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Showerthought: the older baker at my farmers market told me she never sells out, and now I get it
I was chatting with a woman who has run a bread stand at the Des Moines farmers market for 22 years, and she said something that stuck with me. She said she always bakes 20 percent more sourdough than she thinks she will sell, on purpose, because selling out by 9am means she guessed wrong. I always felt proud when my table was empty at noon, but she made me see it as lost sales and lost regulars who showed up late. So last Saturday I tried it, baked 18 extra loaves instead of my usual 12, and sold 15 of them in the last 90 minutes. My feet were sore but I made an extra $97. Do you folks plan to sell out, or do you leave some on the table too?
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danielowens16d ago
My buddy runs a taco truck and he did the opposite for years, always ran out by 1pm and felt great about it. Then he started tracking it and realized he was turning away like 10-15 people every single day, mostly the after work crowd. He bumped up his prep by a third and now he stays open til 3 and those late folks turned into his best regulars. Wild how being "sold out" feels like a win until you do the math on who you sent home hungry.
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