Aimee Germain, owner of Piece of the Pie Bakery and 2 Go Coffee Shop
- BY JENNIFER ARGUE, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
February 25th, 2022
Southey - This is the third location in two years for Aimee Germain, owner of Piece of the Pie Bakery and 2 Go Coffee Shop. She first opened in a small location before moving next door to a larger space with room for seating. When the owners decided to sell that building, she moved to the current location on the main street in Southey in October. “It puts me right on main street…people can see me.” Her shop is a warm and comfortable environment with a couple of sofas and an eating area surrounded by the smell of fresh baking and shelves lined with treats.
Starting her business one year into the pandemic in March of 2021, when many businesses were shutting down, Germain has had to evolve. She said being in a brick-and-mortar business is challenging “We all struggle in different fashions...Small business in a small town is tough in general so you just do what you can do.” The RBC, located across the street from the bakery, recently announced its closure. Germain said she doesn’t expect it to affect her business because the Credit Union is still there but believes it will affect the Senior citizens who used the bank.
Germain introduces new items every three months so people don’t forget about her, she says. Sausage rolls, edible cookie dough and munchie mixes, puppy cookies and kitty treats are among the new items. Local groups and events also put in large orders for buns and baking, and her order board currently has a list of 20 different orders to be filled.
Five businesses in Southey serve food - and if you include the grab-and-go at the gas station, that makes six. Germain says her lunch business is “hit and miss. There’s a lot of options for food in Southey at lunchtime.” She is mindful of the other businesses in town, and while she serves supper-like items, she doesn’t stay open late because she doesn’t want to take away from the other businesses that depend on those sales times to stay viable. “It’s on my own just trying to keep all the businesses here. If you are putting too much out and they are losing business or if they can’t sustain, we lose part of our community.”
Germain gave kudos to the local rec and the rink boards for organizing community events and utilizing the rink space for events like paint nights and comedy nights. “All of these different things boosts people into the community, so that’s really nice because it boosts sales for me too. People will drive around small towns just to see what they’ve got. I’ve had alot of people in the last month or so saying ‘hey I’m from regina’ or ‘I’m from saskatoon’ or wherever and ‘I just wanted to drive by and I heard there was a bakery here.’ So that’s kind of neat.”
To celebrate her second anniversary this week, Germain continues to evolve with plans to launch a new menu and summer favourites, “I’m picking up a soft serve ice cream machine..and I’ve got a blizzard machine..I’m going to launch kind of like a small town dairy queen inside my bakery, so anything [they] can do, I can do.”
