Here is a wire service news story which some may find interesting:

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Essay contest winner to receive bakery
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PAYSON, Utah (AP) -- April 23, 2004 -- Somebody who has a way with
words has a chance at walking away with a sweet deal.

The owners of Roe's Bake Shoppe on Main Street are sponsoring an
essay contest and the winner gets their business.

"We wanted to keep it going, it's really the heart of this little
town," said Paul Penrod, 39. "So we thought, how could we keep it
going without having to have all the overhead? And we thought,
'Let's give it away."'

Penrod, a former accountant, and wife Lolly bought the 60-year-old
bakery with its brick facade, high ceilings and oak floors in 2002
and remodeled it, but the stress of full-time baking "wasn't what
we expected."

The couple tried to sell the store but didn't have any luck. That's
when they settled on the more unconventional approach.

Aspiring bakery owners have until July 1 to submit an essay of fewer
than 300 words explaining "Why I want to own Roe's Bake Shoppe" along
with a $100 entry fee. The winner will be chosen by a panel of 25
downtown merchants.

The Penrods figure they have to get at least 2,000 entries to be able
to pay off their loans and give someone else the opportunity to "carry
on the tradition" in this small community about 30 miles south of Salt
Lake City.

"They'll end up with a beautiful historic building, a bakery, and
priceless recipes that have been around for years," Penrod said.

Penrod acknowledges he and his wife don't have a backup plan in case
they don't hit that magic 2,000 number. He'll just keep on baking
until the morning when he can sleep in.

"We'd have a mob if they didn't get their doughnuts in the morning."

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For those not familiar with this kind of "contest": every now and
then one will see one of these "contests" which usually are created
by someone who is trying to get rid of a piece of real estate that
just won't sell. It's more like a lottery than a contest, but
private lotteries are illegal so the process is recast as a contest
with a non-refundable "entrance fee". If not enough people enter,
the organizer may just keep the fees, may refund the fees, or may
award the property to the winner and take the loss. This needs to
be spelled out in advance, off course.

This particular contest is unusual because it involves an operating
business and not just a piece of real estate, and because there are
real third-party judges and not just the organizer and his wife.

It's also unusual because AP decided that it was newsworthy. Such
"contests" generally are not. Possibly the bakery aspect of the
story was considered to be appealing.

If nothing else, the story indicates the difficulty of building a
viable bakery business on a small town Main Street.

Cheers,
The Old Bear

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 17:50:41 -0500
(The Old Bear) wrote:

>
> Here is a wire service news story which some may find interesting:
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Essay contest winner to receive bakery
> --------------------------------------
>
> PAYSON, Utah (AP) -- April 23, 2004 -- Somebody who has a way with
> words has a chance at walking away with a sweet deal.
>
> The owners of Roe's Bake Shoppe on Main Street are sponsoring an
> essay contest and the winner gets their business.
>
> "We wanted to keep it going, it's really the heart of this little
> town," said Paul Penrod, 39. "So we thought, how could we keep it
> going without having to have all the overhead? And we thought,
> 'Let's give it away."'


Bah, I used to have friends in payson. The Subway out by the freeway
is the heart of that town. (it's an exceptionally good subway, I'll
admit)

They're copying something that was tried by a burger joint in
california recently. They must watch FoodTV a lot.

But hey, a bakery is a bakery. Technically Payson, while it is a
small town, it's right in the midst of a lot of small towns, and only
about 15-20 minutes from roughly 400,000 people in the greater
provo/orem area. If one knew how to write, how to run a business, and
how to bake, there are a lot of people trying to run upscale restaurants
that need artisan breads. Hearthstone out on the parkway in Provo can't
crank out enough baguettes.

Could be worse, could be Payson AZ instead of UT.