The 'Cookie Wars' or 'That's How The Cookie Crumbles'

After EM and I sold the restaurant she stayed on for a while as an employee and I began the Archway cookie route.  The route was from Rome, NY, all the way to Raquette Lake, which is 22 miles north of Old Forge!  We housed the cases of cookies in a rented storage unit just outside of Vernon.  Every morning at 6 AM I would start out to make the deliveries.  The concept of being a distributor was that you purchased the product and you placed them in your stores and if and when they sold you made your profit.  I say when they were sold because If you haven't checked lately, there are a lot of cookies in that snack aisle and with 'big boy company brands' to boot who could really market and have great sales.  My route consisted of the few small 'mom and pop' stores that were still hanging on and the ones they were hanging on against such as Walmart, Price Chopper and P&C.  Also the many gas station - convenience stores that dotted the area, such as Nice & Easy, Fastrac and Byrne Dairy.  Some were fun to go in to and some stops I dreaded.  Even though we owned the cookies once they were on a shelf it was out of our hands, literally.  Out of code, damaged or 1/2 eaten by a crazed shopper became a 'hit' against your eventual bottom line.  In all the big corporate stores technology ruled and everything was 'checked in' with computers of all manner and style.  Even the corporate little corner gas/store had this function.  It was a way for all to keep track of their inventory and sales.  It could make for some long waits at the back receiving door if other vendors of chips, snacks, and breads were also in line ahead of you.  I loved the little guy stops, first because I could feel their pain of running a small business and second because I could usually get in and out quickly and you could be a little more creative in your displays.  EM joined me (does that scenario sound familiar),  I believe in late November.  The holidays were coming up fast and this was supposed to be a big sales period especially since Archway was noted for their variety at this time of year.  This year was however not normal and the sales were off from the previous years.  We traveled our route in all weather conditions and EM carried her weight as always in every aspect of our business.  We did have fun because we were always together and helped each other with the 'load'.  When you went to bring in the desired amount of cookies to a stop you would enter them into a hand held gizmo (computer) and this would generate the invoice and verify the quantity, cost, variety etc.  This invoice would be printed right on the truck.  EM became more proficient at using that than I believe I ever did, which as you will see soon became very important to the beginning of our next move.  On the nice days the surrounding countryside was amazing and we stopped and ate lunch when that days route was not full of time stops.  I loved this business initially but after a short time I realized that as Archway was sold off to investment companies the 'home town' feel was gone and replaced with these greedy corporations that didn't know a cookie from a cork screw.  I also began to see that you lost all your control of the sale and your product once it was in those stores.  This was a hard for me to do because I had always followed the sale from start to finish in my previous jobs.  I would have permission to put up a special stand alone display and on our next visit it would be tossed in a cart somewhere in the backroom and yes with unsold cookies in it galore!  As fate would have it one evening I received a call from our friend Nancy.  She was part of a small group of ladies that were responsible for a sorority house on the Syracuse University campus.  They had just fired the cook and "would I be interested"?   So in March of 2003 the week after 'spring break'  I began yet another adventure.  It was on to Pi Beta Phi.  I was to cook lunch and dinner for about 30 young ladies.  This was certainly a new experience and challenge but one I totally was willing to hit head on.  I would search for recipes on All Recipes.com and plan the menu and post it weekly.  If you have followed one of my first posts, you would know that I believe that 'food = love' and I tried to apply that always.  I really loved this job and these ladies were very receptive and gracious to me for which I was and still am thankful.  Now meanwhile we still have Archway and guess who is now running that?  EM, with the initial help of Sam, yes, 'Sam, Sam the delivery man' to the rescue.  He and EM continued to operate the route, how many wives would do that! Now you see where her efficient use of the hand held computer was very beneficial.  That first spring I started on the 'hill', SU won it's first basketball national championship, how cool was that!  I never went to college but hey this works just fine for me.   After the semester was out I went back to run the route again with EM.  In August I would return and Pi Phi would be my home for the next 5 years.  After Sam could no longer continue to work with EM we now needed to find someone else.  As luck would have it  Ryan, the brother of another vendor we had met in our travels was looking for a job.  He was young, ambitious and an awesome worker, and he really eased the workload for EM.  They were a great team and when we decided it was time to move back 'home', Ryan was able to run the route alone.  We sold our home and moved to Baldwinsville which is just a few miles west of Syracuse.  I placed an ad in the 'New Times' a local weekly paper and a man named Steve answered it.  He eventually bought the route and our cookie did crumble, but these crumbs were welcomed ones.  One day as I was cooking a young man came in and introduced himself as the president of a fraternity just 2 houses up the block.  They needed a cook and would I know of anyone, gee let me think... EM started cooking at ATO and has never looked back.  She is known as Mrs. B to all her boys.  Well I believe I have come full circle back to my first post.  I now can begin to fill in lots of the details of us cooking and EM being a 'house mom' for these last years.  Please come back and read 'Our College Years' or better titled 'We Have a PHD (Philosophers- House Mom & Dad)'........Thanks to all..........