Pic courtesy of Greg Palermo at Creve Coeur Patch
We were saddened to see that, after 98 years of providing St. Louis with the finest kosher baked goods, Pratzel’s Bakery is closing its doors. Open since 1912, the bakery was most recently operated by Ronnie Pratzel, a third generation owner. Yesterday was its final day, and crowds lined up nearly out the door eager to buy up Pratzel’s final batch of European baked goods.
Consumers buying from their retail location inside Kohn’s Kosher Market will clearly be affected, but note that Pratzel’s had over 200 wholesale customers as well. There is no word on where these businesses will source their kosher baked goods, leaving many of them scrambling. Per George Mahe of St. Louis Magazine, the nearest 100% Kosher bakery is now in Chicago.
The closure has received media coverage from KSDK, St. Louis Magazine, the Creve Coeur Patch, STLToday, Deb Peterson of STLToday, KSDK again (great video here), The St. Louis Jewish Light, and Fox2Now. George Mahe was on point when he said,
“It’s a shame they survived the Great Depression but couldn’t survive this one.”
The Pratzels were unable to find a buyer, and at this point it appears St. Louis will be without a kosher bakery, unless……
Someone steps up and buys it. We are not sure if there are buyers waiting in the wings, or if we’ve truly seen the last of Pratzel’s. However, if there’s one way Falk Harrison can sweeten the pot, it’s with social media. Our offer is simple – we will provide a year’s worth of free social media services and photography to anyone that buys Pratzel’s Bakery.
Our Creative Director Steve Hartman offered up the idea, and we decided to go for it. Will this help? We’re not sure, but we have to find out. We’re ready to provide ten hours a month of social media consultation and services, along a whole bunch of other services (see below). For St. Louis’ sake, let’s hope a buyer can be found!
FULL DISCLOSURE: We’re former customers! Client meetings will not be the same without Pratzel’s baked goods……
UPDATE: We have TWENTY FOUR more local companies and individuals stepping forward to help!
1. Aaron Corson of NJC Printing has offered $1,000 in free printing services. Their only stipulation is they want one complimentary upside down cupcake. I am going out on a limb and saying Pratzel’s will oblige!
2. Matt Mathison of Avid Magazine has offered a full-page ad in their magazine. In fact, they are offering a full-page ad in ALL TEN magazines they publish this year! That is NUTS!
3. Gregg Goldman of Goldman Photo has offered free photography services. We had mentioned photography as part of our initial offer, with our own Steve Hartman handling the duties. Gregg will rock this work, if given the chance.
4. Greg Bussmann of Exec Business Products is throwing in an HP Inkjet printer ($189 value) and $100 in office supplies.
5. Meredith Elkin (@rockstarima on Twitter) of Stitch The Earth is offering to make retro-designed aprons for the entire staff. The aprons will be hand-crafted from organic hemp and cotton. To quote Meredith, “Hell, I’ll do anything just to have Pratzel’s back.”
6. Danny Hommes of Pixelography is offering free digital imaging services.
7. Holly Schopp of Reach Local will help the new owners claim all of their business listings on Google, Bing, Yahoo, City Search, etc. She will also volunteer to work with Falk Harrison and any other marketing firms that get involved to develop a creative strategy to mobilize the fans of Pratzel’s to contribute online reviews.
8. Allyson Mace of Sauce Magazine has stepped forward with a free ad in Sauce’s March 2011 issue. The ad will be a summary of all of the donated goods and services that you’re reading about in this blog post. This gives us a great chance to get in front of potential buyers with this incentive package. Thank you Allyson for supporting the St. Louis culinary community!
9. Ben Kaplan of Act3 has offered to take Pratzel’s through the Act3 Storytelling Process. The process will help clarify and frame the story that Pratzel’s needs to tell in order to grow and thrive, and the new owners will walk away with a Storyboard document that captures the Pratzel’s story. Falk Harrison, Reach Local, and Act3 will work together to map out a strategy for telling the story going forward. Thank you to Ben, Eric Ratinoff, and Shawn McGinness for pitching in!
10. Emily Kaufman Leong of Slice of Lime Design, a small design and stationary studio, is offering to donate new paper collateral, such business cards, coupons, and flyers. Emily says she grew up on Pratzel’s bagels, and can’t imagine St. Louis without them.
11. Kathy Rose, CEO of 501Connect, is offering a free one-year listing in the 501Connect Business Directory. The 501CONNECT Business Directory is a resource for area nonprofits looking for products and services. The Business Directory listing will build Pratzel’s brand awareness within the nonprofit sector and will provide opportunities for new business, including catering for industry and charity events hosted by nonprofit organizations.
12. Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt consultant Jason Stokes (@rencelas) is offering 30 hours of Process Improvement / Lean Consulting.
13. Media veteran Jill Gainer is offering to coordinate PR and media inquiries, and will assist with traditional media planning and placement.
14. Brian Cross of Elasticity has stepped forward with free PR support to get the word out, help with social media word of mouth (Facebook/Twitter etc.), and will work with Holly Schopp on an online search strategy.
15. Copywriter Brandon English has donated time to concept, craft, and write the next great marketing campaign for Pratzel’s. He will write about their upside down cupcakes in a way that makes them sound even better than they already are (if that’s even possible).
16. Brian Miller of SportSprint is offering 13 custom screenprinted t-shirts for the staff at Pratzel’s. These will go along nicely with the aprons that Meredith will be making. Brian is @Your_Shirt_Guy on Twitter.
17. Pier Alsup, SVP of American Eagle Credit Union is offering a free business checking account for a year, and will cover supplies (checks, deposit slips, etc) up to $250.
18. Zach Hoesly and Adam Sitton from Rolling Shutter Productions have offered to shoot and edit a documentary video. The link here is to a YouTube video showing what they’re capable of producing. Very cool!
19. David O’Leary and Eric Berger of Efficion Consulting is going to build a new website for Pratzel’s, and will host it for free for the first year.
20. Mike Jesse of Phase 1 Communications will assist on the website, as required, implementing a CMS into the design.
21. Todd Jordan (@Tojosan on Twitter) has offered to throw a tweetup kickoff event for the new buyers. Todd is good at throwing such gatherings!
22. Justin Leshynski, Vice President of Davanti Digital Media, is offering 5 hours a month of graphic design work to assist with our branding, PR, website, and social media efforts. Justin is not even from St. Louis! Davanti is located near New York City. I asked Justin why he was compelled to get involved, and he wrote back with a lengthy email. He stated that all big businesses were once small businesses, and he hates to see small businesses that are unable to afford such marketing services. Davanti also specializes in social media, and we may lean on them for assistance in this area, as well. Thank you Justin for stepping up!
23. McGraw Milhaven, host of The McGraw Show on The Big 550 KTRS, has offered a free 30-second radio spot. We can use it now to promote the fact that the company is for sale, or we can use it as an advertisement after new ownership is in place (decision forthcoming). Thank you McGraw!
24. Heather Stanley of Magnus Accounting Solutions has stepped forward with six months of bookkeeping. Heather and I used to work together, so I can vouch for the fact that she’s a smart cookie! (And a better CPA than I ever was).
All we need is a buyer!
Who else wants to make this new-buyer-package offer over-the-top? Reach out to me at creimer@falkharrison.com and let me know!
MEDIA COVERAGE
• Follow the action on Twitter by searching hashtag #SavePratzels, and by searching the terms “Pratzel’s” and “Pratzels.”
• Thank you Deb Peterson for writing about our efforts!
• Thank you Allyson Mace and everyone at Sauce Magazine for contributing to the effort and for the kind write-up on the Sauce Blog!
• Cheers to Saint Louis Egotist and AdSaint for helping get the word out.
• #SavePratzels partner Elasticity has blogged about it. Aaron, we need free mustaches!
• Thank you Robin Wheeler for the awesome RFT article, including quotes from some of our #SavePratzels partners!
• Here’s a link to my appearance on the Mason and Remy radio show on 93.7 The Bull.
• Thanks to Ariana Tobin at The St. Louis Beacon for interviewing me last Friday. She asked some really insightful questions, and I think it shows up nicely in her article.
• One of our #SavePratzels partners Holly Schopp wrote about her reasons for getting involved.
UPDATE 2:
Speaking of a buyer, an intrepid Twitter user called Pratzel’s, and someone answered the phone. All inquiries can be directed to Pratzel’s by calling 314.993.5511. Tell them Falk Harrison sent you!
There was a problem connecting to Twitter.
Finally, someone emailed me a very interesting question. “Do you know if Pratzel’s wants to be saved?” That’s a great question; I do not know. In reading the news coverage, I gleaned the fact that an buyer was unable to be found. Our goal with this effort is to attract enough attention to Pratzel’s and its shutdown that an owner will be smoked out, so to speak. I have not yet spoken with the Pratzel family. At this point, we are attempting to draw attention to the matter, and then we’ll see what happens.
SUPERIMPORTANT UPDATE! I have spoken with Ronnie Pratzel, owner of Pratzel’s. (Thank you for calling me!) We had an extremely nice conversation about their last few days in business (where they couldn’t bake enough to satisfy demand), their legacy, a potential sale, and their gratitude to St. Louis. To summarize:
• Mr. Pratzel wanted to be sure that the St. Louis community knew how thankful his family is for the massive outpouring of support, both in the days leading up to closing, and in the days since. Once they had announced the final date of operation, he and his wife were taken aback by the long lines full of nostalgic customers. They were truly touched by the messages of thanks from their long-time patrons, and the emotional goodbyes.
• He did not tell us to stop this online campaign, which was a good sign!
• They want the bakery to live on. “We have old family recipes, and we realize that matters,” he told me.
• They are currently speaking with an interested buyer that he thinks could successfully run the operation, and they have other suitors as well. So the operation is truly for sale. If you’re interested, contact them and start a conversation.
3/1/11 UPDATE: Here’s a copy of the ad in Sauce Magazine, created by our Creative Director Steve Hartman (@Creativille)
A few videos worth watching:
Thanks to @Weatherbird for bringing this video to my attention!
[...] Disheartened by the news of Pratzels closing, Steve Hartman, Creative Director @ Falk Harrison, has started an agency crusade to keep the company alive. Check out his blog entry below (or go to the real thing here): [...]
[...] Chris Reimer, vice president of social media at Falk Harrison brand development firm, started the campaign to resurrect the city’s only kosher bakery by offering a new buyer free social media services for one year. It wasn’t long before other former Pratzel’s customers and a bevy of local businesses – including Sauce – joined in. Aaron Corson of NJC Printing is offering $1,000 in printing services, Emily Kaufman Leone of Slice of Lime Design is offering up business cards, coupons and flyers and Meredith Elkin is offering to make retro-designed aprons for the entire Pratzel’s staff. Allyson Mace, publisher and founder of Sauce, has also stepped forward to help. In hopes of finding a buyer for the local spot, she is placing a free ad in the March 2011 issue of Sauce that will include all of the goods and services donated in this grassroots campaign. These are just some of the many steps community members have taken in a concerted effort to find a buyer for the legendary bakery. For a complete list of these amazing efforts (which seems to be growing faster than the snow can fall) visit Reimer’s blog. [...]
[...] over to the Falk Harrison blog to read about our efforts to find a new owner for 98-year-old Pratzel’s [...]
[...] fine folks over at Falk Harrison don’t even want to imagine a brainstorming session without Pratzel’s (can’t [...]
[...] Skipping to the good stuff here. I’m including Mason, Remy, Chris, and myself on the two radio segments. One focused on the 100k tweet, and one on Chris’ effort to support Pratzel’s. [...]
[...] As part of our #SavePratzels campaign, I appeared on the Mason and Remy show on 93.7 The Bull. As I’ve been saying, all we [...]