bake - November 2013 - PAN39

bolillos per day, depending on the time
of year. Their bakers monitor inventory at all times throughout the day.
Whenever a half rack of bolillos is sold,
they make another batch.
What's interesting nowadays
is that the evening rush, especially
during the holidays, is as big as the
morning rush at Pan Dulce. "At 8:30
p.m., we'll see a line outside the doors
of people still buying lots of breads,"
Arza says. "They like to come in late
at night to buy their breads for the
morning. At 8 p.m., we do our last
bolillo production run."
Pan Dulce is open seven days a
week, from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Bolillos are a signature item at
this Lincoln bakery, and increasingly
customers are buying filled bolillos,
which are stuffed with cream cheese
and either jalapeños or chorizo. Filled
bolillos account for 5-10% of their total
bolillo sales.
Their business is mostly retail, but
wholesale sales to corporate cafeterias and local restaurants represent a
healthy percentage of business. Arza
estimates that their bakery produces
about 3,000 pieces of sweet bread
per week, in addition to teleras for
numerous local restaurants that use
them as sandwich breads."
Well-established Hispanic grocery
stores like El Rey Food Markets, which
opened its first store in 1978, are
bolstering their customer appeal with
the use of eye-catching promotions
and innovative product lines.

"We run weekly specials through
our local newspaper where flyers are
distributed to individual households
in the neighborhoods where our
stores are located," says Villarreal
of El Rey Food Markets. "Our main
festival of the year is Fiesta Mexican
at the Summerfest grounds. We have a
booth there of only our bakery products. Also, during the year, if there
are different events in the morning,
we are always asked to donate fresh
bakery for the events."
Wedding and quinceañera cakes
also represent a growing part of El
Rey's business because, as Villarreal
explains, of the convenience factor.
"The people want to order from a
reputable bakery and business that
they are familiar with," he says. "We
can make simple one-tier cakes to
cakes with up to five tiers and all
kinds of other attractions on such as
swans, water fountains and so on. The
people are able to pick their batter,
their filling and their frosting, as well
as the decoration, of course."
The majority of customers who
shop El Rey are of Hispanic origin,
especially at their location on Cesar
E. Chavez.
"Our stores and products are what
matters to all of our customers," he
says. "We still have to maintain our
Hispanic heritage in our products,
which is our calling card. But we
are also always adding products that
might appeal to a cross-section of
customers."

Ex c e p t i o n a l p ro d u c ts a n d
customer service are what bring
customers coming back from one
day to the next. Villarreal says that
customer familiarity with the staple
bakery items that people know and
recognize and their bakery's ability
to offer cakes for all occasions remain
as important to their success as ever.
"Consistency and quality in all products that we produce at all times is
important to customers," he says.
Carlos Jacobo of Jacobo's Grocery
agrees that shoppers will come back
to your store when they understand
your passion for excellence. That is
one of the most important lessons
he's learned in 37 years at Jacobo's.
"Being able to build a strong
customer base takes time," he says.
"But when you have great pride in
what you are doing, the customers
really appreciate your products. That's
the reason the customers come back
for more."

NOVEMBER 13

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PANADERIA

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bake - November 2013

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