A note from the founder :)
I don’t really view myself as navigationally-challenged but, when I think about it these days, I can’t fathom how I ever made a single road trip without a GPS (although I did, and countless times too!) But over the years I’ll admit I’ve developed a slavish dependence on the monotone guidance of my “GPS lady” telling me where to turn, where to find nearest gas station or bathroom, and how many miles left to go. I don’t even hold it against her too much when she routes me off course on some needless circular detour; sooner or later she always gets me where I need to go.
Pinwheel Provisions has been my most complex “journey” to date. Recognizing that we all struggle to feed ourselves and our households healthy, delicious, quality meals, my mission in launching the company was to provide better options for easy meals that met high standards for nutrition, taste, and variety through convenient, flexible and low-waste meal options. In my efforts to turn this mission into a business concept, I often wished I had a GPS system I could plug in to steer my course. In the absence of that, I spent 3 years carefully and methodically mapping out a path for the development, launch and growth of this business. Our initial concept testing signaled that we were on the right track: our customer response in Narberth was more enthusiastic than we could have ever hoped for. We were on our way. Until… thunk, thunk, thunk, the pandemic hit us with the vehicular equivalent of a 4-tire blow out…
Experienced entrepreneurs would say that unexpected roadblocks and potholes are the norm in launching a business. But I think most would agree that Covid19 was a true outlier amongst disruptors: an all-encompassing, totally uncharted force of nature from which almost no one was spared. And as a business that was literally on its 3rd week of operation when the PA shutdown was declared, whatever bit of orientation our little staff at Pinwheel Provisions had was all cast to the winds…
Like many businesses large and small, the pandemic forced us to reconfigure our little shop, where we so enjoyed serving and interacting with customers, into an online operation where minimizing contact had to be the objective. We are grateful that adopting this new model meant we could continue to operate and that so many of you told us how valuable it was to you to have quality, easy meal options that you could access safely in the COVID conditions. So although it’s not our ideal mode of operating, we have continued online ordering with curbside pickup and home delivery as the best option for the moment.
Having taken a few weeks off to take a breather and figure out when and how to reopen our shop up again to in-store sales, we have come to realize that we don’t know the right answer; that there may not be a “right answer.” For the time being, we’ll resume online sales with pickup and delivery with the hopes that we’ll arrive at a point soon where having in-store shopping again will not pose a risk to our staff and customers. We can’t wait for the day when we have customers coming back into the shop, containers in hand, ready to fill up with “just what they need!”
In this process, we’ve come to accept that there is no guidance system out there astute enough to direct our path as a business. So now we look to you, our valued customers, to be our guideposts; let us know when we’re on track and when we may need to change course a bit. We love hearing your feedback on our social media, when you stop by to make pickups, etc., but we also encourage you to reach out to us with suggestions and input at info@pinwheelprovisions.com. We take your comments seriously. Thanks for your amazing support of our business and we look forward to resuming the journey together, whatever that path may look like!