Let the melting season begin!

Over the last few years my summer orders have increased....and so have my anxiety induced headaches.

I cannot tell you how many times I ship a box with ice packs and just cross my fingers. Luckily a customer has never received a box of melted pretzels, that I know of anyway.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean things haven't gone horribly wrong. Back when I used the printed labels on the bags, they would get wet from ice pack condensation and either slide off the package or the ink would run, rendering them unreadable. This seemed to always happen with one particular client of mine, Everything Indiana. I am so thankful that she's is the most awesome person ever, because she would just have me ship her more labels. But still, not the most professional occurrence.

Then, there was once when I shipped a box to a candy blogger in LA. This was in December. I did not even put an ice pack in because it was freezing here, but guess what? She described them as "pretzel soup." (note to self, LA can be hot even when we are cold) Again, luckily this wasn't an actual paying customer, but still, not the best impression to leave on someone you are really hoping will review your product.

So, Tuesday was a big shipping day for me. I had 110 pretzels to ship to Everything Indiana again. I was so worried if they would melt, because these were for a big client of hers, with no time to spare. I took extra care to place very large ice packs in them, and place several sheets of butcher block paper in between and bubble wrap to prevent any condensation damage (i learned that lesson quickly!) So, when I got the email from her that they hadn't melted I was so relieved...followed quickly by "Oh Crap!" as I read the rest of her email informing me that BOTH ice packs leaked their entire contents, and that once again I needed to send her some hang tags.

How the box didn't completely disintegrate before it got to her I have no idea. I guess the pretzel gods were out that day, but what a headache for her! Now she has to re-tie several (luckily not all!) of the pretzels.

I also shipped a package to Salt Lake City, UT that day. This time to a different kind of blogger. The woman behind the famous blog "Dooce" is signing her book for those who wish to send it to her, so I mailed my copy of her book "Things I learned about my dad...in therapy" along with a small gift box of pretzels as a thank you for the signing. I put an ice pack in and said "Good luck little buddy". I may never know how those turned out, but I suppose if her dog Chuck shows up on the site with melted chocolate pretzel pieces on his nose, I'll have a bit of a clue.

These things must be learned and I am ridiculously lucky to have learned them the easy way. To have mailed a giant box to a new customer, or to a large wholesale company or someone who doesn't take the time to understand that I'm a small company, would have meant bad impressions and probably no further orders from them.

But, the great people I have working with me now understand that I'm a work in progress, and so is DipSticks. They help out when they can, and supply me with great feedback about how to package things without breakage. (thanks to my client Two Cookin' Sisters, I've learned that 8" pretzels take a bit more cushion when shipping, cold weather or hot, and they gave me lots of packing tips that I use all the time).

However, shipping in 90 degree weather is no picnic no matter how prepared you think you are, especially when shipping to the West Coast. But even shipping within Indiana is risky.

It's not bad enough to wish cold temps all year long though...that's just crazy talk.