Behind the Box is our series of real corporate orders: what the client needed, what went into it, and how it got there.
Hi, it's Leo! 👋
This is one of my favourite stories from our early days. It was one of the first corporate orders we ever got after opening the shop, and it came from an animation studio. We'd always secretly hoped to work with studios and film productions. We love watching what they make, and we're very nosy about what goes on behind the scenes. So when Atomic Cartoons asked us to help thank their crew in October 2020, we were thrilled.
The order
The crew was working from home, and the studio's management wanted to send each of them a little surprise at their door. We baked 11 boxes of 8 candy-stuffed Halloween cookies. Each box got a ribbon and a printed card with an image from the series and a note from the studio.
The tricky part (it wasn't the baking!)
A surprise is fun until you're standing at a stranger's door. Vancouver has plenty of odd knocks and strange calls, so "hi, someone ordered cookies for you, please open the door" doesn't always go over well. And we didn't want to give too much away and spoil the surprise.
So we called each person ahead of time to book a drop-off. Eight said yes right away. Two we just couldn't reach. One was understandably unsure about a stranger turning up with cookies, until we let them in on a tiny bit of the secret: it was a thank-you from the studio. Little by little we figured out how to tell people just enough to feel comfortable while keeping the wow moment for the doorstep.
The best part
Because we delivered every box ourselves, we got to meet each person on that crew, one doorstep at a time. Seeing their faces light up when they opened the box is still my favourite memory of this project.
A few days later, the studio wrote back:
“They were so overjoyed. you guys did great work.”
— Line Producer, Atomic Cartoons
What this order taught us
This was when it clicked for us. Great cookies matter, but they aren't enough on their own to stand out in Vancouver's baking scene. What makes people come back is how we look after them: being polite, flexible, quick to reply, on time, and careful about the little details.
That's why we stay hands-on with every part of the business. We bake from scratch, source our own ingredients and talk to our suppliers. We do most of the deliveries ourselves, and we send you a confirmation once your treats have arrived.
If you're planning a little surprise for your own team, I'd love to help. Just send me your date and headcount through our corporate orders page.
— Leo 🍪