Would you buy regularly from microbakery near school?

[tootysfrootys]

Hello there. I live in a quiet residential area very near a primary school. I would like to start microbakery from home, baking predominalty to order for collection, opening on Thursdays and Fridays around school drop off and pick up time. Would you buy bakery goods when doing school run if you liked the products and were happy with the price?

Not pre ordered, no. I already have enough school run admin. I would drop in and buy from a bakery though. Especially if they also sold coffee!

How much would your loaves of bread cost?

No I don’t want to pre order bread of all things. I want to get it on my normal shop or pop into a bakery and choose one. I want the school run over and done with quickly, as do my kids.

Yes I would, but I wouldn’t want to pre-order.

There’s one near me and it does really well! It’s open longer now but it was just 2-3 days a week initially. It’s all sourdough , but it’s very pricey. They also do coffee- in lockdown the queue snaked down the road!

i make all my bread in breadmaker but adult DD not keen so buys her own mainly.

Nope. It would inevitably be too expensive being a micro bakery. I use a bread machine, which isn't as good, but means we have healthier bread at supermarket prices. I'd also not have time for messing about picking individual food items up and would need to build it into routines.

There’s two here. One does very well - she posts a lot of photos on social media so you can see her kitchen is spotless. She also regularly has the same things. The other only posts photos of finished cakes and has no regulars in terms of stock. And complains a lot that she’s not as busy as she expected.

We buy our bread from the first one twice a week.

It would have to be incredibly good bread. I’m fussy. We currently order bread from a bakery about 150 miles away that couriers.

I know cake sheds and the like must have to be inspected but I don’t buy for 2 reasons. They are expensive and I can bake myself but also it’s just not a professional kitchen and if you have a dog or cat that mooches about in your kitchen it’s not for me. I have had pets and worked in kitchens and they just don’t mix, some people are slack.

No, because I'd get fat and I don't want DD to have a baked treat all the time

I agree, ‘micro’ bakery = expensive bakery

Thank you everyone, this is all very useful. For those concerned about hygiene, I have a dedicated room in the house which would be used for storage, preparation and baking and don’t have any pets. If this was highlighted let’s say through photos of the set up on social media or in some other would you consider buying? Or there simply isn’t anything that could be done to tempt you.

One of my friends did this. She baked the most incredible bread. She would circulate the list on Fridays, you ordered and aid by Monday (bank transfer) and collected on either Thursday or Friday (you chose which at time of ordering). She always offered two different sourdoughs plus a range of flavoured bread. She baked around 100 loaves a week. She didn't do any pastries.

She actually converted her (very large) utility room into a dedicated bread making kitchen. She bought a special baking oven from France that could bake several loaves at a time.

She gave it up when she went back to full time work but it was honestly the best bread I've ever eaten. I still miss it!

It's just that this would involve someone dubious about hygiene being interested enough to look you up on SM, I think. Which would, I think, involve excellent word of mouth from happy customers. Bluntly, how good is your product?

I wouldn't buy food from someone's house either. I don't buy food at bakes sales etc. I maybe tempted if you had a proper hygiene certificate.

Yes a social media page is a must.

location of where you’ll be at what time with you little cart for people to go purchase from you.

Also offer home pick up from yours.

as long as you have whatever health and safety and hygiene certificates you need I wouldn’t care that it was made in your home.

Make sure you post on your page often, encourage friends and family to share your page, offer freebie competitions to encourage people to share and like your page.

She wouldn’t be able to run the business without her food hygiene and all the appropriate insurance.

Nope. Honestly I feel like this set up and all these cake sheds that are popping up just resulting in customers paying a premium to support someone else’s hobby in their own home. If I’m going to pay that premium to not bake it myself I want to go inside a business and choose it, not grab it from someone’s house where anything could have happened. I can’t see the logic in paying extra for this.

I have bought bread and there is someone near me who does 'healthy' bakes - eg no sugar/with oats etc. I mean, they are still cakes, so who knows how healthy? Taste great though!

Anyway, she sells from her drive and the only thing that gets irksomes is cars congerating on the road at pick-up. I know the neighbours are getting fed up (even though she has a dedicated parking area and a sign etc - there are a lot of inconsiderate 'oh I'm not stopping' folk). So yeah, I'd make sure your access is good lest you piss the neighbours off.

Probably very rarely to be honest. Mainly because of the need to preorder. If I am heading away from the school in the other direction I am not going to walk the other way on the chance that you have what I want available without ordering.

I might order if I knew I had visitors coming. One thing I would suggest with bread have the option of a couple of sizes. We have a micro-bakery/deli here and the bread is fab but the sizes are massive. We would never get through it all.

I couldn't be tempted, I have a lovely work colleague (very part-time) who does this sort of thing in her totally pristine kitchen. She is a fantastic baker but then posts a picture of her kids 'helping' so no, I can't 100% be sure you would always adhere to bakery standards when the marketing cameras are off.

I'm probably an extreme case though 🤣.

Home businesses have to adhere to the same standards as shops.

Yeah but I don’t get to go in the home, I can go in the shop 🤷‍♀️ and realistically, a team of staff in a shop/cafe with a boss/owner are more accountable than 1 person doing a hobby in their home where they only have to get it right when eho show up every year or so. Obviously plenty of shops get it wrong too, but the chances are higher of no dogs visiting the kitchen there at least

As a treat maybe, not regularly due to cost.

If you do real non-sliced wholemeal without additives, yes.