– If there is one thing a pandemic will teach you- it’s how to survive. -Tina C.
I say this because it forced us all to prioritize the essentials from wants… It taught many how to be self-sufficient.
Unfortunately, we had a surge in demand for essential goods like toilet paper, meat, and not enough supply in items like flour and yeast. Everyone realized the need for baked goods and in a blink of an eye, there was a massive shortage. There is nothing more comforting than a basket of nice warm rolls, fresh biscuits, bagels, croissants, bread, pizza, cakes… when you are locked in the house what do you want?!?! Comfort food!
After hours of searching the internet and comparing online stores with bread and yeast/bulk shipping options- I decided to go with Bakers Authority. They had a wide variety of flours, yeast, flavorings, etc, and their shipping was reasonable. I went crazy and loaded my cart- left it for a day and came back to remove stuff prior to paying- no one needs 100 lbs of flour! 20 Lbs of flour and one Lb of yeast seemed reasonable :). I went with some pumpernickel, rye, and all-purpose to start. I must mention that I have never been a huge baker, but the shortage of bread on the shelves had me feeling like it was time to learn! Prior to placing this order, I had a small stash of the basics (I was known to make some pizza dough, pasta, and banana bread, on occasion).
Package received: They take a lot of pride in packaging. I purchased smaller 5 lb bags. Their site does offer 50 lb bags and my next order will most likely include one of those (more on that later). The 5 lb bags are packaged off of larger bulk bags into heavy/durable/high-quality metallic bags (see photo to right). The metallic bags are sealed airtight, and they were wrapped in plastic bags inside the box. I was very satisfied with the packaging. Shipment comes with tracking via UPS (as of the date of this posting). I have made another purchase since my initial one, this time with more items, and the items came packaged the same.
Communication/Shipping speed: My initial order was placed when everyone was in a rush to find flour and yeast- literally every online store showed those three dreaded words you hate to see when online shopping- “out of stock”. I imagine Baker’s Authority was feeling the same pressure on inventory. Also, they are located in NY- out in Long Island, not too far from where I lived. NY was hit the hardest in the US for a while, so I would have to guess that they had limited staff which is another issue. Considering all the things going against them, they shipped at a fast rate! My package took a week to be processed, but I wasn’t mad considering the situation. You would be happy to hear that the recent purchase I did in May 2020- a few months into the pandemic was processed and at my door in under a week! There are still a lot of online retailers who are out of stock of items, this was super impressive. I found their communication to be more than adequate. They sent emails letting everyone know that they were behind because of the pandemic and sent the customary email letting me know my package was on the way.
Mailing List/offers: I signed up for their mailing list with my initial purchase, and I am glad I did. They don’t flood your inbox with junk which is really nice! They send a thoughtful email every so often (like once maybe twice a month), usually with a coupon code. I took advantage of a recent one with 15% off for 5lb (2.27 kg) bags of flour, they had one more catered to baking recently.
Overall: I think they are a wonderful company- this is an unsolicited opinion, in fact, they have no idea that I am posting this. They have a wide variety of items fully stocked and have great shipping speed. They had the items I needed when everyone else was out of stock. The thing I am most impressed with is, I checked their site often, and they rarely had an out-of-stock item. If you are looking for a solid/reliable company to shop for baking supplies with, I highly recommend them!