Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising?

Re:Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising? by Swizec on Thursday October 13, 2016 @05:58PM (#12704407)

"It often seems like even at the cost of getting inferior work-product, many customers have come to believe that cheap pastries are a moral principle."

I think that's the gist of the issue. People want a $5 snack, not a $35 artisanal free-range organic pastry dining experience.

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Re:Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising? by bootload on Thursday October 13, 2016 @06:10PM (#12704504)

"People want a $5 snack, not a $35 artisanal free-range organic pastry dining experience."

My local pâtisserie doesn't charge 5$AUD for a whole range of pastry ~ https://flickr.com/photos/bootload/albums/72157622498559456

The high prices you quote come not from materials, display or worker pay, more probably property location and market they position themselves in.

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Re:Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising? by Swizec on Thursday October 13, 2016 @06:25PM (#12704626)

The point is that there's an upper bound for how much you can charge for a pastry. This induces an upper bound on how much you can spend to make it.

It doesn't matter how skill or how rare the worker is, if you can't sell their work for a higher price.

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Re:Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising? by chewxy on Thursday October 13, 2016 @06:15PM (#12704549)

The prices seem a bit low for 2016. A pastry shop I frequent (not really frequently given my family went low-carbish a few years ago) had their eclairs go from $4.50 to $8 in over the past 5-6 years. :S. Granted they also became a lot more famous.

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Re:Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising? by bootload on Thursday October 13, 2016 @08:52PM (#12705441)

"The prices seem a bit low for 2016."

there are dates on the various shots. Haven't noticed price increases since then. The shop is owned by French owners who grow the fruit/veg (sans exotic). Famous in my town.

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Re:Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising? by eli_gottlieb on Thursday October 13, 2016 @08:50PM (#12705434)

I have to agree with the user "douche" who also replied to you. Depending on where I've gone and how much of a baking culture the locality had, I've often had very cheap, very good food, especially vegetables and baked goods.

(Actually, I'm constantly frustrated that baked goods, especially bread, in the United States aren't made fresh and sold in bulk. The good life was five fluffy pitas, still warm from the oven, for about $2, shelved alongside sweet croissants and savory burekas selling for roughly $4/lb. By comparison, basically everything in America is just crap, especially when I'm paying for the $35 artisanal free-range organic crap.)

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Re:Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising? by douche on Thursday October 13, 2016 @07:06PM (#12704922)

I'm not sure that's the whole picture. For instance, in many European cities, I can get a better quality product for $5 at a corner shop than I can for $35 at some artisanal hipster place here in the States. It's one of the things I love about visiting Berlin; I've never eaten simultaneously so well and so cheaply.

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Re:Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising? by clock_tower on Thursday October 13, 2016 @07:28PM (#12705051)

To think that people yell at me when I say that the US's higher-than-Europe GDP doesn't mean that the US has a higher quality of life...

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Re:Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising? by jessaustin on Thursday October 13, 2016 @08:28PM (#12705350)

Haha yelling is a sign of confusion...

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Re:Pastry Chefs Are in Demand, Why Aren’t Wages Rising? by clock_tower on Friday October 14, 2016 @01:22PM (#12709617)

Good point! People -- including people who should really know better, like government economists -- have been sold GDP as the economy's high score. (Think of Il Sorpasso, when Italy's GDP first passed England's.) It was never intended as more than a best guess, and is one of the many temporary measures for WWII that are still with us today...

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