Local bakeries see increase in demand as weddings and parties returnDate: 7/20/2021 GREATER SPRINGFIELD – After a year of isolation, many people are now coming together again as COVID-19 rates decline and vaccination rates rise. With many gatherings such as birthday parties, weddings and large events happening, local bakeries are seeing a rise in demand.
According to Anna Daniele, owner of La Fiorentina, the bakery didn’t shut down at all during the pandemic. It saw a significant decrease in business, but the owners chose to remain open through takeout orders.
“The first couple months last year were tough, but then it got better and better and better,” she said.
La Fiorentina has now welcomed customers back for indoor dining and Daniele said that most of the events canceled in 2020 have been rescheduled to this year.
“For the most part, we are doing them this year. A lot of people are celebrating and getting married this year,” she said. “People don’t get married every day, but people do celebrate their birthdays every day, so we are seeing a lot of birthdays with cakes, pastries and cookies for all occasions.”
Daniele said that La Fiorentina has been able to keep up with this higher demand and are only looking to hire a few more people for the front. She said anyone interested in purchasing a cake or pastries is encouraged to call the shop to order a few days in advance, if possible.
“It’s nice if they order ahead of time so you can know what you’re making, but we never refuse anybody for anything,” she said.
Pan’e Dolcetti in Wilbraham also had to shift their business model during COVID-19.
Co-owner Felice Aiello said that the biggest change for them was their hours of operation. During the beginning of the pandemic Pan’e Dolcetti decreased their hours to 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for four days of the week. It had previously been open 7 days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Aiello said they also integrated an online ordering system where people could place their order ahead of time and pick it up. There was no indoor dining at Pan’e Dolcetti for a majority of 2020.
“Once everything started, we went through Square and they have an online system where you can have people place orders and they can come pick them up. We didn’t have anyone ordering in the cafe for quite some time,” said Aiello.
With a sense of normalcy now returning, Aiello said that they have seen a large increase in orders of cakes for events.
“Only in the past four to five months people have been ordering a lot more cakes and having a lot more parties,” he said. “We make so many more cakes now than we’ve ever done. Before we would do cakes for special orders for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, but now it’s pretty much every weekend we’ll do four to six cakes. Which is a lot for just two or three people who are baking on top of the paninis, the coffees and all of the other pastries we make.”
A large increase in demand means a need for more workers and Aiello said that they have just hired an extra employee to help with the baking.
“The demand is there, so we’re trying to keep up with it,” he said.
Unlike many standard bakeries in the area, Karen Yousfi, owner of Gluten Thief Bakery, has a unique business model that helped her thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gluten Thief Bakery is a home-based gluten free bakery that offers delivery to residents across the Pioneer Valley. Yousfi started Gluten Thief in 2016 and, before the pandemic, she operated as a majority wholesale business. Yousfi would supply coffee shops with her baked goods and would only do about 20 percent retail sales.
When COVID-19 hit, her model quickly switched.
“We found that people just found us, which was great, and they were looking for delivery because of COVID-19. So for us, it didn’t hurt us like it might’ve hurt other businesses. It helped us to shift over to retail so now we are really 80 percent retail, direct to customer, and only 20 percent wholesale to coffee shops,” said Yousfi.
Yousfi had the ability to deliver her pastries directly to customers with no-contact delivery and COVID-19 safety precautions. Many residents took advantage of the fact that they didn’t have to leave their house and could pay electronically or leave money out for Yousfi to take.
In recent months, Yousfi said that people have been less concerned about no-contact deliveries.
“Less people are asking now about no contact, which is interesting to me. We’re still super careful ourselves for delivery, but people are trying to go back to normal,” she said.
Gluten Thief is also seeing larger orders, according to Yousfi.
“Very recently I’ve been getting quite a few calls for cakes for 100 to 120 people. Previous months I would have to say no. People were just ordering for small groups, nothing more than I would say enough to feed 30 people. Now I’m getting several calls in the last few weeks asking if I can make a cake for 100 or 120 and I’m like ‘Wow, I didn’t even know people were starting to gather in those large numbers,’” she said.
Yousfi is the sole baker at Gluten Thief and prepares everything custom made. With Gluten Thief being a home-based bakery, Yousfi is limited in hiring new employees due to strict laws.
Lately she has found it harder to accept all orders that come in with this increased demand, she said.
“I’m finding that we are getting much busier than we have been, so it’s hard because sometimes you have to turn away people if they don’t give you enough notice,” she said. “We can only handle so much business and so during the holiday weeks I always tell people to have their orders in early.”
Those interested in placing an order with Gluten Thief are encouraged to call a few days to a week in advance, said Yousfi. In a time where many other companies struggled, Yousfi is thankful that residents found her business in 2020 and took advantage of its unique model.
“We’re super thankful that people have found us and keep finding us,” she said.
Those interested in learning more about La Fiorentina are encouraged to visit their website at https://www.lafiorentinapastry.com/. More information on Pan’e Dolcetti can be found at https://www.panedolcetti.com/ and more information on Gluten Thief is available at http://www.glutenthiefbakery.com/.
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