I recently had to be in Owensboro, KY and Bloomington, IN for completely unrelated reasons. I decided to combine the two into one trip and drive, since flying out of my home airport is pretty schedule-challenged. The only way to do it in my time frame left me close to the Owensboro with some extra time the day before I had to be there. Voila! I realized that Lexington was just the right spot to spend the extra time productively. What a great chance for me to get into a couple of our iconic stores that I haven’t been into in years. And just like that, it became a three store journey. Off I went.
First Lexington. This is one of our oldest and most recognizable stores. I walked in and was blown away. The store looked first-rate. As good as any we have, and classically old school. The service was excellent and the product was better. I spent some time with the owner and had a good talk about the industry and the challenges of running a small food business in today’s marketplace. Great store. Great visit. Great way for me to reconnect with a market that has been very good to us over the years.
As a side note, the owners of the Lexington bakeries are currently looking to sell for personal reasons. Get more information about the opportunity here. (Want to know more about the advantages of buying an existing bakery location? Read more here).
Then it was off to Owensboro. For some reason, I have always been fascinated by that town. The only explanation I can come up with is that the starting point guard on my college basketball team (who later became the team’s head coach) was from there and I had never heard of Owensboro before he walked onto the court for the first time. It’s funny how random bits of information just stick with you. 
The Owensboro bakery is an example of all things that make Great Harvest special. It starts with the owners, but excellence filters throughout the entire operation. The service is great. Pleasant. Happy. Fast. Fun. Those are all of the things I hope for in Great Harvest. And then there is the product. Where do I start? First, taste. That is always the most important thing when making and selling food. Sure, we are proud of how healthy our products— but if they don’t taste great, health is irrelevant. No one will eat them. (Learn more about our real food with really great taste here).
Then there is variety. This store absolutely gets the interrelationships of different dayparts, the time periods that correspond to different menu items such as breakfast, lunch and dinner. They get that our bread makes the outside of the sandwich as good as the inside. They understand that by making sandwiches with outside-of-the-box combinations like grilled cranberry orange bread with chicken salad— I was skeptical, but it is amazing — they not only sell sandwiches but also entice customers to buy a bread they might otherwise not think of. They understand that while basic turkey remains the number one seller in America for sandwiches, you can’t survive by selling turkey alone if you want to stay in business perpetually.
Dessert? Want a little goodie after your meal? Stop by the breadboard for a sample of a cookie or other treat. In one meal experience it is easy to taste — and buy — all of our major dayparts: lunch, bread and goodies. All because of the way their service and menu are so integrated.
Speaking of service, I was there for about two hours during the lunch rush. They turned their 40 seat dining area over more than three times. And I never saw anyone wait too long for their sandwich.
We are very proud of all of our stores and I am not excluding any of them by singing the praises of these two. I just happened to be in these stores recently and got to see firsthand, up close and personal, how good these Great Harvest franchises are. They really do offer excellence in every sense of the word.
Then it was off to the wonderful, off-the-beaten-path town of Bloomington. It is always fun to be there! Another story for another day…
Happy holidays.
Interested in The Bread Business?
If you are already a bakery owner, be sure to read these posts for some fresh ideas to boost your performance:
- Applying the Culinary Concept of Mise en Place to Business & Life
- Using Bread Consumption Trends to Bring Bread to the Masses
- Why Local Retail Business Owners Need to Understand the Slow Movement
