SALEM — With colder days approaching, things aren’t getting any easier for local restaurants and cafes in the area.
A&J King Artisan Bakers, a pair of bakeries on Central Street and Boston Street that make baked goods from fresh locally grown grain, found themselves at a standstill earlier this year. Even after reopening this summer, things have still been less than ideal for owners Andy King, his wife Jackie and their staff.
“We’re both a cafe and we sell wholesale to a lot of local restaurants and stores,” Andy said. “A lot of the places we do business with are hurting right now, too. Even though we’re a manufacturer, it’s really how the cafe goes is how we go.”
The cafe has turned to several options over the past year to keep things running as smoothly as possible, including partnering with the Salem Pantry and other community programs. Now King has turned to totally unfamiliar territory to help keep their employees and themselves afloat — T-shirts.
“It’s nothing crazy,” King said. “It’s something we’re doing to help the business and build funds for our employees.”
Andy got the idea after looking at some of his own wardrobe, filled with shirts and gear with the logos of other local businesses. Making the gear possible is Bonfire, an online retailer that handles shipping and order fulfillments. All that A&J had to do was design the shirts and they decided to use a phrase they’ve heard thousands of times as a banner across the front: “Bread and butter is our bread and butter.”
“I was actually contacted (by Bonfire),” King said. “They make it possible by doing the fulfillment, which is the hardest part.”
Once the designs were in, King posted the link to buy shirts on A&J’s Facebook page, and while it’s only a 21-day fundraiser that ends in a few weeks, the response is better than he thought it would be.
“It has been going pretty well so far,” King said. “We have orders in for around 100 different T-shirts and hoodies.”
It may not seem like much, but it’s a chance to connect with a community A&J’s is hoping to continue to be a part of as the pandemic drags along.
“The support has been great,” King said. “People are developing routines a little more around the pandemic as they feel more comfortable. If you can get into someone’s routines you have a thing that’s really valuable. We got through the summer good, and now school starts and as someone with two kids myself, your routines get turned off when they go back to school.
“Fall is always a little bit of a slower time for us,” King said. “That’s why we ran this. It’s just a quick way, less than five minutes to help support us. Hopefully we can keep things like this going.”
