Trending
CORTLAND -- Family-owned bakery Just Pizzelles fulfilled its last orders Saturday after providing 15 years worth of baked goods to the community.
The downtown store shut its doors after Saturday's final sales, as owner Christina Benton and her husband Allan say they are looking forward to enjoying family life.
The rising costs of goods and packaging, and customers' buying habits, the family said, ultimately led them to closing the 211 W. Main St. shop.
"We have no family life," Benton said. "So now I'm kind of excited to actually have a little bit of a life and do something before I'm too old to do anything. It's a bittersweet, tough decision. But for now, it's the best for us."
"We've been thinking about it for the last year-and-a-half," Benton said. She added,"all the costs of everything constantly going up, the economy being the way it is, and customer buying habits changing, as everyone's cutting back on things and just buying necessities," caused the family to take a step back.
"And we ship nationwide," Benton continued. "So we've seen this for about a year-and-a-half, on just a decline on different things and the price hikes. Especially this quarter, out of nowhere, everything across the board."
Although the owner said they have lower costs than many other bakeries because of being mainstreamed and filling specialty orders, they also said grocery costs are fluctuating in general. "There were certain ingredients that were up and down, fluctuating, and we were able to control and maintain," Benton said. "But now, when we hit April this year, and we knew it was coming, we started discussing what we were going to do."
For one box of chocolates that used to be $80, it's now $150 off the shelf, Benton said. She added, "It's a huge case, but that's happened with everything we've used. It's been a dramatic increase."
Benton continued, "And of course it's a different world because a lot of people are used to free shipping from certain companies. So then for small businesses it's hard because we can't offer that. They still have to pay shipping and a lot of people aren't willing to do that."
Through 15 years of business, Just Pizzelles added their only percentage-based price increase about one year ago, Benton said.
"It's a 24/7 thing being a business owner to where we really don't have time outside of here to do anything," Benton said. "We don't have weekends. Even though we're only open a few days a week, we're here working and shipping for six to seven days a week."
Other fees, including the store's website, processor, ad blocking, and email marketing also drove up costs of doing business at Just Pizzelle. "A lot of business owners do get loans and things to help them," Benton said. "But I've bootstrapped this entire time and done it myself, and I'm just not a comfortable debt person. So, I could continue and grow it to the next level. That's just a choice that I'm uncomfortable with."
Benton said she will move on to a job waiting for her, where her skills learned as a store owner will transfer, while Allan is on the hunt for something new.
The business has never seeked partners or investors to work with, Benton explained.
"Maybe I should try for this, or maybe I should try for a partner, but then you lose what this small family business thing really is. All of that comes to a halt where it's just time to close a chapter," she said.