We are not the bakery

[Lala]

I’m closing the deli one night, about 8:30 or so, cleaning like a mad woman so I can hopefully get out soon. At the bakery across from us, I see a woman (mid 20s) and an older man (maybe her father). The woman wanders over and asks if we have yellow cupcakes.

Me: I’m not sure. Let me go check.

I take her away from the deli over to the bakery, where the lights are off. On the way over, I realize I have never seen yellow cupcakes there. Sure enough, there aren’t any out.

Me: No, they only have the white or chocolate available, and this is all they have right now. (gestures like Vanna toward case).
C: Oh, OK
Me: Is there anything else I can help you with?
C: No.

So I go back to the deli and keep cleaning and shutting things down. At one point I wander to the back of the deli, and when I come back, the woman is talking to my CW. He gives me this look that clearly says WTF?! So I step in before he says something that will get him in trouble.

Me: Can I help you?
C: Yeah, how long would it take to make a cookie cake for tonight?
Me: Oh, um, we’re the deli. The bakery (points to the dark, empty bakery) is closed. We can’t make a cookie cake.
C: Ooooh.
Me: Is there anything else I can help you with?
C: No.
Me: Well, let us know if there is.

Me and CW just look at one another and shake our heads.

And recently we’ve had a rash of customers who come in at 8 pm or later who want to order a cake for the next day; usually for their kid’s birthday party.

[Mytical]

See I can explain the Cake thing, and not just by CST either . They are confusing make at home cakes with bakery cakes. You can make a cake at home pretty quickly, because of instant mix. Sure most of the time it doesn't taste the best, but ...

Bakery cakes are generally made from scratch, and then painstakingly iced to perfection. It takes time to make a cake from scratch. Even if you do it in your own home. Let alone where who knows what else is being made, and where your cake is in the scheme of things.

Then again it is the CST also. You know..time and space have to bend to the EW's whim thing???

[Marmalady]

There was something similar to this on the 'Not Always Right' site recently...

A man went into a bakery and asked how long it would take them to make a cake for his son's birthday. The assistant was explaining to him that it depended on how elaborate the cake was; a fairly simple one could be done by the next day.
The customer's response was 'That's no good to me!'

Suddenly his son bursts into the shop: 'Come on Dad, the party starts in an hour!' (or something like that).

[roothorick]

There was something similar to this on the 'Not Always Right' site recently...

A man went into a bakery and asked how long it would take them to make a cake for his son's birthday. The assistant was explaining to him that it depended on how elaborate the cake was; a fairly simple one could be done by the next day.
The customer's response was 'That's no good to me!'

Suddenly his son bursts into the shop: 'Come on Dad, the party starts in an hour!' (or something like that).

http://notalwaysright.com/without-a-...order-a-3/6555

They kinda hid the search box... took me a second.

[42_42_42]

Bakery cakes are generally made from scratch, and then painstakingly iced to perfection. It takes time to make a cake from scratch. Even if you do it in your own home. Let alone where who knows what else is being made, and where your cake is in the scheme of things.

Hate to burst your bubble, but bakery cakes are not usually made from scratch. In fact, if it's a grocery store bakery, most of the time, the cake isn't even being baked in the store--it's baked in a factory and frozen and delivered to the store frozen, where it may be thawed and refrozen several times before it makes it to the sales floor. Unless the baker/bakery specifically advertises made from scratch cakes, the cakes are being made from a mix. These days, scratch baking is so rare in the industry that it is a specialized niche and those of us who do bake from scratch are able to charge a premium for our products.

[Lala]

Yeah, most everything from the bakery comes in frozen, except for a few items (cream cakes and loaf bread are a few). Which leads to fun times when a certain customer comes in at 8:30 and wants a "fresh" cake slice from the freezer. The freezers so full of racks for the next day, we can't even walk into it. We end up just poking around for a few minutes and then tell her we can't find it. Come back when they're open!