I really hate the fancy appliances that companies put out these days. Like the fridges with a touch screen on it. Like why does my fridge need a touch screen? Wtf? 

1 hour ago, Ozlsn said:

And it probably won't leak!

Or at least won’t need a technician to fix…

2 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

I also think braggie's fridge is dumb. It comes with a pitcher for water. Great. I can buy a $35 pitcher with a filter and fill it in the sink and get the same result.

And it probably won't leak!

1 hour ago, Maggie Mae said:

I guess I'm just a little confused if we are talking about the same thing. Because a place with dedicated staff, display cases, and seating sounds like a bakery to me, more than a bake sale.

No, it typically takes place in a church hall or gym or a cafeteria at school or a community center. It’s not a permanently set up bakery, but these kinds of locations typically have some tables and chairs in a back room to put out and a fridge in the back, sometimes even plates and cutlery and a dishwasher. The “staff” are just volunteers who come out for the day. So you have one person making coffee, one handing out cakes, one handling payments and one in the back to get new cakes from the fridge, cut them, bringt them out etc. It’s all very much improvised and nothing like a real cafe or bakery.

9 minutes ago, Mrs Ms said:

but it is super common here and would be front page news if someone got food poisoning anywhere in the country from one. 

Agree. I’ve never heard of food poisoning from a bake sale, ever. I know it makes sense to have all the hygiene regulations in place for professionally run businesses. But for charity bake sales, apparently they’ve been doing fine without those for decades here. It’s just not an issue.

52 minutes ago, Maggie Mae said:

They aren't completely wrong. Inflation IS making it hard for everyone. Wages aren't and haven't matched inflation in a long time.  However, economics is a complex topic and there are a thousand reasons why food, housing, and basic supplies are more expensive. [snip long paragraph of stuff no one cares about] 

The "I truly don't know what we are going to do" is ridiculous. I have a suggestion. 

Get. A. Job. 

Like every other person who wasn't born into the 1% (and even they have jobs.) Plenty of people are struggling with mental and physical health and still go to work. Go sign up for a temp agency. There are tons of jobs that are just one or two days - company needs someone to catch up on filing. Company Y needs someone to sort out some boxes. Company Z needs someone to fill in and answer phones for a week. It's money that can help.  I can't see how someone who has experience with public speaking, can write coherently, and operate computers and basic software couldn't keep a job. I see people every day who don't email, can't figure out websites, don't know a browser from a bulldozer. Unemployment is at like 4%, everyone is having workforce shortages. We've hired so many terrible receptionists and had an administrative assistant who called out 25% of the time and we still worked with them. 

So in the US, a bake sale is usually something put on by a group - like the French club wants to go to France, or the Band needs to raise money to get new uniforms, or a church group wants to raise money to send to a natural disaster type place.  They are low-key -usually, people donate some brownies or cookies, and it's just a couple of card tables in a hallway or on a sidewalk somewhere. They aren't going to buy glass display cases and set up a storefront. Maybe in areas wealthier than mine? 

Not only is that a waste of money that they need to get to the fundraising goal, it also would open up a ton of liability and be against the law. Restaurants have to follow very specific laws - they pay $$ for their building, for commercial equipment. The employees go through either ServSafe or Food Handlers classes or both. 

They have to carry certain types of insurance (commercial liability, liquor liability if they have a liquor license, music licensing if they have music, property insurance, car insurance if they have commercial vehicles, excess/umbrella, etc. ) They have to renew licenses and undergo extensive permitting.  They have to submit plans (all of which come with a fee), every time they change things.  Everything is inspected and regulated-  seating, business plans, outdoor seating, signage. It's extremely expensive to start a restaurant and I don't know why anyone would want to, the margins are so low. They require so many employees and there is so much overhead. 

The bake sale where some kids sell each other cosmic brownies at lunch a few days a month is one thing, but setting up a permanent location where you ship orders, or operate what appears to be a bakery that skipped the legal process is another.  

I guess I'm just a little confused if we are talking about the same thing. Because a place with dedicated staff, display cases, and seating sounds like a bakery to me, more than a bake sale.

And more so than the unfairness of a charitable group being able to operate an unlicensed business at a lower cost than a business that invested heavily and paid for the right to be able to operate, we are talking about food and food safety. Which should be regulated because foodborne illness can kill people. 

 

No, definitely talking about the same thing. Both the places I was involved with in Germany ran it like a cafe/sale hybrid during the school fairs or the open days and had space to store the cabinets during the rest of the year. Plus enough people to bake things and then have people staff it during the day. No clue how other places handled things.
At my kids school here in NZ we do a similar cafe/bake sale hybrid in one of the classrooms for the school fair. The rest of the year, any of the classes wanting to raise extra money for camp or so do a straight bake sale just outside the staff room (which has a kitchen.) A parent or teacher will pre-cut any cakes or slices, a teacher will supervise the cash and the kids serve the baking. Covid has definitely made covering things and wearing masks more of a thing!
As we are a food allergy family, it’s not my favourite, but it is super common here and would be front page news if someone got food poisoning anywhere in the country from one.