How Home Bread-Baking Impacts Local Bakers
If we’re all making our own starters, who’s buying bread anymore?
Keto diet be damned; bread is back. Seemingly everyone has been baking bread since the start of quarantine, and it makes sense. Our lives have slowed down, and few things rival the comfort of a fresh loaf of bread.
But if everyone on Instagram is baking bread at home, is there anyone still buying bread from bakeries?
Yes — and lots of it.
“This is the most bread we’ve ever sold since being open,” said Geof Comings, owner of Five Points Artisan Bakeshop, a family-owned neighborhood bakery in Pittsburgh. “But it’s hard to feel really great about doing well when you see other people that aren’t.”
Bakeries are well-situated for moments like this: Work begins early in the morning before the world wakes, orders are typically grab-and-go, and products tend to be affordable. It’s the kind of business that can survive this situation.
Bakeries aren’t restaurants. There is no need for magic: no Edison bulbs, eye-catching bathroom faucets, clever happy-hour specials, or full dining rooms. At a bakery, customers can easily spend $10 and walk out happy. But what truly differentiates bakeries from restaurants is their willingness to share the craft.
