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Where Have All The Retail Bakeries Gone?

Think back 5, 10, 15 years, and try to remember all of the mom and pop retail bakeries that existed. In each ethnic area, you had the Jewish Bakery, the German Bakery, the Italian Bakery and so on. My dad once owned eight bakeries in various neighborhoods throughout the Philadelphia area. Consider the signs in the store windows: “Fresh bread”, “Fresh cakes”, “Butter cookies”, “All Baking Done on Premises.” Those were the days. Bakery owners did the real baking; they woke early and started baking way before the sun came up. Freezers were small, as there was no need to freeze racks of cake, cookies, and pies. Who ever heard of using a all ready made up mix? Ha, Ha, just add water and mix. Still funnier, today the joke is who ever heard of scratch baking! Remember the names of the bakeries? My dad’s name is Arthur. His bakeries were known as, (guess), Arthur’s Bakery. The names reflected who owned the store, not what large corporation owned the store.

So, where did all the bakeries go? In no specific order, here are my answers.

1. The Big Box Store Effect: 15 years ago the products that the Supermarkets and Wholesale Clubs put out were lousy. Through the years their product has gotten much improved, still nowhere near as good as a retail bakery can put out, but decent enough. I am in the bakery supply industry, so I really try to be there for the “mom & pops” but here’s the thing? Junior is turning 3 and I need a cake. We’ve invited 25 of Junior’s best and closest preschool cronies. My wife calls the local bakery and orders a ? sheet cake, the price is $35.00, and she then calls a warehouse club and finds out that their price is $19.87. Will the preschoolers really mind what their piece of cake tastes like? Should I save $15.00 or spend an extra $15.00 in order to support the community retailer?

2. Who Wants to Work so Hard? Growing up, my father worked scores of hours. I rarely saw him during a holiday season, up and gone by the time I woke up for school, and when I got home from school he was either still at work, or catching up on sleep. Phone calls in the middle of the nighttime, the mixer broke, the driver didn’t have money to cross the bridge, the store was robbed, and then there was the fistfight in the parking lot. The police force were called. Who desires that? Ok so we did all right, but the family was certainly not “wealthy” by any means. My dad made most of his money from the sale of the properties that the bakeries stood on.

3. College: So the bakery was doing ok, and papa baker wanted his offspring to have a better life, so he sends Junior off to the university. Well, when Junior graduates college, he doesn’t wantto go back in the family business and split the profits with his dad. Junior is better off working in industry or buying a Dunkin Donuts, which brings me to point #4.

4. They Never Really Left, Just Changed to Specialty Shops: Well we have, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Panera Bread, Cupcake Only Shops, etc. The collective bakery goods selling now is much greater than it was, and this is not only due to population enlargement, it’s due to sexy marketing by the fast food chain stores. Hey, I can stop at the mom and pop bakery and get a muffin for breakfast, or I can stop at Starbucks and overpay for the muffin and coffee. I’ll choose Starbucks, because I love to be hip.

5. Convenience Stores, Especially Those with Drive-Through-Windows: Pick up smokes and a bagel, in and out in a minute or two. I remember my dad’s shops had the cigarette machines and the customers had to put quarters in it. If you didn’t have the change, then you had to go to the counter and wait for the cashier to break a dollar or two for you. Now, they swipe their debit cards for a $1.98 sale. Who carries money anymore? So now, Mr. Retail baker can’t hide his cash as easily any longer. The “cash” was a perk that was unspoken about.

6. Changing Nutritional Habits: Peanut Free, Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Blah, Blah. The Supermarkets are able to change faster and advertise that they “have it”. Whatever “it” is that month. By the way, I never heard of peanut allergies when I was a kid.

7. The Home Cake Decorator: No doubt about it, the bakery industry is getting sexier, and sexier. Just watch the T.V. shows, “Cake Boss”, “Ace of Cakes”, “Extreme Cake Challenge” or read the most recent Martha Stewart Magazine. The trouble is that the mom and pops were never geared to make such elaborate cakes, spending ? a day on one specialty wedding cake. The bakeries that I grew up in are set up to whip out multiple cakes. On a good weekend during the wedding season they’d bake, ice, and decorate 30 to 40 wedding cakes! Anyway the retailers didn’t stay up with the times so the void was filled by Suzy Homemaker, who can afford to work on just one or two cakes a week. They act as the baker and the person who will decorate a cake. The buyers of such cakes do not understand that the “creation” is not made in a commercial kitchen, the “baker’ isn’t licensed, nor do they have business insurance.

8. Only the Strong Survive: No matter what, running any small business is tough. The bakeries that were operating on a slim to none, profit margin, closed up shop during our most recent recession. The younger bakers got jobs in the Supermarket Bakery, where they were offered a steady paycheck and benefits.
Paradise for them! An air-conditioned atmosphere, set working hours, getting off on Holidays, and best yet, they don’t work nearly as hard. Instead of “scratch baking” or adding water to a mix, they pull from the freezer and thaw out the premade cakes that were made 3 weeks ago in a big factory. The really “experienced” baker will do what’s called a “bake off.” In this instance, the item is prepared and pre-baked ? the way. The “baker” pulls this product from the freezer, thaws it, and then “bakes it off”. Ahh, the fragrance of fresh baked bread.

FYI, I did not follow in my dad’s path, but I do work in the bakery industry, as owner of a company that sells cake decoration supplies. I work on the supply side of things. I try to adapt to changes as best as I can but it’s getting harder and harder. For more information on ideas to decorate a cake please feel free to contact us.

Tags: cake decorating supplies, cake decorations, candy making supplies, rolled fondant, Wilton cake decorating
Posted in Baking · February 9th, 2010 · Comments (0)