Open A Bakery In My Town?

[GF ME]

Hi everyone. I am kind of a newbie to this site. I was diagnosed w/ Celiacs back in 7/2006 and I haven't felt better. I have always loved to cook/bake, but being gluten-free has been tough for me. I was visiting a gluten-free bakery in the city and purchasing their breads, waffles, cakes for special occasions, baking flour, cookies, etc....but I am sick of spending $100 every trip and not having hardly anything to show for it. $11 for 12 biscotti...That's ridiculous.

Anyway, I am seriously thinking about opening a bakery in Southern New Jersey. My cookies and cakes are delicious and I am sure with some more experimentation I could make anything (and make it delicious). One problem is that I am using a gluten-free baking flour from this bakery, so I would need to develop my own.

I would cater to Wheat, gluten, dairy allergies as well as vegans.

My question to you is... Is there enough of a market for this in the South Jersey area? What are some items that you would love to see sold in a bakery that are hard to get/make.

Thanks!

Michelle

[Sweetfudge]

hm, i'd love it if there were a gluten-free bakery near me! I have also thought about the business idea. I suppose it's worth a shot...

[Clark Bent as Stupor-Man]

depending on where in southern jersey you are, I'm not sure that there is enough of a market to sustain a gluten-free bakery business... not that I'm an expert or really qualified to gauge this... either way, I know a number of areas of southern jersey aren't that populated in comparison to central and northern jersey though I think they've been getting more people due to more affordable housing.. I live in central jersey and work right about where central and southern jersey meet (the brick/toms river/lakewood area).. if your area (or the area where you are considering opening the business) is as populated as the brick/lakewood area, then forget about what I said above.. or you can just forget about everything I said as I really have no clue about businesses and demand for them

on the other hand, since you are also going to offer dairy free foods as well as vegan foods, I think you could gain enough business depending on how you market it... and if your products taste good, people will probably buy them from word-of-mouth even if they don't care about what's in (or isn't in) the food... matter of fact, the more I think about it, as long as you are in an area where you wouldn't really be in competition with local bakeries, you could probably succeed regardless of the gluten-free angle simply with reasonable prices and good food.. I know gluten-free typically means more expensive though but I don't know how significant the price difference would be and how it would affect non-gluten-free customers

as for what to make, a couple bakery items I used to like that I figure would be hard to find gluten and dairy free would be things like cheesecake, a canoli... I haven't really looked for these foods though as I can't really eat anything with sugar right now anyway... which brings up another variable to consider.. a lot of celiacs/gluten intolerant people (moreso for newly diagnosed but also for those who have been for years) have to regulate their food intake for a variety of reasons in addition to gluten: other food allergies/intolerances, leaky gut, candida, blood sugar issues, etc... of course, there are also plenty of celiacs who can eat anything they want outside of gluten.. I just think based on all the above, you would need to have a signficant percentage of your customer base from non-gluten-free people but that is probably achieveable..

if I can square away my intolerances and whatnot, you'll have one customer whenever I go down to AC

[Michi8]

It may be worth it to do some research and build a business case. But may I suggest you start out small? Maybe offering specialty baked items/catering from home? Such as cakes, squares or cookies for various events? You'd still likely have to get a license, but this way you could build up a loyal clientelle that could eventually support a full-fledged bakery business.

Michelle

[lorka150]

I've been doing this out of my home - I would start out that way, personally - it is a lot cheaper.