Pastries

From ATS Wiki

Everything about the pastry sales is at the discretion of the treasurer--you could decide to start selling tickets to play a crane game in Lobby 10 if you really felt like it. But here's what I've been doing:

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About ATS Pastry Sales (But Were Afraid To Ask)

Flavours and Quantities I've been buying 30 of each of:

  • red bean
  • taro
  • custard
  • pineapple
  • scallion
  • naisu
  • red bean green tea mochi buns (an ATS exclusive)
  • coconut mango (a new flavour last year)
  • sesame balls (a controversial flavour--sometimes they don't sell and so then I order less than the rest of the flavours, but then there'll be people coming by specifically asking for sesame balls and they sell out first >.>)

Plan on buying slightly less if we are selling in the student center instead of Lobby 10, and significantly less if we are doing a sale as part of some sort of bigger event (i.e. there will be other people selling stuff alongside us). Feel free to buy more (or add a new flavour) if you see that we are selling out early. We ran a trial of sponge cake once when I accidentally forgot to call Bao Bao's--that seemed to go all right.

We used to monitor how quickly each pastry sold out, and I used to try to plug the numbers into a mathematical formula to figure out how many to buy next time, but the fact of the matter is, buying patterns change wildly from day to day, and so we kind of just gave up and started buying them all equally.

In the rare event that you get someone on the phone who only speaks Chinese, here are the flavours in Chinese (to the best of my reckoning--it may be best to check with someone who speaks better Chinese):

  • hong2 dou4 bao1
  • yü4 tou2 bao1
  • nai3 rong2 bao1 (nai3 wang2 bao1? something else?)
  • buo1 luo2 bao1
  • cong1 you2 bao1
  • nai3 su1 bao1
  • hong2 dou4 lü4 ca2 mua3 ji2 bao1
  • ye1 zi5 mang2 guo3 bao1
  • zi1 ma2 qiu2

The call The telephone number I've called for Bao Bao's have been many and varied. I believe the official one printed on the receipts is (617) 792-6354, and that one works fine. However, if you ever receive a call from (617) 998-8191 or (617) 959-6268, you should know it's also coming from Bao Bao's (you'll always know you've gotten them if they answer the phone with "ha1 lou2, bao1 bao1 ting2").

When you make the call, you should tell them that you are from MIT or "the MIT group", meaning ATS. That will get us the bulk discount. It used to be 15% (ah, back in the day), but that became unsustainable and so now it is 10-12%. The manager's name is Dave (or David), and he's awesome. He'll usually say hi and offer a drink on the house to whoever goes in the morning to pick up.

Also on the call, be sure to mention the days that you want the pastries and what time you will be picking up. It has customarily been at 9:30 for me, but it might take longer without a car.

It's best to make the call a few days before the sale. I typically call on Monday for a Thursday/Friday pastry sale.

Timeline/Checklist A few weeks before the sale Make sure the pastry sale sign up is out and people are signing up for shifts

A few days before the sale Call Bao Bao's, and tell them the dates, the flavours, the quantities, and the pickup time. Mention MIT.

The day before the sale Make sure the important shifts on the sign up are filled. Note the amount in the cashbox. Give the cashbox to the person who has the first morning shift (note: this usually not the same as the person who has morning pickup).

The day of the sale Enjoy (I mean sell) delicious pastries! Track down the cashbox at the end of the day.

The day after the sale Note the amount in the cashbox. If there are too many coins, swap them out for notes at the Student Center Bank of America (you'll have to ask them for coin sleeves). If there are too many notes, deposit them at the SAO office into our main account.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

this wonderful information comes from Mark