<Tarah> About a week ago Coronavirus hit.

<Carrie> Charlotte is down big time.

Obviously Atlanta is down... huge.

>> She'll be thinking about everybody else.

<Amy> We're not going to be able to pay payroll if Hot Little Biscuit doesn't pay us.

<Carrie> We will because I'm not taking a salary on either side.

>> She'll want to control a situation that she can't control.

<Carrie> We are going to close as of this afternoon, and we don't know when we're opening again, <Tressa> We let everyone go.

<Tarah> I don't think it'll go back to the way it was.

♪ [dramatic music] ♪ ♪ [bright music] ♪ <Carrie> I took my mom's best recipe and started selling handmade Southern biscuits.

Now, I'm balancing a family, a business and biscuits every day.

Thank you so much.

I'm Carrie Morey, and this is how I roll.

♪ [dramatic music] ♪ <Libba> I think the old packaging is starting to look really outdated.

<Tarah> I think so too.

<Libba> It's time for a change.

<Tarah> It's not the same company anymore.

I worked on the re-brand for the two years I've been here.

What I'd like to do is move to a square box that has no wasted space.

<Libba> Mm-hmm.

<Tarah> Another idea I wanted to talk to you about was introducing a lot more color into this brand.

<Libba> Actually what it really looks like is kind of a nod to Rainbow Row which is fun.

<Tarah> Yeah.

<Libba> And this is 100% I think Carrie.

I think she's going to love it.

♪ [bright music] ♪ <Tarah> Today is the launch day.

We've had this date set for quite some time.

March 16.

♪ <Tarah> Let's hope that we can just make people smile.

♪ <Carrie> Okay, y'all ready for me?

<Tarah> We're ready.

<Carrie> Oh my gosh, I'm so excited!

<Tressa> You're going to love it.

<Carrie> One, cheers, two, three.

[glasses cling] ♪ [foreboding music] ♪ <Tarah> About a week ago, Coronavirus hit.

<Newscaster> Two patients are confirmed positive for the Novel Coronavirus at a local hospital this morning as South Carolina reports 47 cases statewide.

♪ [foreboding music] ♪ <Carrie> Okay.

This is going to be interesting.

I don't think my employees are worrying about the implications of the Coronavirus.

<Ashlyn> Oh, the market may or may not close, they're not really sure.

We have made hand sanitizer and we've been wiping things down every 15-20 minutes, so... ♪ [foreboding music] ♪ >> Chicago, New York, I mean, everybody is closing the entire towns down.

It's only a matter of time before that happens.

I don't think they understand the gravity of the situation.

Charlotte is down big time.

Obviously Atlanta is down.

Huge.

They've had 8 transactions today.

It's 11 a.m. Christie, my accountant just sent me a text and says do not stress about what is on the news right now.

It's going to be okay.

Well, what is on the news?

I can't see.

<Mayor> All instructor-led recreation department programs and classes similar to school, including youth and adult sports programs have been suspended.

♪ [dramatic music] ♪ <Carrie> My thought is that we're probably going to close before the end of the week.

I mean, every major city is closing.

All restaurants are closing, I'm assuming that's going to happen with us.

Maybe we'll get the food truck to start ordering again.

<Amy> We're not going to be able to pay payroll if Hot Little Biscuit doesn't pay us.

<Carrie> We will because we have a savings account.

We got to think about that.

I'm not taking a salary on either side.

That'll save us some money.

And...

I don't know.

♪ [soft music] ♪ <Carrie> It's super important for us to connect with all of our staff and find out what their concerns are.

And the reality is, is I would love to be able to say, don't worry about it, everything's going to be fine.

But that is not a promise that I'm willing to make right now.

This is uncharted territory.

We don't know what's going to happen from day to day.

I do know this.

We will weather any storm.

I'm not worried about it, but there are going to be some temporary hiccups.

Alright guys, please feel free to come to me if you have any questions.

♪ <Tarah> So, so far, I've seen several comments.

Love, love, love this new branding.

So excited for this re-brand.

Good, so far.

It's only been a couple hours.

So, we just want to keep it going.

♪ [soft music] ♪ <Carrie> Stressful.

♪ More texts of loving the re-brand.

Yay!

There's that little bright sunshine.

♪ [soft music] ♪ ♪ [door opens] Oh, hi!

What a day [dishes clanging] <John> I don't know what you're wigging from.

<Carrie> I'm just trying to think of my employees.

You know?

This is their livelihood.

I just foregoed my salary today, for a month.

Just so you know.

♪ [soft music] ♪ I've just got out of a two and a half hour meeting with a group of restaurant owners and we are going to close as of this afternoon.

And we don't know when we're opening again.

<John> She'll be thinking about everybody else.

>> I got to figure out how I can pay employees, who and what employees I can pay.

How do I help these guys get on unemployment?

<John> She'll want to control a situation that she can't control.

<Carrie> It's a temporary layoff.

What do we do with all the food?

>> Her husband will advise her that she needs to let go on that.

<Carrie> We don't know how long the stores are going to be closed.

We're going to take it day by day, my guess is eight weeks.

But that's only if everybody does their part.

♪ [soft music] ♪ <Barron> Well, one day we came in, they were like, okay, we're going smooth, we're doing good.

Then the next day it was just drop.

It was over for us, so.

<Tarah> It was an instant...halt.

<Tressa> We got on a team call and we let everyone go.

So, it was a fairly quick process.

<Barron> It's really a struggle living through the pandemic.

Let me say it like that.

<Darienne> It is just, it's so frustrating to not be able to take care of your people who you've made a commitment to.

<Carrie> And then I laid off almost every manager which I wasn't expecting to do.

<Tressa> We were furloughed, and I had a lot of emotions.

So I was very anxious because that was my money.

That was my lifeline.

We were expecting to be back in two weeks at the most.

Two weeks turn into a month turns into two months.

We realized there's a major change.

♪ [somber music] ♪ <Carrie> How are we going to get rid of all the product that we've already made for Hot Little Biscuit that is now going to go bad if it doesn't get sold?

<Amy> We are fortunate enough that we have a food truck.

♪ [lively music] ♪ <Carrie> Butter is kind of like an ambulance.

It actually was an ambulance chassis.

Butter was great for the pandemic because she could go to everybody that was on lock down.

♪ [lively music continues] ♪ <employee> There was a day that we did sales that were comparable to what I was doing in market during our busy season.

<Darienne> I felt more comfortable on the truck than I do in the stores.

All I really have to do is give somebody the food through the window.

It was just like, "Here's your food.

Have a great day."

♪ [lively music ends] ♪ <Tarah> We've had one of the best Springs, online that we've had in years.

♪ [upbeat music] ♪ <Carrie> We have our full staff in the bakery.

It's Mother's Day and we are probably doing 80% more business, this Mother's Day than we ever have in 15 years.

<Kelly> The restaurants downtown obviously had to shut down for a while.

Since we are having so many orders going to wholesale grocery, our production has remained as busy as ever.

<Savannah> Normally, we'll do like 50 bowls or so.

Some days it's like 93, 100, 85, trying to keep up with orders.

[tape stretching] <Amy> Our shippers and packers have been working 10 hour days, could work more, if I didn't even send them home at that point.

<Tarah> It's almost like it's the holidays.

<Kelly> At least with the holidays I know that it ends.

[laughs] I don't know when this is going to end.

So - [cart rattles] I brought my son, Owen.

He comes to work with me.

Thanks for your help, Bud.

[online video sounds] It can be hard not to give him all of my attention.

I do feel guilty in that.

He really likes letting us know when a delivery gets here.

<Owen> The delivery truck is here.

<Tarah> Okay, thank you.

He's kind of a little ray of sunshine around here and he's adorable.

<Owen> Don't have any more.

<Kelli> Workin' on that.

[chuckles] Trying really hard.

♪ [foreboding music] ♪ <Carrie> Because of the pandemic, we're having major supply chain issues.

Our flour company is completely out and we're living day to day, bag to bag, not really knowing when we're going to get some.

♪ <Kelly> Yeah, it's not like we can just go ahead and switch flours.

Those ingredients are on the packaging, so then we couldn't use the packaging.

<Amy> So we have a lot of backed-up orders waiting for this flour.

<Carrie> We're expecting a pallet shipment of flour, just to get us through for the next couple of weeks.

<Amy> Fingers crossed that we get this flour tomorrow.

We have no confirmation, we're just like flying by the seat of our pants.

♪ [frantic music] ♪ ♪ [gradual music] ♪ <Delivery Man> Is that good?

<Carrie> That's perfect.

Thank you.

<Delivery Man> No problem.

♪ <Carrie> When that flour truck pulled up to give us our next shipment, I probably lost 10 pounds like the biggest sigh of relief.

We weren't living day to day now we're living week to week which is nice.

♪ ♪ [bright music] ♪ <Caroline> Oh, the Coronavirus has kicked us out of school.

<Carrie> Okay, so we have a schedule here...for y'all.

<Caroline> A'hum... <Sarah> Rise no later than 7:30, [John laughs] School begins at 8:30, and ends 12:30.

<John> And then we're doing conditioning, <Sarah> What kind of conditioning are we doing?

<John> I'm running conditioning.

<announcer> All of your practices are done, so we have to do something to stay in shape.. ♪ Almost there.

♪ [energetic music] ♪ <John> I have to stay in shape just kind of anyway because otherwise...

I eat too many biscuits.

<Carrie> That's one of the great things about being at home is that I'm here to micro manage them and tell them all the things they haven't done right, each day.

Girls.

Please turn the TV off.

I didn't know that you were inside.

The eating is out of control.

Follow me in as you can see we have closed the kitchen.

Here I only have certain hours for making food and I am now making all their food because they got a little crazy and they were eating like every hour.

<Carrie> They don't like it, but you know what?

<Sarah> I don't mind it.

<Carrie> Oh so good.

I'm glad.

<Cate> We don't get a snack.

<Carrie> You get, they get three meals and two snacks.

♪ [lively music] ♪ This is a pesto pizza.

Fail.

<John> You need semolina.

>> We're almost out and the grocery store doesn't have any.

<John> Let go.

♪ [lively music] ♪ >> You ruined it.

<John> We need semolina.

>> There's no semolina in the land.

[John laughs] Sugar plums.

It is definitely a pandemic problem that I can't find semolina.

I can barely find flour.

<John> I'm going to go olive oil, parmesan, mushroom, and onion.

♪ [lively music] ♪ We have a test, if it stays mostly flat, then we're in a good spot.

♪ [lively music] ♪ <Tarah> I'm really grateful that the re-brand happened when it did because I feel like it brought new eyes to us.

And all of a sudden, people are interacting so much more online.

<Carrie> Amy Hannon is the owner of Euna Mae's, this amazing home cooking store in Northwest Arkansas, and she challenged me to do an Instagram Live Chopped, and I'm terrified.

<Amy> Carrie is going to open the basket.

She's going to see my three ingredients plus the wild card, and she's going to cook on Instagram Live.

We're going to do split screen.

It's going to be fun.

<Tarah> Oh God.

I thought she was going to kill me.

<Amy> Is this your first Chopped , or is this your second?

<Carrie> This is my first and my last.

<Tarah> She is an excellent cook.

She wants it all to be well maneuvered.

<Carrie> What?

<Amy> You can use other ingredients in your kitchen.

<Darienne> Put those in the pan.

<Carrie> I can use other ingredients?

>> Yeah, of course.

>> Oh, goodness gracious.

<Amy> Yeah, in your pantry and your fridge.

<Cate> Have you ever watched this show before, Mom?

<Carrie> Can I make more than one thing?

<Amy> You can if you can do it in 19 minutes and 58 seconds.

<Carrie> Maybe we should have done it differently.

Our lime zest shrimp go on top of the black bean, red onion, cilantro paste.

<Amy> Beautiful.

<Carrie> I'm going to taste one, Mmmm...oh.

<Amy> Is it good?

<Carrie> Oh my gosh, I just forgot.

I gave up fried food for Lent.

[gasps in shock] [laughter in background] Oh, now I'm so mad, but it was good.

<Amy> The pastor and wife caused you to sin, I'm so sorry.

<Tarah> I always talk to Carrie after every Instagram Live.

But she didn't call me after the Chopped episode.

<Carrie> Oh my God!

I told everybody everything's subject to change every single day.

We can't just continue doing what we've always done.

We opened King Street for curbside, no contact pickup and the goal was to do nothing more than to serve my team members and give them a purpose and to give them a paycheck.

♪ [relaxing music] ♪ So we have all these new rules.

I could measure it out.

But I mean, I have big feet.

So I'm going to do 6 feet.

<Misha> I think the masks are the toughest thing just because it's so hot on the line and you're opening ovens and you got the hot box.

<Tyler> The hours we have available only allows for three people on the shift.

<Carrie> Are you still working with us?

<Barron> Yeah.

<Carrie> Oh good!

<Barron> Because I'm a Hot Little Biscuit, man.

I just do what I got to do.

That's why I come back.

<Carrie> When you work in the food industry, you are used to this frenetic pace, and now it's just so quiet.

<Tressa> For me it was very, it was a very lonely shift.

It was very amicable.

We were still 2019 loving it.

I think I'd still be with Callie's <Carrie> Tressa, unfortunately, was one of the team members that decided not to come back and that was definitely very hard for us.

♪ [dramatic music] ♪ You get lost in the rhythm of making biscuits.

It feels good.

This is the easy part, making the biscuits.

It's all the logistics especially during COVID that goes into making biscuits hard.

If it was six months ago, life was a lot easier.

But you got to roll with the punches and keep going.

♪ [tense music] ♪ We are constantly in a flour shortage.

I thought it was just going to be a one or two time thing, We still have to prepare in the event that customers might come in.

I got 15 bags, that's a huge score.

There wasn't a limit sign.

What we can do now to secure that our stores can make biscuits is go out to all the grocery stores and try to grab a few bags, here a few bags there.

<Misha> Hopefully this flour is going to last for about two weeks, two, three weeks.

But we will see.

It feels like Christmas in a bakery shop.

So, I'm excited.

So, I was on the good list this year.

♪ [lively music] ♪ <Carrie> Hi!

I got 24 bags.

<Misha> That is Christmas.

<Carrie> That's good, right?

I thought I wasn't going to get away with it at one of the stores but they were like, "there's a two limit" but it didn't say it on the shelf.

♪ [steady music] ♪ <Carrie> Misha is our new GM here in Charlotte and I spent the morning with her.

<Misha> It was actually pretty hard to find a job in the pandemic, and I made sure to let them know that I really wanted this job not so much just to have a job but because I know that I can grow here and grow with the company.

<Carrie> Work the flour all over.

Move it.

That's why we have big bowls.

You're a natural kid.

<Misha> But, how much butter is too much butter.

<Carrie> There's never too much butter.

She just has a great personality positive attitude and think she's going to be really great for the Charlotte store.

Good job.

♪ [upbeat music] ♪ Morning.

Would you like a blackberry biscuit from Hot Little Biscuit?

<Man> Yeah.

<Carrie> I'm just giving out samples.

We're trying to get the word out that we're open again.

<Man> You're open again.

Good.

<Carrie> Just trying to let everybody know we're open.

<Man> Sure, thank you.

<Carrie> It's the Hot Little Biscuit right here on Tremont.

<Man> Tremont?

Okay.

<Carrie> Y'all come see us for lunch.

<Man> We'll do that.

<Carrie> Thank you.

♪ [upbeat music] ♪ What what!

I think I just got 1000 new customers.

<Misha> What, what!

>> Okay, so these three condominiums want to do the breakfast in bed for their residents since they're all quarantined.

<Misha> Okay.

<Carrie> How many customers did you have while I was gone?

<Misha> We had three customers.

<Carrie> Three or 1000?

<Misha> 1000.

We'll take it.

<Carrie> Yes!

I love it!

<Protesters> NO KKK.

NO RACIST USA!

NO TRUMP!

NO KKK.

NO RACIST USA!

NO TRUMP!

NO KKK.

NO RACIST USA!

BLACK LIVES MATTER!

<Man> Black Lives Matter!

[glass shattering] ♪ [dramatic music] ♪ <Carrie> So that is Hot Little Biscuit.

Those are our doors.

And they're saying more looting is going to happen tonight.

That's why we boarded up.

I don't know how appealing it is to come to a restaurant like this.

Had a lot of hits.

Hey Ben.

Y'all okay?

Hanging in there, man.

Crazy.

We packaged up biscuits in parchment and took coffee and water and just walked the streets and tried to feed everybody.

And, hey... <Man> Thank you for handing out biscuits, Miss.

<Carrie> You are so welcome.

We'll be back out here tomorrow.

And I hope everybody stays safe.

♪ This is an issue that is so deeply rooted in our country.

And I don't know what the answer is.

I just know that I have to do more.

♪ <Tarah> I think a lot of things will change.

It's hard to predict what the world will look like after this.

But I don't think it'll go back to the way it was.

♪ <Carrie> I don't know that there is an end.

I think there's an evolution, right?

I mean, I'm a believer in that things happen for a reason.

And you have to grow and evolve and change.

And maybe this was all supposed to happen and we're all supposed to take a look at ourselves and our lives and our country and re-evaluate everything.

I don't know that I have an answer, but I don't think it's going to end.

I think it's going to change.

That's my hope.

♪