Why Grocery Store Bakeries Have Some Of The Highest Profit Margins

With grocery store prices continuously on the rise, shoppers are always looking for ways to save a few bucks. Unfortunately, as tasty as the treats at the in-store bakeries of supermarkets may look, purchasing them is one of the easiest ways to overspend on your weekly shop. That's because the bakery section typically has some of the highest markups in the store. To help explain why, Chowhound consulted frugal shopping expert Alli Powell, also known as Grocery Getting Girl.

"Any time labor is required to prepare the item, it is going to cost more," Powell explains. This includes the deli section, premade items, and the bakery. "Because someone needs to cut it, bake it, slice it, etc., it's going to cost more for that person to do it and the cost is passed on to you, the shopper." In addition, she says, baked goods are particularly marked up because of their notoriously short shelf life before getting stale or even moldy. The price of convenience is another factor that allows grocery stores to mark up their bakery items. "People are willing to pay more here so they don't have to go outside the store to get it," Powell adds.

There are a couple of ways to circumvent the high cost of grocery store baked goods, the most obvious of which is to simply skip them altogether and bake your own pastries at home. "Baked goods like cookies and brownies are so easy to make yourself and while it may not taste quite as good as it would coming from a bakery, I've never met a cookie I didn't like," says Alli Powell. You might even surprise yourself and find that your homemade caramel dark chocolate chip cookie recipe is better than anything you could get at Walmart's bakery.

Of course, there are times when the convenience of buying ready-to-eat desserts trumps frugality. One item Powell thinks are "worth the splurge" are grocery store birthday cakes (or cakes for other celebratory occasions), which are notoriously a pain to make at home and expensive to buy at a designated bakery. "You are getting a really good quality item at a fraction of the cost of a bakery," she says. "You can have the cakes custom decorated which is also so much more expensive at a bakery." If you can't stay away from the baked goods, one tip Powell gives is to look for discounts. "The bakery and meat section in my grocery store both have a discount section where you can find products they need to move soon discounted to great prices," she says. "Also look for sales (especially around the holidays) and stock up."