• anthropicprincipal [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    The reason many pastries and bread are overproduced by a ratio of 1-2x what is sold is that humans don't like buying food off empty shelves.

    When I worked as a pastry chef's apprentice we would bin about equal bread, muffins, croissants to what we sold every day. When we made just what was theoretically needed we would only sell about 60-70% of normal. Trust me, the owner tried everything before that place became a Starbucks.

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      This sounds true and reasonable but is also incredibly perverse at the same time.

      • anthropicprincipal [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Stores experiment with that too. The depth on shelves for speciality items is usually less than other aisles.

        Folks still buy more fresh goods though when there is a lot of them. No one is angling to buy the last head of lettuce.