Let’s face it—COVID-19 sucks. We all feel that we just got buried in place by 28 tons of methaphorical lemons that prevents us from leaving our houses. Here is Napa Nuts’ second update on how we are trying to dig our way out. Spoiler alert: we just saw a big ray of sunshine come through and we are making as much lemonade as we possible can.
Update 1: Local customers have been ordering a lot. We are also seeing a lot of reorders. This is the best affirmation possible. We see not just the local support, but we are also creating fans for life. We feel so loved. 🤟🥰🤘
Update 2: We have had to reorder products. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is for our small business. We went from selling a few hundred pounds in a single order multiple times per week before the crisis to selling roughly 5 pounds at a time, a few hundred times per week. At first we were worried about our products sitting on the shelves forever. However,, products started leaving the shelves and people kept ordering. While we were a bit worried about spending any money, we have needed to reorder products. We have had to totally change our expectations about what would be our best sellers. Just so you all know, individuals eat a lot more chocolate and flavored nuts than restaurants normally order.
Sweet Treats!
Update 3: When this crisis started, we had a date circled on the calendar when we would have to shut down our business if the situation didn’t change. All of our business basically stopped for a week. We were uncertain what the status of funds would be from the government and if we would have any customers or whether we would be able to keep our staff.
As of this morning, we can confirm that some of our worries that we had a month ago have been alleviated.
a) We are back up to about 85% of our Pre-COVID employment numbers. It’s not perfect, but we keep getting busier so the numbers are moving in the right direction.
b) Our employees have started getting their stimulus checks from the government. We were worried about them and their families. It seems as though the slow gears of the government are moving.
c) Additionally, we were lucky enough to get in on the first wave of the Payroll Protection Program. We just got confirmation that the PPP funds have reached our account so we can pay our employees!
Update 4: We have learned that we are way more adaptable than we had originally thought. We have learned how to take our original basic business model of selling to businesses and pivot to selling direct to consumers. This is how we are making lemonade.
Update 5: We acknowledge that so many in our local community have not been able to go back to work or were already struggling before the crisis began. Since we have a warehouse full of food, Napa Nuts is committed to donating 1 pound of food to the Napa Food Bank for every $50 our customers spend on our online store. So far, we have donated over 500 pounds of food to feed our community. We’ll get through this together.
Update 6: Since salons and barbershops have been closed for a month, Bonnie’s very short “Covid-cut” hairstyle is finally in fashion.
In short, we are working hard to get lots of orders out to a lot of people. Our delivery trucks are making a lot more residential stops and we’re getting new “customers for life” every day.
Napa Nuts is still here and going strong. We are continuing to support our community as they continue to support us.