Changes at King Arthur Flour

[BakerAunt]

I doubt that it was a political correctness issue: King Arthur, legendary figure of Britain on horseback?

I suspect that King Arthur wanted a logo that due to its simplicity would show up in email and on Instagram and be easily recognizable. As the picture is usually quite small, a simpler logo would be clearer. While I understand that need, I do not understand the need to throw out the logo on product labeling.

I was surprised that they expected we would all want to rush out and buy merchandise with the new logo.

[skeptic7]

I was looking at the things with the old Logo and trying to see if there was anything I wanted. The old Logo is of course on all the cook books.

[chocomouse]

I buy KAF Sir Galahad AP flour in 50 pound bags. I've been thinking about changing out an old poster of birds I have in my studio. I'm going to try cutting the next empty bag to fit the poster frame. I might have to lightly iron the brown paper bag to get some wrinkles out, and I might need to have it matted. I just really don't want to let go of that old logo!

[BakerAunt]

I noted that KAF now has a merchandise section called "Classic Logo." I don't know if that is because they still have a lot with that logo on it, or if it is yet another marketing ploy. (A couple of sale items seem to have moved there at full price.) Time will tell.

I like your idea, Chocomouse.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Chocomouse that is a very cool idea. What do you do with Sir Galahad?

[skeptic7]

Chocomouse thats a very good idea. I'm sure it would be beautiful.

[chocomouse]

The Sir Galahad is what KAF sells wholesale, to "professional" bakers, in 50 pound bags. I believe it is the same flour as their All-Purpose; it behaves the same way. For me, it's just a convenient way to buy flour, and I use about 100 pounds a year.

[skeptic7]

How much does 50lbs of flour cost? How do you store it? Can you just drive up to the King Arthur store and buy it, or is this a special order? I go through a decent amount of flour a year, but I would find it hard to store more than 15 lbs in the freezer. At the moment I have 5 lbs of white flour in the refrigerator because I don't really have space in the freezer.

[Mike Nolan]

Depends on the supplier, but 50 pounds of flour is probably somewhere around $20-$30 these days. Shipping is the expensive part, if you can find a local distributor who will sell it to you it is a lot cheaper to pick it up.

My former neighbor, the head of the local Sysco office, used to grumble about the price of flour going up, remembering a time not that long ago when he could buy it for $8 a bag.

[chocomouse]

The 50 lbs I bought last week cost $29.95; it usually runs $25-$30. It's about the same as buying 5 lb bags on sale at the grocery store, or 25 lbs at a big box such as BJs. For me, it's about the convenience. You can just walk into the KAF bakery store and buy it; only once have they been out of it when I wanted it. They will even put it in your car for you! A few weeks ago, when the store was closed to shoppers due to Covid, you could call them and pick it up at the back door within 10-15 minutes (and could get anything they had in stock that way, also). I'm not sure if they are still doing curbside pick up now that the stores have been allowed to reopen.

KAF sells 5 pounds of AP flour for $4.95 in the store. Most grocery stores around here sell 5 pounds for 4.29. A few times a year, groceries sell it for 2 bags for $5.00

[Mike Nolan]

I think Costco has the 12 pound bag for $6.99, Walmart and Target have the 5 pound bag for around $3.49.

[BakerAunt]

I was thinking about using a 10% coupon at Bakers Authority, but I forgot and the coupon expired. I'm not sure how much the shipping would have cost, but I was looking at the 50 pound bag of Sir Galahad. I suppose that I would have had to put it in the cart in order to get a shipping calculation. Once the weather cools down, I do not have an issue with storing it in the two 25 lb. containers that I bough back when KAF was willing to ship 25 lb. bags of flour. We keep the apt. cool in the winter, so the flour would be fine, and I could re-fill the 10 lb. container that I keep in the house from it.

[Mike Nolan]

I suspect they'll have another offer soon, they seem to run them once or twice a month.

[chocomouse]

I do not refrigerate AP flour, but store it in my pantry which is a bit cooler than the rest of the house. I buy whole wheat in 20 pound bags, usually buying 2 at a time, and keep the spare bag in the freezer. I think the whole grains go rancid a lot faster than the more processed all purpose.

[BakerAunt]

King Arthur is getting a lot of comments on the logo change. It seems to break down between the people who like "clean, modern logo" (whatever that is) and the people who know the company's history and are attached to the classic logo.

KAF did say the new logo would be easier to see on a smartphone, so that was part of their thinking.

I received my new catalog this weekend. It still says "King Arthur Flour," and it still has the classic logo, so while the change may have been in the works for a while, the decision was made after the current catalog was printed and sent out for distribution.

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