhile, some British researchers have analyzed the way men and women look at Web sites and found that a majority of British university sites have a stronger appeal to men. I'm wondering if this isn't true of the Web as a whole, where modular design is the norm.

Good Time for Changes

Has it really been a week since my last post? It's been a little hectic here. August is a slow month in the baking business--between vacations and double-digit heat, most folks aren't longing for cake--so we're taking advantage of the chance to make a few changes to the site.

You'll notice our new Shop by Bakery category, which was something I introduced to make managing our catalog easier. Before I had to search through all our categories to find the complete product list for a single bakery. Now everything is in one place, which makes my life much easier. It's also good if you like a product from a certain bakery--now you can see everything they offer in one place.

Keep an eye out for a couple of changes this week. "Candies and Chocolates" will be renamed "Confections," and is now the home for our Chocolate Dipped Strawberries. Gift Baskets will be removed as a category and the baskets will be relocated into appropriate Shop by Person categories.

All of this is in preparation for our coming redesign. I reviewed the first draft of it yesterday, and it's spectacular. It should be online very soon, and it will make using our site even easier.

While you wait, you can check out the newly redesigned staples.com, which has been rebuilt based on the input of thousands of users. I do find it easier to navigate, but I'm surprised that they aren't displaying more products.

And finally, a little heads-up to a new competitor I've found in baked goods e-tailing: Don't let the Postal Service catch you shipping those matches by air with your Birthday Cake Party Kit. That's illegal.