my eleven year survey

Here is a very odd thing.  Eleven years ago (looking at the date, it is almost exactly eleven years ago) I was playing around with Survey Monkey.  For one, I wanted to learn how to create a survey and look at the statistics they provided.  And two, I was pondering, at that time, whether or not I should open a pie shop, or at least start a pie delivery service. This was all pie-in-the-sky thinking.  I was probably in one of my depths of despair moods at work, wondering if there was anything, and I mean ANYTHING else I could do to make a living, legally.

So the pie survey went up and I sent it to a few friends, just for fun.  As you can see above, some 20+ friends humored me and took my survey.  End of story.  I moved on, deciding that baking pies might not earn me enough to support my kids (I was a single mom) and provide healthcare and a roof over our heads.  But I never actually deleted the pie survey, and throughout the years, I would quite out of the blue get an email notification that there had been a response to my survey.  Somehow, people were stumbling across it in the world wide webs. There were a few dry years with only a response or two from 2011 to 2015, but it picked up a bit of steam from there and I'm up to 87 responses.  I have no idea what kind of search pops up my survey.  I have no idea what kind of person takes the five minutes or so to answer it, but the last couple of years has seen an uptick of interest in pie and/or pie surveys.

While 87 responses out of a possible zillion people who have internet access is not exactly scientific, I personally find the results interesting, and thought you, friends, might also find some interest here.    For starters, 98.8 percent of respondents like pie.  One respondent did not.  We will ferret this person out and try to win him or her over, or urge this person not to reproduce.  The pie traits most desired were "fruit", "sweet", and "warm".  "Cream" and "cold" were secondary.  "Meringue", sorry meringue lovers, is in last place, both in my survey and in my heart.  Between "more sweet" and "more tart", sweet won out.  A bit sad, because I like my fruit pies a tad on the tart side.  But I'll make a mental note that twice as many people in my survey (48 people, or 1.46e-7% of the US population) would prefer I add more sugar.  Yes, I did the calculation in case you are checking the math. 

There were a few other results that I won't go into, but the saddest statistic was that more than half of respondents buy grocery store-made or frozen pie. And almost half those people who do so, don't like these pies. People are out there, eating sad pie and not really enjoying it.  Yes, one has to invest a modicum of skill and time into a pie, but it is a skill worth developing for a lifetime of pleasure.  And in it's simplest version, it's not as hard as you think.