I love the stories of honesty and hustle and creativity that are coming on the heels of a March we hope to never repeat.

Appearing in the New York Times opinion section, the author outlines how Greek Peak’s staff of 500 had been reduced to just 17. And as it did, a new purpose emerged for the resort:

“Greek Peak’s new business goal, rather than making a profit, is to stay alive, keep as many people working as possible and continue to serve their community in a different way.”

The result was a series of creative pivots:

“Then, changing the business to accommodate the new reality of coronavirus regulations became a priority. The remaining employees at Greek Peak decided to transform one of their restaurants, Trax, into a takeout and delivery operation, using the hotel kitchen to cook. After seeing pictures of empty grocery store shelves, they pivoted their business strategy again, transforming the lobby space of the hotel into a grocery store with low-cost items for the community.”

But they didn’t stop there. There’s one additional pivot that I’m still smiling about.

“Ayden Wilber, the resort’s director of operations, had the idea to take its new food delivery service one step further. Greek Peak is ‘not as well known for delivery, so we were trying to come up with a way to make ourselves a little bit unique,’ he said.

“While perusing Amazon, Mr. Wilber found and ordered two inflatable dinosaur costumes: one for himself and one for Sean O’Brien, a banquet chef. The costumes arrived on March 25. The next day, the two men delivered pizzas to a family in the dino suits while dancing to ‘Uptown Funk’ by Bruno Mars.

“One of the employees filmed the delivery and posted it to Facebook. ‘This for making people’s day with a little extra Love!!! I mean BIG extra LOVE,’ one person commented. ‘Great job guys, you made my day,’ another added.

“Soon, they were getting more delivery calls than they could manage. ‘I didn’t expect the video to go so viral,’ Mr. Wilber said.”

It’s an awesome story. It’s one that I’m sure has been repeated in some shape or form across the industry, but this specific tale of creativity and community support is certainly one of my favorites thus far.

Give it a read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/opinion/coronavirus-business-new-york.html

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.