NOVEMBER 21, 2006
Small Biz
The Turkey Diaries
A personal account from the owner of a turkey-frying business shows just how crazy the days leading up to Thanksgiving can be
In her spare time, Aricka Westbrooks, a public relations coordinator for Chanel, liked to fry up turkeys in a boiling pot of peanut oil in her backyard. So after two and half years at the renowned fashion house, Westbrooks got bit by the entrepreneurial bug and decided to start her own business. In 2003, Westbrooks replaced the couture suit with an apron and opened up Jive Turkey, a food retailer specializing in fried turkey in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. She created a menu of more than 15 flavors of fried turkey—including five-spice cajun, vidalia onion, and orange zinfandel—and began selling her goods in-store as well as shipping them. Despite having only one fryer and no Web site, word of mouth spread, and Jive shipped 40 turkeys across the country in its first year.
This year, Jive will cook 3,000 birds and ship 400 across the country. If you think your scramble to prepare Thanksgiving for your family is rough, imagine that of Westbrooks, who is running a business that prepares turkeys for everybody else's family.
BusinessWeek.com asked Westbrooks to keep a diary of the week before Jive's cutoff deadline for orders on Nov. 17. The following is Westbrooks’ account of the craziest days in the turkey retailing business before Thanksgiving.
Nov. 9
After creating a shopping list based on last year's sales, I go to purchase inventory for the sauces, glazes, and seasoning at 7 a.m. Prep will begin on Saturday, when the team comes in for an orientation, and I want to be ready to put them to work. With a fully loaded truck I arrive late to the store to meet a reporter and photographer from the (New York) Daily News. The story: How hazardous is it to fry a turkey the traditional way? I set up a fryer outside on the sidewalk to demonstrate how I started out frying in my backyard.
At the same time, the plumber is in Jive Turkey's kitchen moving the oven and stove to make room for an additional six fryers to meet holiday demand. The store opens on time at 11 a.m., but work is already behind two hours, and I have an order to deliver to Manhattan. We contract a phone system to save time by not repeating ourselves 500 times a day, but it is not working and it is ringing busy. Uh-oh, I have to do payroll. It's almost 5 p.m. and I have not called it in yet!
Nov. 10
Restless night. The walk-in refrigerator is not yet installed, and I cannot get hold of the contractor by phone. I arrive at the store to find a hapless crew to install our Ansul system, to prevent fires in the kitchen. Unfortunately, they do not have the right equipment and they have to return Monday. The phone system continues to ring busy and the problem cannot be corrected without changing telephone companies. After weeks of setting up the system, this is infuriating. Meet with chef for discussions about work the week before and during Thanksgiving, but she has to arrange for a sitter! Good news—four fryers (ordered sight unseen from Green Bay, Wis.) are on the way. Scheduled delivery date is Nov. 15. Must draft letter to the Ellen show. Spoke to producer last year about a segment on the show, and they are returning to New York City for Thanksgiving week. Also must send photos to New York magazine, which has added Jive Turkey to its Web site and will include the company in a listing for Thanksgiving catering.
Nov. 11
One of the best sale days of the year for us. Two of three new hires show up, end the day with a delivery to the Bronx, a two-hour drive round-trip.
Nov. 12
In the store early to attempt to begin to enter the shipping orders into DHL. Went faster than I thought, but I still have hundreds more to enter.
Nov. 13
So many inquiries! And as I suspected we are now booked to capacity for shipping, well before the order deadline of Nov. 17. Phone system issues not resolved.
Chef backed out. I must now manage kitchen and retail sales during the holiday.
Nov. 14
The fryers are supposed to arrive today but they (the delivery service) couldn't get through on the phone and so they will arrive tomorrow. Still no walk-in refrigerator, but the meat vendor will hold all 700 cases of turkey I ordered, so we will discuss a delivery schedule tomorrow. Customers refuse to use automated system for information, so we keep having to repeat ourselves, preventing us from operating the store. Eventually we turn the phone off so we can get our work done.
Nov. 15
I had to change our phone number to allow more customers to access the system so that more people could call and get information, instead of one customer getting information and the rest just hearing a busy signal. I paid the monthly bills today to avoid late payments. A customer came in today and asked for my autograph! Calls from across the country, 40 or so for shipping orders, but we can't take more. A neighborhood restaurant agreed to help freeze some of our refrigerant for shipping. I worked out the schedule for the next few days. Fryers are supposed to arrive tomorrow but they couldn't get through phone lines to confirm delivery for today.
Nov. 16
The plumber has to come in to connect the additional six new fryers on Friday and my crew won't work a late night. Mom arrives, but her plane is late, so I miss a tasting with our Thanksgiving promotional partner the Greene Grape, a wine store in Brooklyn. I learned later that the borough president attended and presented a beautiful proclamation. Exhausted with the calls for orders.
Nov. 17
Essential parts for fryers missing, so I can't install, and early order of turkeys not defrosted! I got a call from the NFL: They want turkeys for their Thanksgiving Day show—national exposure! Daily News story ran, and word of mouth once again is driving customers to the store. Transitioning from daily menu to catering menu—can't handle both. The crew is coming in to unload the first delivery of turkeys at 7 a.m.—1,120 turkeys. That's a lot of turkeys!
Nov. 18
A day full of pick-ups of whole turkeys at the store and customers coming in with inquiries for the holiday. I am relying totally on the automated messaging system to handle inquiries by phone. We unload the first delivery of 280 cases of turkeys. The fryers seem to be working well since using some ingenuity to install them, even with a missing part. Had the first employee walk out; happens every year. Fell behind in production schedule, which happens every year, too! Those in the kitchen made a few calls, and we've replaced the person already.
Nov. 19
Six days before Thanksgiving and had a line outside the door for most of the day.
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