Price Crunch leads to Less Crunch

USA Today reports on the downsizing of products in Shoppers Beware.

Most of the product-line presidents responded that it was due to increasing commodities prices.

I understand completely. I own a small bakery. We’re in a very tricky position. Our costs for ingredients is going up. We only use normal, natural ingredients. We have no preservatives or other chemicals in our products. We have limited woman-power and handmake our products.

That means that simply in general we have a pricing problem. Some people have a problem paying our prices. If we raise our prices even a few cents, we’re going to lose the main thrust of our selling (3 cookie packs). At Mrs. Fields you pay 1.09 for one cookie. With us you get three cookies for 2.00. Still, that’s pretty pricy for cookies, handmade or not.

But that doesn’t change the fact that milk, butter, wheat, and chocolate costs are increasing. Not to mention transportation costs, shipping costs and a hundred other little costs along the way. Our prices can go up. Sure, they can, but people still expect to pay the same price for a cookie that they paid when they were kids.

Also, our product is a luxury product in a way. How many people are willing to pay prices higher than the supermarket for cookies.

Maybe we should take a cue from Chips Ahoy and cut the size of our cookies in half….

Economic realities

I’m trying to become more aware of everything in my life. What I eat, what I wear, what I buy, what I don’t.

There are some hard facts to be faced. I have credit card debt. I’m on the mortgage with my parents on what is currently a rental property. We bought it before the market busted and hoped to actually live there. Although with the gas prices being what they are, it’s nice not to have to commute from that far out. My parents are retired, so it wouldn’t bother them for too long. (Dad’s on his second job and retiring in five years.)

I’m going to try to take a look at the economic impact of my choices, the ecological impact of my choices, and the social impact of my choices. I’m not going to be preachy about it or anything. As always, this is more for me than anything. It’s a way to organize my thoughts. And heck, I’ll consider this my “real” journal. I’m not trying to live up to anything, but maybe I can document a little bit of my life.