Your Product Is Too Limited in its Audience for Us
- Patrick McConville
- Mar 20
- 2 min read
"Thank you for your interest...Your product is too limited in its audience for us."
That's the response I received earlier this week from one of my favorite local cookware shops here on eastern Long Island. I was crushed! And yet I've heard the same from several other local retailers. I had so many feelings simultaneously: How are these cookie cutters any more "limited" than others? How is a cookie cutter construction set more limited than the other specialty baking and cooking tools sold at these outlets? Don't bakers want new things to try? New recipes? New ways to entertain? If you won't look at samples, do you even truly know what the product is?
In my quest to reinvent the way we bake, decorate, and entertain with cookies, I have found myself extremely frustrated. I imagined that once I had full-fledged products and an online presence, I would reach out to my favorite local stores and farms, and at least some of them would take an interest. Not the case. I thought if you could show shop owners a new way to make dessert, to entertain guests, or to celebrate holidays, they'd jump at the chance to put my creations on their shelves. Not so. I thought that small, local family businesses might be willing to give a chance to a new, small, local Hamptons-based business. Nope.
My initial reaction was to doubt myself. Maybe I wasn't onto something after all. Maybe cookies were just cookies, and people didn't really care about a new approach to them. Maybe this was all frivolous and silly, and I should focus on more promising endeavors. Maybe I was embarrassing myself. I had a punch-to-the-gut feeling that I had wasted, and was wasting, a ton of time on this project.
But then I started thinking about what I'd bring to an upcoming dinner party, hosted by new acquaintances. Definitely a chocolate chip Cottage 1 cookie house. And I set to work planning it, and immediately felt happy again. Imagining their reactions, how they might serve it, the conversations it might inspire...I couldn't wait to start baking. And that's how I know there's something special here.
I had promised myself I'd post to the blog every Wednesday without fail, but yesterday I just couldn't bring myself to write. It seemed like a waste of time, and like more of a personal journal than something anyone else had any interest in reading. And maybe that's true. But I'm going to write anyway. And hope that it brings me clarity, peace, and renewed focus. And maybe, just maybe - someone out there actually is reading it!
My new mission is to figure out how to get others to see what I can see. How can I excite them? How can I demonstrate the potential of what I'm building? How can I give them a window into my imagination? That's what I'll be working on for now. And if you have any ideas - I'd love to hear them!
Frustrated but unfazed,
Patrick
Patrick, please don't be fazed by the current lack of interest in your local retail stores. Gingerbread cookie sets are sold online and in those same stores. (I googled it recently) The cookie houses will catch on! I see your vision and it has been so much fun to bake, build and serve your cookie houses. My guests love them! It's a much more fun way to serve and eat cookies! And your recipes are unique and delicious. Keep going! I'm going to keep serving your cookie houses for my special guests too.