How do you get your product on TV?
You respond to opportunity quickly.
Whoopi Goldberg, one of the co-hosts of “The View,” a daytime talk show, recently said she couldn’t find a good gingerbread cookie, signaling that a taste test was coming.
The day the show aired, the show’s producers called bakeries around the nation, asking if they could whip up a dozen gingerbread cookies and ship them overnight.
One of the bakeries that the producers called was Wonderland Bakery in Newport Beach.
They asked for a dozen and “we said yes,” said Sondra Ames, who owns the bakery with her daughter, chef Allyson Ames.
Sondra Ames said it wasn’t easy getting the order done.
“This is our season to do huge corporate orders,” she said. The bakery was finishing up 5,000 cookie-tin gifts for Microsoft Corp., she said.
How did Wonderland get on the list as one of the bakeries to call?
Ames figures that Wonderland’s customers must’ve called the show to suggest the bakery.
On a follow-up show, Goldberg tasted gingerbread men from five bakeries. She chose Wonderland’s gingerbread man as the winner.
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Wonderland Bakery’s Allyson Ames: Whoopi Goldberg deemed the company’s gingerbread men the best |
Within the first hour of the airing of the show, Wonderland received 700 orders.
“We had a line out the door for gingerbreads. We have orders for 2,000 dozen right now,” she said.
The bakery had reached its gingerbread baking capacity, so it was taking orders and scheduling deliveries for the following week. Wonderland started getting back to normal after the holidays.
Since then, Goldberg herself has called the bakery several times ordering cookie tins with her corporate logo on them as gifts for family and friends.
While on the phone with Goldberg, Ames touted the bakery’s cupcakes and cookies.
“What we’re really famous for is our cupcakes and cookies,” Ames told Goldberg, who ended up ordering sugar cookies with less frosting.
Ames said celebrity endorsement is how Sprinkles cupcakes got on the map. Wonderland is hoping to follow in its footprints.
The call from The View wasn’t the first time Wonderland was beckoned to submit goodies. “Oprah Winfrey Show” producers called Wonderland in its early days of business, but the bakery didn’t have the ability to meet the demand, Ames said.
In other Wonderland news, Allyson Ames will be featured in a book by Chicken Soup for the Soul series author Mark Victor Hanson. The book is about young business people. Allyson Ames is in her early 20s.
Hit Both Ways
Many automobile dealers are seeing shrinking bottom lines, not only because of the lack of auto buyers, but also because auto manufacturers have slowed payments to dealers.
Payments by manufacturers to all creditors, including dealers, have slowed, said John Sackrison, executive director of the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association.
Typically, dealers get reimbursed within 14 days for things such as rebates, incentives and warranty work, he said.
“It’s now being drawn out longer and longer,” Sackrison said.
Detroit’s automakers are in a precarious position as they await loans from the federal government or private lenders. Dealer solvency depends on the survival of the manufacturers.
Sackrison was recently in Washington, D.C., during the bailout negotiations, which ultimately failed.
“In the end, the Republican Caucus didn’t want to support the domestic auto industry,” he said. “There is a true lack of understanding of how complex this industry is.”
Republicans in the Senate said they didn’t get the concessions they wanted from the United Auto Workers Union. Some also preferred that auto makers restructure through bankruptcy.
Later, the Bush Administration granted the domestic automakers a $17.4 billion loan from the original $700 billion bank bailout fund to get them through the end of the year. The money comes with heavy restrictions.
Bankruptcy is not a viable option, Sackrison said.
OC’s auto dealers are anxiously awaiting a remedy.
“This is a tough market,” Sackrison said.
He expects that some dealers will close, regardless of whether or not there is a bailout. The next six months will be telling, he said.
“Some dealers are in more peril than others,” Sackrison predicted.
Annual Meeting
Orange County’s auto dealers are sure to get an earful Jan. 13 when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich talks at their annual meeting.
The association was able to nab Gingrich because Matt Gunderson, the association’s president, is a friend of Gingrich. Last year, Chris Gardner, author of The Pursuit of Happyness, spoke at the meeting.
As a Washington insider, Gingrich is expected to shed some light on what President-elect Barack Obama might bring to the table for auto makers in the first 90 days, Sackrison said.
