It is the day before Thanksgiving and there are many businesses who base their success on the start of the Xmas retail shopping season. The SeattleTimes has an article on Costco’s logistics precision baking a million pumpkin pies.

"Everything's planned out by day. If you don't have a strategy, you're going in blind," Cruz said Sunday night, hairnet in place, leading a pie brigade at the Tukwila Costco's bakery. "Issaquah's doing the same thing tonight. So's Seattle and Bellingham and Portland."

And, Costco works together as a team.

During this busy half-week, managers stamp out fresh pie crust alongside workers.

The holiday season is all hands on deck, and that's good for morale, workers say.

"Managers are everywhere, helping all

To get the team to work together they have a mantra.

Let no oven stand empty.

For those you of you haven’t visited a Costco during this time here is some background.

Costco has pumpkin pies down to a science

Costco stores nationwide bake around the clock Thanksgiving week, churning out more than 1 million pumpkin pies in military precision. The big question: Did they make enough?

By Karen Gaudette

Seattle Times staff reporter

ELLEN M. BANNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Costco baker Camilla Dizdarvic carries a baking sheet with pumpkin pies over to a rack so they can be put into an oven at the Costco in Tukwila. She's been working at Costco for 10 years and has made thousands and thousands of pies.

Balls of pie crust, ready to be shaped into a pie pan.

That's a lot of pies

How many?

Costco will bake and sell more than 1 million pumpkin pies this week.

Today, they will sell half a million.

They'll sell more than 3 million pumpkin pies throughout "pumpkin-pie season," which runs from Labor Day to New Year's Eve.

What's in a million pies?

707,000 6-pound, 10-ounce cans, or 4.7 million pounds, of pumpkin

More than 1.4 million pounds of fresh eggs (roughly 12.6 million eggs)

Source: Costco

When today's final batches of Thanksgiving pumpkin pies emerge from Costco ovens across the land, managers need wait only a few hours to answer one of the year's most pressing questions:

Did they bake enough?

s a vital concern. By day's end, Costco expects to have sold more than 1 million fresh-baked, giant $5.99 pumpkin pies during this short week when in-store bakeries run around the clock.

Happy Thanksgiving!