Where Have All the Retail Bakeries Gone?

Think back 5, 10, 15 years, and try to remember all of the mom and pop retail bakeries that existed. In every ethnic neighborhood, you had the Jewish Bakery, the German Bakery, the Italian Bakery and so on. My dad once owned eight bakeries in various neighborhoods throughout the Philadelphia area. Remember the signs in the store windows: “Fresh bread”, “Fresh cakes”, “Butter cookies”, “All Baking Done on Premises.” Those were the days. Bakery owners did the actual baking; they woke early and started baking way before the sun came up. Freezers were small, as there was no need to freeze racks of cake, cookies, and pies. Who ever heard of using a premade mix? Ha, Ha, just add water and mix. Even funnier, today the joke is who ever heard of scratch baking! Remember the names of the bakeries? My dad’s name is Arthur. His bakeries were called, (guess), Arthur’s Bakery. The names reflected who owned the store, not what large corporation owned the store.

Read the rest of this entry »