Upper Crust

The work on the ‘Waddle Through’ - at least that is what Cookie had started calling it after they had finalised plans and the work was progressing, albeit a bit more slowly than her and Pinny had hoped.

It turns out the perfect spot for placing the hole in the wall wasn’t so perfect after all. The construction ponies had looked at it for a good thirty minutes before telling them the news.

“Well...it’s an exterior wall, so it’s a load bearing one.” the most senior of them had said. How big exactly does this hole need to be? If it’s bigger than your front door I’m afraid I wouldn’t even know where to begin.” he said, looking at the solid brick wall in front of him a little more and then turning back to face Cookie and Pinny.

“Well, we were hoping it could be roughly as wide. We did do some very rough measurements to what we’d like and um, I’ve drawn a small sketch.” Cookie said, putting it to the stallion.

“I see, what is it a bakery needs with an access hatch anyway?” he asked, mulling over the measurements and getting a small pencil out from his jacket to adjust Cookie’s sketch slightly.

“Well...some of our customers are quite er, large. So large they struggle to get through the front door. We’re hoping to put this in to make it easier for them to pick up orders.” Cookie explained.

“I see, well…” The senior construction stallion said, passing the paper sketch back to Cookie and pointing out a change he had made. “It can be done, if we just slightly reduce the size and above it will have to be propped up with a steel girder but it should hold the weight no problem. Can you live with that?” he asked. “It will add some cost but like I say, it’s doable.”

They desperately needed the big customers to keep coming, so the two had agreed to the quoted price. It was a few thousand bits more than they were hoping to spend but they had to have it if the bakery was going to keep selling to their biggest clients and not turn them off wanting to buy their goods. The special sugar was good, but even big ponies were fussy enough that if they were going to be inconvenienced and have to wait longer for orders, they’d go elsewhere.

Once they had settled up and got planning permission from the city to make the change to the building, they had then put up some adverts in the local papers looking for somepony who could take on the job. They had decided to run the ad as follows:

WANTED.
Enthusiastic mare or stallion with experience in the service industry for an exciting new serving opportunity! Join a small team of dedicated staff at one of Manehattan’s up and coming bakeries. Five days per week, minimum wage. Please visit Upper Crust Bakery to discuss an interview.

The bakery’s location was then listed underneath. The two had decided to keep it short and sweet, running adverts was more expense. They had even put a small sign in the window which had gotten a few comments from their regulars as well. Clipsy was the only one not to ask because Cookie had already explained what they were doing.

Within a week, they had narrowed it down to three candidates they wanted to interview and were mulling over the Resume's they had dropped in one late night after work.

“So let's see then, we have two mares and a stallion. All under thirty. All with various experience. Let’s start with the first one shall we?” Pinny said, picking up the first resume from the small stack.

“So a mare, aged twenty seven. Name of High Heel. Previously worked in the fashion industry and decided it wasn’t for her. Mainly working in horse shoe stores. Go figure.” Pinny read, making the more than obvious name connection. “Has plenty of customer service history serving customers with clothes but none working in the food industry. Has great references and holds jobs she has for years at a time. I think the only thing going against her is just the lack of experience working in any sort of business like ours.”

“Mmmm, she’s a candidate for sure. She’s the one that came in whilst you were busy with some of the customers. She was in a bit of a hurry because she said she had some other places to drop her resume off at around the city. If we don’t decide to hire her, I think she’d get another job elsewhere. She was quite chirpy though, said she wanted to at least drop it off and that it didn’t hurt to try.” Cookie explained to Pinny, who was already looking at the next candidate.

“Okay, well this is number two. The stallion, young one too. Only twenty two. Called Rising Dough. Has always worked with food, family has a business also selling breads from a bakery in another part of town. Would have liked to have taken it over but they have decided to sell up in their old age and feel he’s too young to take it on. Just wants to work in a bakery, in any capacity.” Pinny explained. “Do you remember him? He was a little overbearing when he dropped it in, but very complimentary about our business. I think perhaps though he just wanted to really try to put across how much he wanted the job. He seems to be the opposite of High Heel. Little customer service experience but has worked in a bakery since he was very young and he’s still very young. I think maybe he can be taught.”

“Do we want the stress of having to teach him though? I was hoping we could get a pony who had both qualities.” Cookie frowned, watching as Pinny picked up the last resume.

“Unfortunately dear it seems none of the applicants we whittled it down to had everything we wanted, we’re going to have to do some level of training to one of them. I mean the rest were even worse.” Pinny said looking over the form in front of him.

“Wasn’t there one who seemed to think they were going to be some sort of taste tester?” she asked.

“Oh yes, that one I tossed a while ago…” Pinny laughed. He started reading from the final form.

“Applicant number three. The other mare. Twenty five. Called Wheat Flower.” he paused for a moment. “Wheat Flower?”

“Yes, like flour?” Cookie asked.

“No, look at the spelling. Flower, like the plant. F-L-O-W-E-R. Perhaps her parents thought it would be clever?” he looked a bit puzzled.

“I mean I’d have thought F-L-O-U-R would have been the spelling...oh well.” Cookie said.

“Mmm, in any case. The problem with this one is that she can’t seem to hold down a job. Has always worked with food and has an extensive history of jobs, but none seem to last more than six months. In fact the list of jobs seems to be the majority of her resume and not all the references are favourable.” Pinny continued. “But I remember her explaining when she came by that it was because she just felt she hadn’t worked for the right people yet or found the right place. Whatever the case, I think she might be trouble. I don’t like the spotty job history or some of the references.”

“Well, maybe that’s a long case of bad luck. Something we can clarify at an interview.” Cookie said. “Apart from her maybe being a bit of an issue she has great experience from the huge variety of work she’s done so maybe that might actually work in her favour.”

“Maybe. I mean do you see any reason not to ask all of them in for an interview over the next week or two?” Pinny asked.

“Not really. I think tomorrow we should get back to all of them and let them know. By the end of the process, we’ll know who we want.” Cookie replied.

So the three ponies were notified and interview dates were set. By the end of the process of seeing all of them, Cookie and Pinny knew who they wanted to hire. Each one had actually been very good, but there was one of them that was really outstanding. They’d be perfect to serve customers at the Waddle Through and perhaps be able to do a little more around the bakery too. A little less pressure on Pinny and Cookie would be wonderful.