Power outages cost businesses time and money, but those with perishable inventories, such as bakeries, face an especially daunting ticking clock of loss once the lights go out.
Herb Mueller, co-owner of Black Forest Pastry Shop in Greenwich, said he did not know whether to feel lucky or not. The shop lost power for 24 hours in the major storm three weeks ago. He said his store”™s advantage was the brief outage time and the fact he has been through it before.
“We”™ve lost power quite a bit in the last 15 years,” said Mueller.
Mueller said the usual outages are the ones that last about eight hours in the summer. “It is definitely something we”™ve had to deal with,” he said.
Mueller said it was an early lesson the pastry shop learned that caused them to buy a freezer that goes to below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. A freezer like that gives perishable stock a chance of 24 to 36 hours rather than six hours with the 10-below freezers.
“If there is a power outage it buys us some time,” said Mueller. “That is a huge savior.”
Mueller said the business has four freezers in addition to the sub-twenty one.
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“You”™ve got to work fast and put it all in that one freezer,” said Mueller. “Everything is time-based, hours count.”
Despite having planned for such events Black Forest did lose some stock.
“We”™re going through that right now,” said Mueller. “We”™re deciding do we call the insurance company and call in a claim, or is it not worth it and do we suck it up.”
Mueller said if he had to say right now, the company would absorb cost; that the hassle and cost wouldn”™t be worth it.
“If we lost everything in the freezer, then absolutely we”™d have to file a claim,” said Mueller. “If we had maybe another 12 hours without power we would have lost every part of our product. If you lose raw ingredients and inventory, that runs into the thousands dollars. All in all we”™re lucky. My house didn”™t have power for six days. That would have been really brutal.”
Though in other parts of Fairfield County that story was not all-that uncommon.
Many places in Westport and Darien, where power was out for days, were forced to rebuild their entire stocks. Rick Dickinson the owner of Great Cakes threw out thousands of dollars in stock.
Dickson, a longtime established business in Westport, was able to rebuild his stock. Mueller said those who fail to plan can be left feeling as fragile as their stock.
On Greenwich Avenue, Amar Haouari, manager at Le Pain Quotidien, the Alain Coumont-founded bakery chain, resounded the phrase “planning is the key.” Though the store did not lose power, Haouari said it would have been prepared had the lights gone dark.
“You have to have something to do,” said Haouari. “If we are going to lose our product, we have planned to give it away to groups like Kitchen Crisis and local churches.”
Haouari said that is simply a good business practice, especially today when a Dumpster full of bread brings a wasteful stigma, one that you don”™t want attached to your business.
“You need to set that kind of relationship up,” said Haouari.
Haouari said being able to hold for a day is important, and knowing pragmatically what”™s coming in and what you have is a very important part of operating a business with perishable items.
“We plan ahead,” said Haouari. “Even simply watching the weather is important.”
