Photo: Sherlon Jackson, the “pizza lady” announces freshly made pizza March 25 at the East Hopkins HEB.
“Pizza Lady” Breaks Personal Record At Neighborhood H-E-B
By: Exsar Arguello
Sherlon Jackson, the “pizza lady,” announces freshly made pizza March 25 at the East Hopkins H-E-B.
The self-proclaimed “pizza lady” of San Marcos broke a personal record March 4 for selling the most pizzas in a day.
Sherlon Jackson, H-E-B employee, promoted the record-breaking event with the help of her fellow staff and through social media. At the end of the day on March 4, Jackson had sold 366 pizzas, breaking her goal of 300.
Pizza was introduced to the East Hopkins H-E-B deli in 2013, Jackson said.
“No one was buying them or paying attention to the pizzas at first,” she said.
One day Jackson was asked to hand out samples of the pizza and sold about 75. After her success, Jackson began to regularly demo pizza on Wednesdays. At one point, Jackson sold 175 pizzas in one day.
“I could never break 200 pizzas sold, and it was killing me,” Jackson said.
Jackson took to social media to help advertise her attempt to break her own record.
“We posted on Facebook, made flyers and spread the word to city officials,” Jackson said. “News got around. When the time came, we did it. In matter of fact, we sold 225.”
Jackson broke her 200-pizza record in 2013 and attempted to surpass that number a year later. Jackson sold 278-pizza in 2014, but still was not satisfied.
“This time around, we promoted on Facebook, to local businesses, my church family and to schools in the area,” Jackson said.
Jackson told her regular buyers to come by for the event. People were marking their calendars for the big day, she said.
Jackson said a faculty member at Texas State offered her students extra credit if they bought a pizza and took a “selfie” with Jackson.
When the day came, Jackson said customers bought boxes of pizzas in bulk.
“I had this one person come in and buy 40 pizzas at one time,” Jackson said.
The event was scheduled to run throughout the workday, but the pizzas were sold out by 6 p.m., she said.
Ashley Steans, employee at the H-E-B deli and a fellow pizza maker, assisted Jackson in making the pies. Steans made about 100 pizzas a day for several days beforehand to prepare for the event, she said.
“I had to calculate how much cheese and pepperoni I use on each pizza,” Steans said. “From there, I just had my managers order the amount I needed.”
In total, Steans had her managers order 21 boxes of cheese and 5 boxes of pepperoni. The duo also made different types of pizzas, ranging from cheese to margarita, to sell.
Justin Garcia, H-E-B deli employee, helped Jackson and Steans stack, cut and make the pizzas.
The deli was still serving costumers who wanted other items on the menu even though the main event was breaking the pizza record, Garcia said.
“The whole day was just so packed with people buying pizzas and food,” Garcia said. “It really took a team effort to make it all happen.”
Jackson said she will continue break her own records.
“I want to thank everyone who came out and supported me throughout this process and hopefully next year we can go at it again,” Jackson said.
Exsar Arguello is a reporter for the University Star where this story originally published, and is reprinted here through a news partnership between the University Star and Corridor News.