Facilities: Bakery

We've lost the local bakery from many of our villages and neighbourhoods - yet in France, it is still an integral part of every neighbourhood. The localnet could help bring it back.

This section discusses:

Existing Provision

What

Before we all had cars, a bakery in every village and neighbourhood used to be absolutely essential. Anyone who has been to France will appreciate how wonderful it is to have freshly baked bread, croissants and pastries always within a five minute walk.

How

Most of our bread is now purchased from supermarkets. While this makes bread cheaper, it isn't quite the same as having a freshly baked croissant each morning. “In store” bakeries have had a bad press recently but even where these are simply finishing off the cooking, the results are still preferable to the standard loaf in a plastic bag.

Volume and Frequency

The French approach of daily bread purchases is partly a necessity as the baguettes and batons favoured there do not keep fresh more than a day or so. British households tend to buy most of their bread at the supermarket as part of a weekly shop. An occasional shortage will be catered for by nipping out to the convenience store - but without any great expectation of finding anything terribly appealing there.

Financial Model

The supermarkets have done a great job of making “freshly baked” bread available in store at a reasonable price. Speciality bread, on the other hand can be very expensive.

Providers

While most of us buy our bread at large supermarkets, artisan bakers and home baking are thriving. However, the former are too expensive for most of us to use every day while the latter is too time consuming (and variable in quality) for all but a few to do on a regular basis.

Trends

Local bakers continue to shut along with village shops and post offices.

With Localnet

What

Anything currently available from a supermarket would, naturally, be accessible via the localnet in a matter of hours. However, having baked goods made at the LocalHub and delivered before breakfast will let us all enjoy our mornings that bit more.

How

There is no reason that these techniques used by the supermarkets cannot be used to bake the bulk of the bread required in a neighbourhood - fresh, that morning, in the LocalHub. Where a skilled baker is employed, this standard fare can be complemented by more adventurous and individual offerings according to skill and local demand.

Volume and Frequency

With a baker at each LocalHub and a wide variety of bread available for same day delivery, our buying habits should change. By ordering what we want day by day, we will eat fresher, tastier bread and waste less.

Financial Model

Being based in a LocalHub, the baker has ready access to a large market for his wares - and an easy means of advertising what he has available - whether these are “specials” or simply over-stocks.

Providers

Every LocalHub should have its own bakery - ideally modelled on the French patisserie. These would make pastries and cakes available as well as a wide range of freshly, home-baked bread.

Evolution

Many bakers are also very capable chefs and by offering broader food choices - including ready prepared ingredients for home cooking - even a small neighbourhood should be able to support a full-time chef.

There is also scope to move the “in store” bakery concept one stage further and encourage “at home” bakery. If I could order the dough for a special loaf and simply pop it in the oven shortly before dinner...

 

Comparison

The table below assesses the impact of localnet on this service on a scale of -5 to +5 (details here)

  Existing services As part of localnet Score
Scope

 
Frequency

 

 
Security

 
Convenience
Cost
Quality
Carbon Footprint
Time
Resources Used
Reuse & Recycling
Landfill Waste
Other Differentiators

Services