"Vox Humana" > wrote in message
...
>
> "bumblebee4451" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>> I would not be able to open a bakery - I have no skill or interest
>> (like to eat the goods though). Its a mystery to me how long this
>> bakery survived. I guess someone liked it.
>>
>
> I think I know a least part of how a bad bakery survives. First, most
> people don't bake, never baked, and grew up in a home where no one baked.
> The only baked goods most people eat come from industrial bakers (Hostess
> Twinkies, Wonder Bread), supermarket bakery departments run by people who
> couldn't make it running a check-out lane, or from boxes. For these
> people,
> it is a treat to use refrigerated cookie dough for "homemade" cookies
> rather
> than eating factory made cookies. These are the same people who eat Chef
> Boyardee spaghetti and Spam and think that a meal at the Olive Garden is
> authentic Italian cuisine. The second reason that a bad bakery can
> survive
> is because it is cheap. When you make your baked goods from mixes and use
> giant buckets of icing, it keeps the costs down. People who think that a
> cake from Wal-Mart and a cake from a high-end bakery have to be the same,
> won't pay three times the Wal-Mart price at the high-end bakery. After
> all,
> a cake is a cake, right? Therefore, there is a demand for inferior goods
> and an unwillingness to pay for quality items. It takes a large
> metropolitan area to support a quality bakery. You can see from the
> things
> that get posted here how much people like crap made with CoolWhip, cake
> mixes, Jell-O, pudding mix, canned pie filing, and so on. These people
> aren't going to pay $35 for a 10 inch cake made with butter, fresh eggs,
> cream and filled with expensive fruit, and hand decorated. I don't even
> bother making good stuff to send to work on "food days." I just tell my
> SO
> to stop at the grocery store and pick up something. That is a "win win"
> situation because it costs less than making something good, and it
> supplies
> people with a baked goods that meets their expectations.
>

I enjoyed your email, mostly because I agree with you. Just wanted to add
that there are many other types of food businesses that people frequent
that are given cudos by the local folks. One of the seafood places in CT
we went to - once - I won't mention the name - is always absolutely packed
with diners, the restaurant has a good reputation. We were taken there and
didn't have to spend our money, so we were a little less-biased, and I
thought the food was inferior, my spouse did also and the food on the other
diner's plates looked equally discouraging, but one could only see at one's
table because the place was dark with dark high booths and seasoned
waitresses. My m-i-l always said that "they must be doing something right,"
because of its popularity. I would put this seafood restaurant in the same
category as your description of some bakeries, but in this case persons were
paying the higher price and getting lower quality -- in my opinion.
Dee