If each day of the week was assigned to a specific business, Saturdays would get the bakeries.
Because it’s a long-hours, low-profit enterprise, free-standing bakeries are a dying segment. Young people don’t start new ones and the old owners are dying off.
Supermarkets have poached most of the bakery business but little of the homespun atmosphere.
Dunkin’ Donuts does a good job with donuts, but avoids the more decadent chocolate long johns, fried cinnamon rolls and creampuffs.
Then there’s the family-owned aspect.
Lietzke’s Bakery was a staple in my youth. I visited them every morning after the paper route, bike-able weather permitting. They opened at 5:30am and I was usually the first customer. I traded them a fresh newspaper for a fresh confection. I knew the owner and I knew the counter gal. Both had been there forever.
I’ve loved baked goods ever since. I like to say I’m half Swedish, love Danish, and always Finnish!
Both bakery gals passed away long ago, and Lietzke’s Bakery closed decades ago too.
But I always visit that space in the strip center during any trip to my childhood haunts.
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More:
My Job as a Baker: Donut Forget the Experience
My Job as a Paperboy: Love Your Kids? Make Them Work
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