First and foremost, this update is long overdue and I sincerely apologize for that. Secondly, we are not going out of business and will be baking just as much (if not more) in 2010! As stated in our last update, we had to unexpectedly close The Baker’s Dog retail store. We spent a lot of time looking for a new location. We even went so far as to begin negotiations with a local shopping center. But it felt like we were rushing into things just to get the store re-opened. So we’ve decided it is best for our customers, our business, and our personal lives to take a step away from managing a full time retail location for the time being.

As of this week, Bone Appetit is completely closed. We’ve kept all of the baking equipment and inventory. We’re going to keep baking and filling online orders while we catch our breath and plan our next steps. Our primary goal is to make the most of our website. We will be adding a more complete selection of treats and unique toys to the online store. We’ve found that our custom photo packaging has really caught on in the past year and want to continue promoting that. We’ve also had the desire to work on our recipes and create new bestseller treats. The stress and distraction of managing a 7-day-per-week retail store has kept us from doing these things until now.

Over the years, we have cultivated a strong regular customer base both online and at the stores. The support we’ve received from everyone has been nothing short of inspiring. Our biggest regret is our local customers won’t have a place to bring their dog and pick up their treats. We are actively pursuing options to sell locally. Some ideas include setting up at the local farmer’s market and partnering with other local pet friendly stores. In the meantime, please give a look at ordering online- our shipping prices are very reasonable!

Pursuing our goals simply would not be possible without the incredible support of our customers. For that, we can’t thank you enough!

Josie, The REAL Baker's Dog, is turning 1 year old!

Josie is about to have her very first birthday! We asked her what we should do to celebrate and she said we should give all of her pet pals a gift. We tried to explain that she was the one that was supposed to receieve birthday presents and giving stuff away isn’t the best business strategy, but she insisted we do this. Ooooo-kay….

All orders placed on February 9th will receive a free toy from Charming Pet Products ($8.99 value). Orders over $50 will receive a large Mutt Puppet ($13.99 value) instead!*

Everyone has been asking us what we’re up to and what’s going on for 2010… I promise that update is coming very soon!

* – If we run out of those particular items, we reserve the right to substitute for similar items while supplies last.

We’ll be closing The Baker’s Dog at some point in December. But do not panic, we’ll be re-opening in Barefoot Landing just 6 miles North sometime in January. We’re just beginning negotiations with the Barefoot Landing folks, so it remains to be seen if we’ll take over the current Bone Appetit location or finding a slightly larger space. Online customers will experience absolutely no disruption in service.

Co-owner, Tracy Johnson, founded The Bone Appetit Bakery at Barefoot Landing over 10 years ago. Last year, we took all of that treat baking experience and reinvented it as The Baker’s Dog. We found a nice, big location where we could set our own hours, experiment with new ideas, and dogs could come in to visit us. The original plan was to eventually close Bone Appetit in 2010. Given the economy and time of year we opened The Baker’s Dog, the store has held it’s own.  But chronic issues with The Baker’s Dog building has forced us to flip that plan around. It was a bit of a quick decision but we feel comfortable that it is the correct one. And yes…

Dogs will be welcome at the new location!

We’ve been thrilled to meet new customers and overwhelmed by the positive support. We hope they’ll make the short drive up to our new store wherever that may be!

Josie and I decided to check out the new Barc Parc that opened this week. Lots of folks have been making the drive down to the original Barc Parc at Market Common since it opened a couple years ago. But not everyone is crazy about the drive in Summer traffic and we’ve been sorely needing something on the North end for quite some time. The 62nd Ave Barc Parc is right beside the snazzy new YMCA (that also opened this week). The park is divided into a small and big dog section. We only had time to explore the small dog side of the park today. But Josie really wanted to play with the big doggies! From what I could tell, this park does not have a water feature like the Market Common Barc Parc has. There was probably around 50 people there at 11am today.

The best part? It’s only a couple minutes from us! I snapped some photos so you can see what it’s all about (click images for larger versions)…

The Barc Parc in the corner of the YMCA Parking Lot

The entrance to the park has a staging area before you go into the big or small dog sections.

The big dog area also has a second entrance/exit

You have to be below a certain height to enter the small dog area. Small dogs can go into the big dog area!

Just after entering the small dog area, you can walk down the sidewalk towards the wooded area.

Whoa! Easy now party animals. Check out the doggie water fountain!

This view is from the back of the small dog area. There are benches, litter bags and trash cans everywhere.

The wooded area is on the small dog side of the park.

The big dogs and small dogs can still socialize in the shade!

Look how close it is to The Baker's Dog!

Our “Vick” on a Stick got a mention on the local FOX affiliate:

It’s about time the local media started paying some attention to us!

Josie is ready for football! Go Cornhuskers!

We’ve had a great first Summer and we’re just really in awe of everyone’s positive comments and support. Now that school is back in session, it’s time for us to get cracking on all those “round tuits” we’ve been talking about. To start, we’ve got several new things going on:

• New business hours. For now, it’s 12pm-7pm during the week and 10am-6pm on Saturdays. That’s seriously cramping our college football lifestyle, so those hours are subject to change.

• New products. We’ve added new items to our online and retail store. We’re also planning on reworking some of our recipes in the coming weeks.

• New promotions. We’re sponsoring several events and contests. Check out the online photo contest at CarolinaLive.com and we’ll also have some items at the Beach Bound Hounds event this month!

• New labels. We’re ready to rotate out our current photos for more Fall and Winter themed shots. Be sure to check the box to allow us to use your custom photo labels.

• New site features. I’ve been wanting to do more of these. But to start, we’ve added the ability to easily re-order items you have ordered in the past:

There’s lot of other exciting product ideas and partnerships we have in development. So be sure to subscribe to our email list or become our Facebook fan to stay on top of the latest news.

We announced a new product yesterday (our Facebook fans and Twitter followers got to hear about it first!) and it has been very well received. We’re trying to err on the side of legal caution with any specifics, but I think most of you can sort things out on your own. This is a great example of our unique in-house packaging and manufacturing capabilities. We conceived the idea on the weekend and had a ready to purchase product by Tuesday! We’re planning on leveraging this ability more in the future with new and entertaining products. Got an idea? Let us know!

Josie turned 6 months old on Sunday and she has really captured everyone’s heart. We have customers come in the store just to see her. I get phone calls about her picture in our ads. All of our Twitter and Facebook friends seem to swoon when we posted pictures. Some folks online didn’t even think Josie could be a real dog! So we’ve decided to publish our latest video of nothing but Josie footage from the time we got her until now…

We love you Josie!

This is @trinalina's puppy!

Most business like ours don’t have to deal with such a seasonal surge of visitors like we have here in Myrtle Beach. We knew that our “Winter” hours of 10am-7pm were OK for local folks stopping by on their lunch break and after work. But it was also the exact times that tourists are doing fun things like laying on the beach and eating dinner. As such, we decided to change our hours this week: Monday-Friday we’ll be open 12pm to 9pm and on the weekends we’ll open at 10am and close around 2pm. It was surprising to me that Saturdays are incredibly slow. But if things are hoppin’, we’ll stay open later. So far, it looks like the new hours are working out great! If we can afford to hire more staff, we’ll be able to expand our hours to accommodate everyone’s needs.

Now on to the other stuff…

Email subscribers: Could you do us a favor? If you subscribed any time before June 2009, please unsubscribe and then  re-subscribe at the bottom of the main page. I know it seems weird, but it’s a technical issue beyond our control.

Podcast subscribers: There’s a new feed URL you need to subscribe to: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TheBakersDogPodcast. I haven’t been able to get the iTunes Store link to update to the new feed yet.

Finally, I was on Twitter and asked for some photos to put in this post. You can click each photo to go to their Twitter profile:

@johnattebury

@digimom1

@pupcakespetbout is a wholesale customer of ours in Columbia, SC!

@vegasrockdog

@agilespots

@jadeheart

@mssophiebelle

If you’re on Twitter, follow these guys!

We tried telling you how social we were before. Well, I guess we’ve been so social that we were chosen to be interviewed as a part of an article in the Weekly Surge about Grand Strand folks on Twitter!

I’m really pleased with the article. It was incredibly well covered and my friend Roger Yale really sifted through my ramblings and got exactly what I was trying to say distilled down to some complete and coherent sentences. Give it a read!