Sisters/partners learn to roll with market, life
The list of things affecting Julie Zito and Lisa Constantino’s bakery business keeps growing. Not only are costs rising for expenses from utilities, rent and insurance to ingredients, each sister is raising three children 6 or younger.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
Learn More
When they started Pastry Gourmet 14 years ago, they both were under 30, Zito said.
They could work 24/7 without hesitation. Now, Zito has 6-year-old triplets, and Constantino’s children are 4, 5 and 6 years old. Having school, gymnastics, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts to think about “changes the whole dynamics,” said Zito.
But, she said, Pastry Gourmet is not going out of business, as some of the chain’s fans had feared.
Instead, the sisters are consolidating the business to run more efficiently, closing two stores this year. They chose the Smithfield and East Side outlets for closure because they felt their three remaining locations could support customers from those stores, Zito said. The shuttered stores had been in those locations for about 10 years.
The remaining shops are in Cumberland, Wickford Village and North Providence. (At one point, the bakery had seven locations; it had cut back to five within the last five years.)
“Business has changed over the years,” Zito said. “It’s not the same. Initially, it was the whole carb thing, people cutting carbs. Even 9/11 affected us – insurance tripled.”
Add to that $6,000 gas bills, rising rents and competition from the national chain stores, and it became necessary to consolidate, Zito said.
“I’m not the least bit surprised that bakeries are having difficulty,” said Bob Comerford, professor of management at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Business Administration, “because nearly every big-box store I know of has a bakery in it.”
The price of gasoline could be another deterrent for consumers, said Len Lardaro, a URI professor of economics. “[It’s] making people economize on driving.”
The slowing of the national and state economies are also affecting people’s buying habits, he said. “People are not sure about the longer term, so they start to change short-term behavior.”
Comerford said bakeries that are “differentiating themselves, offering something the big-box stores aren’t, are the ones faring the best right now.”
That concept applies to any small business competing with national giants, he said.
Differentiating themselves in the marketplace is what has kept Pastry Gourmet in business this long, Zito said. Four years ago, the sisters built a baking facility in Providence that is the source of all the company’s more than 300 varieties of pastries, cakes and breads.
“That’s what’s made us so solid over the years,” she said. “We do everything. You can’t just bank on one type of thing. You can’t do something based on a trend.”
Quality is another differentiator, she said. Pastry Gourmet uses all-natural ingredients, such as fresh berries and apples from local growers, and fresh eggs and cream.
The customization and craftsmanship of their wedding and special-occasion cakes also keeps customers coming back, Zito said. Constantino, the head decorator, has been known to fashion such unique works as cakes in the shape of flip-flops. She studied cooking at France’s famed Le Cordon Bleu culinary school.
About four years ago, Zito added, Pastry Gourmet started offering children’s birthday parties at its baking facility. During the two-hour party, children get to decorate chef’s hats and aprons, plus a seven-inch cake. It’s definitely a marketing tool, Zito said, because it gets the parents in.
“We redirected some of our business to wholesale,’ she said. “You don’t need a storefront for that.”
Universities and restaurants had been asking them to supply baked goods, she said. That business now comprises about 25 percent of their total sales.
“There was a time we were going to open 10 [stores],” Zito said. “But as times change and things change, we had to reinvent the business.”
