Buying dessert for the holidays might be pricier this year, and local bakeries aren’t happy about it.
Whether it’s a pastry, a butter croissant, or a chocolate cake, customers will likely be paying more because the cost of ingredients has escalated quickly. Many bakeries have had little choice but to pass at least some of those additional costs to their customers.
Prices have skyrocketed in almost every sector, with customers grappling with higher gas prices, rents and groceries. But for food vendors, inflation has taken a significant toll on already-thin profit margins, leaving them with an uncertain holiday season.
“Everything we buy has gone up,” said Michael Manni, owner of LaSalle Bakery Inc. in Providence. “We do our best to [buy] from multiple vendors, to try to find the best price, but the cost of manufacturing has gone up, therefore everything has gone up.”
And it really is everything: butter is up 70%, milk prices are up 34% and eggs have more than tripled in the last year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The cost of sugar, chocolate and walnuts is up too. Chefs throughout the state are reporting record-high prices for many kitchen staples.
Amy Foster, owner of the dessert and bakery café Pastiche Fine Desserts Inc. in Providence, says she hasn’t seen prices escalate like this in more than 30 years with the business.
Over the last two years, she has seen prices increase up to 20% in some cases, and more than double for products shipped from overseas, where shipping expenses are added to the already inflated prices.
Case in point: wicker baskets that Foster buys from China jumped from $2 to $5 each. She uses them to make cookie platters. There has been a similar price jump for the raspberry puree she buys from France to make sauce or mousse fillings for her holiday cranberry raspberry tarts. Foster has little choice but to pay up. The puree is an ingredient she can’t work without, but these added expenses are taking a toll.
“It wasn’t something we wanted to compromise on,” Foster said. “We’re not using [a] lower-quality ingredient.”
Xavier Mauprivez, who co-owns French Confection in Middletown with his wife, has been dealing with both the problem of rising prices and lingering supply chain snags.
For French Confection, butter, a staple for the bakery’s popular croissants, has increased from $2.50 a pound to $4.70 a pound. A little over a year ago the price for a case of frozen pasteurized eggs was $35, Mauprivez says. Now it’s over $100. And that’s only on the days when he can get his hands on a shipment of eggs.
“It’s kind of crazy because I expect my supply to come in and then it doesn’t. So I have to go look somewhere else,” Mauprivez said.
Mauprivez is not alone in his struggle to find chicken eggs. An almost record-breaking outbreak of avian flu has caused the death of more than 49 million birds – both wild bird and poultry – in 46 states since early 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. As a result, egg production was 8.83 billion during September 2022, down 3% from last year, according to the USDA.
But it’s not just the rise of food prices that is worrying vendors.
“Out of control” shipping prices, higher manufacturing costs and increased labor costs are cutting into his business’s margins, Manni says. It’s becoming harder to make a profit, with leftover money from sales often going toward maintenance and repairs around the bakery’s two locations.
“It’s going to start getting real scary in this country really fast,” Manni said. “You’re going to reach a point where the expenses surpass your sales, and it’s going to get real scary if things don’t level out.”
Mauprivez says he had to increase his prices to continue to make a profit. His butter croissants once sold for $2.85 each. Now it’s $3.25. Small cakes that used to sell for $22 are now $26.
Most customers understand, Mauprivez says. But at the same time, increasing retail prices comes at the risk of driving some clients away.
“There’s only so much you can do,” Manni said. “You can’t raise your prices too much because … people might not buy it.”
With holiday season on the horizon, many vendors remain optimistic that business will be steady. Despite rising costs, Foster says she is expecting a busy holiday season that’s not much different than past years. After all, she said, “people always want to eat sweets.”
Manni and Mauprivez share the sentiment.
“It’s a pretty seasonal business,” Manni said. “I’m not concerned about people coming in. We’re just not making the same profit.”
With reports from The Associated Press.