bekery shop 2

The Sweet Flour Bake Shop constantly smells of freshly baked cookies, and that's because Bite into a Tate's Bake Shop chocolate chip cookie and you'll quickly realize that butter is the not-so-secret ingredient. The thin, crispy, caramel-tasting treats are the signature product of Kathleen King's Southampton, N.Y., bakery – and the guilty pleasure of beach-bound Manhattanites, celebrity fans such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Rachael Ray, and cookie lovers around the country. Growing up on a Long Island farm, Ms. King began baking as a kid and now – some four decades later – sells her confections in 40 states to the tune of $6 million in annual revenue. Her wholesale facility in nearby East Moriches churns out 24 million cookies each year, sold in clear plastic bags for $5 a dozen at retailers such as Whole Foods, Gelson's and Central Market. Ms. King, 50 years old, today has 55 employees, two cookbooks and an ultimate plan to sell her company – for a sweet price, of coursethey're constantly baking customized cookie flavors for patrons, available by the single or by the dozen in any flavor they want. Similar to an ice cream shop, visitors to the shop can satisfy their sweet tooth by choosing their own mix-in flavors that are instantly added to the appropriate amount of cookie batter, flattened into cookie shape and stuck in the oven so they transform from dough to warm, delicious cookies that meet your mouth's every desireThe process is simple, and really, the most stressful part is choosing from the many (more than 20) mix-in flavors, types of dough and spreads that are available at the Sweet Flour Bake Shop. Plus you've got to decide on a cookie format since you can go with traditional, or a sandwich cookie version, either of which I'm sure are making your mouths water just thinking about it. A. I was baking and selling cookies at my dad's farm when I was 11. He said, 'You have to buy your own clothes for school,' so I said, 'OK.' When you grow up on a farm, you start working the day you start walking. We were raised in an independent self-sufficient way – so it was just incredibly natural for me to finish college and create my own job. My mom told me about a fully equipped bakery for rent in Southampton. When I was 23, I bought the location I am still in today. At the time, it was just putting one foot in front of the other. I lived at home; I didn't have any major responsibilities. That's the beauty of being young and naïve – I didn't know what to fear.
From a business perspective, this bakery is genius for a number of reasons; it's a great concept for marketing, and it reduces waste when cookies are baked exclusively on demand rather than made in batches based on prospective sales. It sounds like The Sweet Flour Bake Shop is the first to evolve the bakery business as we know it, but it won't be the last