Recently, I had my walk-in cooler break down overnight. Thank goodness--I didn't have much in it at the time. But it got me thinking...What do you do if something HUGE (like a wedding cake) is ruined in a cooler disaster? You don't have time to make a new one!! Do you call another cake shop, or buy the bride a new one? Refunding the money doesn't seem like enough--you ruined someone's wedding day! Could they sue you for that?
Has this ever happened to anyone? I guess I should have a back-up plan in place. I'd love to hear your horror stories.
I know this is an oldie, but I stumbled across while looking through unanswered posts and thought I would share a solution. My husband owns a liquor store and has a mid-sized walk-in cooler. Very full, all the time, and trust me, people do not like to buy warm beer! His went down and the repairman had to get parts, etc., etc., it was going to be a day before it was running again. We found one grocery store that sold dry ice, bought several chunks and it worked! One note, dry ice, kind of "eats" the oxygen in a small space like that, so you don't want to stand in there long, you get a little light headed. NOT SAFE! But, it did keep everything cold long enough to get repairs made and keep customers happy. Just FYI!
-Lori
Here is my horror story. After the eye of hurricane Charley hit my cake shop in 2004, I had to drive around to "find" all of my brides as their homes were destroyed. I had 10 to 15 weddings for that month. I gave their money back, as I couldn't do anything. Landline phones and cell phones were down. There was no water or electricity and no stores or restaurants, or schools, fire stations, etc. The shop front windows and doors broke and blew in. Water poured in the front of the shop and the wet ceiling fell in with with 3 more hurricanes that came near us. I got tarps on my mixers, tools, oven, and freezers. I threw away 25 gooey display cakes and lost tons of stuff. We were lucky with no storm surge, we were not under water. Yes, I had insurance. Our house was worse. I was "kind of" back in business in a month with power and a small air conditioner stuck in the plywood and the promise of a new roof on the shopping center. I lost money for a year as the venues were all damaged for several counties. And people had other things to worry about than finding bridesmaid dresses and wedding cakes. When Katrina hit New Orleans, it was a million times worse. Sometimes you have to count your blessings.
On a lighter note--it's funny when you see the headline on a post how you think it is something totally differnt than what it truely is. When I saw your post, I automatically thought back to my days working in my shop. My girlfriend and I were pre-menopause . A walk-in cooler break was literally a walk in cooler break. It was the only place we could cool down during hot flashes! We called it the menopause room.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%