Home › Forums › General Discussions › KAF reports 2000% increase in online flour sales
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BakerAunt.
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May 19, 2020 at 9:28 am #23973
I saw fresh yeast at our local grocery store today! It probably ended up there as a casualty of the shutdowns in the restaurant industry. It was a block about the size of a one-pound box of butter and selling for $2.99. I was tempted, but I did not see an expiration date, and I know fresh yeast does not last as long as the freeze-dried yeast, so I did not buy it.
May 19, 2020 at 5:17 pm #23982I was able to get a 4 ounce jar of Red Star ADY over the weekend from Whole Foods and saw that envelopes of yeast are available (in my area) from Amazon Fresh. I have an online friend in Canada (Toronto area) and she told me she can't find yeast anywhere. The 4 ounce jar cost $7.99 which is more than a pound of SAF from KA.
May 20, 2020 at 2:14 pm #24001Inside King Arthur Flour, the Company Supplying America's Sudden Baking Obsession | Marker" https://marker.medium.com/amp/p/623034583579
May 20, 2020 at 4:26 pm #24005Nice article! I wonder if the stores I frequent are getting sold out before I get there as opposed to not being able to get any flour. I wonder if any bakeries in my area have extra 50 lb bags for sale. I could try sharing with neighbors 🙂
May 20, 2020 at 6:51 pm #24007If I read correctly, KAF is prioritizing AP flour, so KAF whole wheat may not be as readily available.
May 20, 2020 at 7:37 pm #24008BA, if you happen to see that fresh yeast at the store again, can you take a picture of it and send it to me?
There's been an interesting discussion on fresh versus ADY or IDY on the BBGA Forum, with one baker talking about getting a case of fresh yeast in the summertime that was, well, awful.
May 20, 2020 at 7:39 pm #24009KAF had a local news article this week that they have contracted with a new mill to help process and bag wheat for some of their AP flour, since their usual mills were unable to keep up with the demand and the supply of raw wheat. They're bagging it in 3 pound resealable bags. And since it is not a nut-free, allergen free facility, the flour is not certified allergen free. It is a temporary plan, to solve a hopefully, temporary problem. I wonder when we will start to see those bags in the markets.
May 20, 2020 at 9:01 pm #24012I have seen the 3 lb. bags on the KAF website.
May 20, 2020 at 10:09 pm #24015Mike--the fresh yeast was wrapped in a somewhat opaque plastic wrap that showed what looked like a crumbly cheese inside. It had no writing on the wrapper, just a round sticker that said $2.99. I think there was a sign on the refrigerator holder that identified it as yeast. I'm speculating that these individual packages were once in a larger box that had the expiration date.
May 20, 2020 at 10:43 pm #24018Sounds more like it was part of a larger block that someone cut up into smaller blocks. Bakeries can buy relatively large blocks of it, like 20 pounds.
I know of bakeries that are selling repackaged bags of flour, too. Apparently they don't have to meet all the normal packaging and labeling requirements.
May 21, 2020 at 9:48 am #24032Supposedly there are bakeries that are doing that around here. They weren't in my neighborhood and I didn't want to drive around so I didn't write down the contact information. I wonder if they are still doing it.
May 21, 2020 at 12:33 pm #24035We went to the next town today to shop, for the first time, since March 13, at Aldi's and Kroger. We avoided Walmart. I was impressed with the precautions Aldi's is taking. All the workers in masks and gloves. Sanitized carts (with quarters) at the ready. Shelves were stocked and prices had not skyrocketed. They were low on frozen vegetables. I didn't check meat, other than the 2 packages of frozen ground turkey we were able to buy. Aldi's was limiting meat purchases to two of each. I didn't mind the one-way aisles, and all the shoppers wore masks. We went during the special "vulnerable" time--a little after 8:30 a.m. (Aldi's does it Tues. and Thurs.)
A lot more people were at Kroger. Most were wearing masks, and all the workers wore them. They have banned bring your own bags for now. The flour aisle was sparse, but I saw a bag of Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat flour and a bag of semolina, so I bought both. They had no King Arthur flour. They had "simple truth" organic whole wheat flour, but I don't know how that brand's flour is, and I don't need more whole wheat right now. There was bleached flour, and some Gold Medal Bread flour, some White Lily, and some brand I'd never seen. The paper aisle had much empty shelving.
I've noticed that butter seems to be less expensive--both at Aldi's and at Kroger, where they had Cabot butter on special.
May 21, 2020 at 1:30 pm #24043I saw butter at $2.68 per pound today. The fancy butters (Pflugra, Kerrygold) seemed to be at their usual price.
May 23, 2020 at 11:58 am #24073kimbob, thanks for posting that link. The email that I received that had it - the article didn't show up.
The last time I was physically in Harris Teeter which was March 30th, they had KAF on the shelves, but it was 7:30am and it wasn't going to last long. Since then, I've been using theirs and Sam's Club online ordering and curbside pickup - I quite enjoy it.
As soon as the governor (GA) lifted the shelter-in-place, I was waiting in the express lane and watched people stream into the store with no masks - masks were in the vast minority - it looked like Christmas Eve. The day before I had friends that were in the store and they only saw one family without.
May 24, 2020 at 1:27 pm #24104I placed an order with KAF a couple of weeks ago, I got the shipment email a few days ago and Fedex had it scheduled to arrive today. I looked at the tracking and saw the package hadn't moved since Friday, so I didn't think it was getting here today. Just received a text that the new arrival day is this coming Friday. Wonder what's going on with Fedex.
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