Behind the Hustle E.04// The Rise In Bread Demand

TL;DR

The video examines the surge in at-home bread baking during the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by quarantined people seeking a new hobby. It highlights the resulting shortages of flour, yeast, and bread machines, and the creative pivot of bakeries like Mr Holmes Bakehouse to selling bread starter kits online.

Key insights

• The entire bread economy has been disrupted by quarantined people taking up baking as a hobby, causing shortages of flour, yeast, bread starter, bread machines, and bread pans.
• Bread machines, first introduced in 1983-1984 and marketed as the next toaster, sold to 3–5 million American households before dying out; Cuisinart bread makers are now exploding in sales on Amazon.
• Mr Holmes Bakehouse, a San Francisco bakery with no prior ecommerce experience, transformed its warehouse into an ad hoc ecommerce operation to sell bread starter kits for ~$25, leveraging its team of