March 14, coined “Pi Day” since physicist Larry Shaw started the day back in 1988 to celebrate the famous number (and recognized officially since 2009 when the US House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the day), is often celebrated in the U.S. not by giving a moment of respect to the wonders of mathematics, but by eating pie. That’s how we roll.
This Sunday is Pi Day, so let’s take a look at the correlation between pie and bankruptcy.
In April of 2020, Pie Lady & Son bakery in Nyack, New York declared bankruptcy after the toll of Coronavirus pandemic proved to be too much for Deborah Tyler’s small business.*
Back in 1996, Tyler posted a sign on a telephone pole, encouraging Nyack residents to visit her back porch for her homemade pies. In 2010, along with her son William, she opened a shop and grew a business that, at its peak, was making over $800,000/year. But once the pandemic hit, she knew it was time to hang up her rolling pin. By mid-April, with revenues having dropped to $80,000 and no light at the end of the tunnel, her sweet dream became another Covid casualty.
In August of 2020, Los Angeles County-based pie company Bonert’s Inc. found themselves in hot pie filling over accusations that the company’s owners, a husband and wife, had used their business’s pocketbook for personal use, and then filed for bankruptcy so they could avoid paying their creditors back. In fact, it was even argued that the pie company was nothing more than a shell corporation, put in place just so the owners could transfer funds from their partners to themselves.**
Instead of paying off their company debts, the owners had paid themselves a combined annual income of over $600,0000, taken expensive trips, purchased pricey personal electronics, and set up fake corporations to make loans totaling nearly $1.8 million.
The final estimate of total liabilities Bonert’s Bakery was responsible for totaled almost $10 million. That’s a lot of pie!
Sources:
*https://westfaironline.com/123769/coronavirus-kills-nyacks-sweet-pie-lady-son-bakery/
**https://lawstreetmedia.com/agriculture/pie-company-receives-fraudulent-bankruptcy-complaints-from-3-companies/
