Bakers Dozen(s)

Right now the Spring Fair is going on, which means instead of 17 days of crowds, weirdos, and lovely burger aromas wafting around town, we only get 4.

And the owner of the scone trailers at The Fair made a deal with those of us in the Valley Arts Society: we could staff one of his trailers from 4-closing every night during the Spring Fair, and he would donate $0.15 per scone sold during our time!

I've always wanted to work at the fair, but never have been able to. I remember Rebecca telling me about working scones, and how the dough made her hands feel. Since that time I've always wanted to work in the scone booth! I mean, the product sells itself; the scones are marvelous. So yesterday at 4 pm, I showed up at the designated trailer and got to work! But not in the dough. And not baking. And not even splitting, buttering, jamming, or bagging the scones.

I got to be the cashier.

YES! Meeting thousands of strangers, taking their money, giving them their scones, talking them into buying MORE scones, introducing new soldiers at Fort Lewis to the wonders of the Fisher Fair Scones.... I had a fabulous time. We were busy the whole night. The baker had 5 trays in the oven going constantly (about 200 scones; the max that the oven could hold) - and we got rid of them as fast as we could make them.

The lines got longer. Many people wanted Bakers Dozens. And I don't blame them: with scones priced at $1/each, and a bakers dozen (meaning 13 scones) priced at $11- hey, it's a deal, especially when you're a teenager hanging out with a group of friends and you're all ravenous. It wasn't always teens, though--one woman in her mid 60's walked up and ordered 3 Dozens. She had to wait for a bit; the assembly line was backed up. Immediately behind her, a man ordered 2 Dozen. Eeep! I reassured them that their scones would be extremely fresh and hot; if they'd please just step to the right, I'd get them their scones ASAP. The customer behind him: another dozen! I was getting a little antsy that people might start to get irritated at the wait, but nobody seemed to mind at all. And in reality, their wait was only 1-2 minutes each.

I had some spending money in my purse to go out and grab a Smitty Burger and see the rest of the fair when I took a break, only that time never came. I was behind that register from 4:30 until 10! The lines died down at 9:35, but I was going to be ready: I got 7 bakers dozens prepped and in their bags, waiting for the onslaught of the fair workers that I suspected would come by on their way home from their shifts. My efforts were rewarded; however, it really wasn't an onslaught at all. Just one or two dozen.

Then the owner came by, closed the lid down, told us to wipe off the counters and sweep the crud out the door; let the morning crew deal with the details... but I do NOT like to operate that way. So I restocked the pop cooler, filled the napkin dispenser, got out more coffee cups and lids, restocked the bags of mix, and filled up the brown paper bag rack.

And funny enough, after we were closed, people STILL came by, asking if we had any scones left! We made an additional $6 after the till was empty and we were officially shut down.

OH. And all those bakers dozens I'd made up in advance? the owner told us to divvy them up and take them home with us.

I have 26 scones in ziplocs in my freezer!



--and I looked at the cash register report on the way out: we'd sold about $5400 worth of products. That wasn't *all* scones, but 98% of it surely was. About 5000 scones! WoW!