Reader comments
Avenues Bakery closing shop due to increase in food prices

Closing All Over | 12:46 a.m. July 25, 2008

I have a couple "Google Email Alerts" for economic issues like store closings. I usually don't read them anymore, they are so numerous. The untold story is all the "mom and pop" small businesses that are going under all over the country.

You hear about Sears, Sharper Image, Wilsons Leather and other big chain stores that are suffering. Small stores are closing left and right all over the nation. I guess since these are local stores, the local paper might cover the closing, but this national trend is largely unreported.

Grasping and Getting Less | 12:54 a.m. July 25, 2008

I think the landlord may be in for a rude awakening. This store may never again have the steady rent payments enjoyed up til now.

Face It | 6:21 a.m. July 25, 2008

Down town is just out of site on rent
I would be happy to see all of these places move outside of SLC
Maybe the rent will be more reasonable in down town when the City Council stops screwing up business with stupid parking meters and big fines
How stupid
Tracks in the street
Expensive

Comments continue below

Martine | 7:06 a.m. July 25, 2008

I nearly cried at the counter last week when i found out the bakery wouldn't be relocating locally. In the 35 years since coming to the US from Europe, theirs was the only bread i have fully enjoyed. The bagettes and French Country were just the way I remember them growing up or when I visit over there.

I sincerely hope that an enterprising baker will pick up the bread side of the business. I have to say I only had lunch there a couple of times but I walked, biked or drove to Emigration Market several times a week to pick up my Avenues bread.

Last week, I took 2 French Country and 2 Multi Grain loaves with me to Albuquerque where my son and his family moved to 6 months ago. I've done that every month. I had to tell them it would be the last time.

In Salt Lake, there's no substitute for the Avenues Bakery bread.

I wish the owners well but this is a personal loss for me.

Mike | 8:49 a.m. July 25, 2008

I only ate there once. The food was good but the service was so bad I never went back.

ChainSawHarry | 8:59 a.m. July 25, 2008

I grew up in Ashland, 4th generation Ashlander. I think the Chadbournes will be surprised by the type of folks who live there now. I will take the SLC'ers above some of the "nut cases" living in in that lovely city. All is not well in Ashland. Good luck folks!!!

CITIZEN | 9:05 a.m. July 25, 2008

Maybe after senator reid and his collegues get through investigating polygamy,baseball steroids,page boy sex scandals just maybe they can address the forth coming collapse of our economy and the possibility of us becomming a third world country.just maybe they will get around to this!!!

Linda | 9:09 a.m. July 25, 2008

Living in Illinois, we thought that the biofuel made from local corn would be a great way to reduce importing from overseas, and help the farmers and our economy.

We were so wrong! We didn't see the whole picture of how biofuels contribute to lower food supply and higher cost of transportation. Hopefully, we will change this practice in favor of continental drilling, and advancing other sources of fuel. Buying local really makes sense.

Best of luck to the Avenues Bakery. I hope all goes well for them in Oregon.

Ted | 9:41 a.m. July 25, 2008

The Governor can go to Walmart.

dj | 9:43 a.m. July 25, 2008

This irritated me when Desnews first wrote this place might be closing...
WHO CARES if Huntsman and his family frequent this bakery. It has no relevance to the issues at hand.

wYo8 | 9:54 a.m. July 25, 2008

Linda It not only screws up the food chain it uses more energy to create ethonal than it produces.

Whatev | 9:59 a.m. July 25, 2008

I am ok with this Bakery closing because the service there was ridiculously terrible.

Lucky | 10:03 a.m. July 25, 2008

ChainSawHarry you are correct. Ashland does have some crazy people. I live 20 miles from Ashland and try to avoid Ashland at all costs. Also, were they thinking of the high cost of living in the Rogue Valley? Housing is very high, gas is higher than in Salt Lake, I'm not sure moving is going to solve their financial issues. Good luck!

Thank Harry Reid | 10:26 a.m. July 25, 2008

Reid doesn't want to drill off shore, he is going to stop it from going to a vote, so thank him. High gas prices are forcing up the price of food, and so our dear Harry Reid is probably one of the sole reasons behind our misery.

sean | 10:30 a.m. July 25, 2008

Don't leave guys! We'll find you a sweet spot for half the cost on the west side!

Anonymous | 10:46 a.m. July 25, 2008

Sorry they are closing, I ate there occasionally and found the people to be very pleasant and the food was okay. I wish them luck. Most people from Utah are cheap.
The average oil well in the US produces about 9 barrels of oil each day, even if we hit a very productive zone our refineries in the US can not increase their production capacity. Stop thinking the Arctic or offshore drilling is our solution to this problem. The cost of a onshore drilling rig is 8-15 million, an offshore rig is 10 times that and we lost many rigs and drill sites during Katrina and Rita. Do you think we are going to find the mother lode and then set our own price? High priced gas is here to stay and it will go higher with increased demand from China and India. Once again -high gas prices are here to stay, no, higher gas prices are going higher.

Sign of these times | 11:11 a.m. July 25, 2008

Everywhere I look it seems there is another small store closing. Mom & pop shops are a dying breed with the lethal mixture of our economy and the WalMarts.

Art Lost | 11:57 a.m. July 25, 2008

The Bakery may be moving but the baker is not, did you know that he has earned national awards for his bread. It is an art form that is going to be lost. His talents will now be used to bake with the masses in large quantities of rather normal breads. Save the arts!

Listening... | 12:03 p.m. July 25, 2008

to Public Radio the other day and an Economist was talking about how people need not worry about the economy because it will eventually bounce back.

Then reading stories like this and I'm thinking, I sure hope the economist knows what he is talking about.

twmusic | 12:06 p.m. July 25, 2008

I'm sorry to say this, but Salt Lake City is anti-business. People can't wait six months for a zoning change to move a business. Business needs to move fast to be successful and our government processes are so complicated that they crawl. If Salt Lake City government were attuned to the needs of small business, the city would be a much heathier small business climate.

Mike | 1:07 p.m. July 25, 2008

to Anonymous l0:46
Your diatribe on oil sounds like you've been spending too much time reading the liberal/socialist web sites.

to Listening
Only true, unbiased reporting is found on NPR. Just ask them.

Whole grain | 1:13 p.m. July 25, 2008

They'll do much better in Ashland Oregon. People there love real bread. People in SLC go for wonder bread from Walmart.

GO BREAD GO | 1:31 p.m. July 25, 2008

MIke...please shut up!!! this is not about liberal or socialist websites...this problem, big problem is about your stupid republican, conservative, dumb president, so please shut up!!!

Just wondering! | 1:37 p.m. July 25, 2008

How well did Huntsman like this place? Apparently not enough to bail them out. He has enough money to do so if he wanted to. Without anyone knowing about it that is.

FYI | 2:14 p.m. July 25, 2008

The wealthy don't get that way, nor stay that way by bailing out every business they frequent. If that were the case Huntsman along with many of the other highly successful people in this world would be bankrupted faster than they could ever save their favorite businesses. On another note, I frequented this bakery and absolutley loved it. Truly one of the hidden treasures within the Salt Lake City boundries, it is sad that small business are being run over be the larger ones that mass produce and care little about the quality of their products.

johndallas | 2:41 p.m. July 25, 2008

small business go out of business every day in this "cruel" world. Most are underfunded and it's certainly unique for a small business to last for more than a very few years. An earlier article if I remember right said they paid big money for rent.
If the recent rise in the cost of foodstuffs put them over the edge it would have been just a matter of time for them anyway. I'm sure there is someone right now sitting with their calculator trying to figure out how to have their own business and knowing in their minds they can do it better than this bakery did. That's the American dream isn't it?

To: Listening | 2:42 p.m. July 25, 2008

Where did you get the idea that economists know what they are talking about?

Any person with a little common sense and personal study can do better than most economists.

Don't forget that most economists completely missed the housing bubble.

Also, many economists that work for banks, brokerages etc. SPIN like crazy to speak favorably for their employer.

Here's some financial guys that know what they are talking about-

Nouriel Roubini
Peter Schiff
Bill Fleckenstein
John Browne
Charles Hugh Smith
Jim Puplava
Mike Shedlock

Ernest T. Bass | 5:02 p.m. July 25, 2008

About 2 or 3 years ago homes in Ashland were twice what they were in Salt Lake. If it is still the same in the housing market the move may not be worth it.

Ken Goddard | 5:49 p.m. July 25, 2008

Good for them. Utahans are to fat anyway. And who wants to pay 7.5% sales tax. Good luck on the move.

Land of Rain | 9:20 p.m. July 25, 2008

I don't know about Ashland specifically, but other parts of Oregon are tanking hard.

KJB | 11:22 p.m. July 25, 2008

Good. I live about 20 miles from Ashland, Iï¿½ll have to try this bakery when I get over that way.

Oh, yeah...some people in Ashland are a little ï¿½differentï¿½ but so what? Iï¿½ve never had a problem there and most people in Ashland are friendlier and far more accepting of diversity than Utahns will ever be.

4G and one | 9:21 a.m. July 26, 2008

Bless the great work and efforts that go with small business. Great food/average food- Great service/ok service- Wonderful people/not so wonderful people-Great bread/more great bread. Avenues Bakery could not please all the people, all the time, however they did a superb job trying! And I know...they loved doing it!
To Lost Art- The baker is a gifted artist! He's staying and SLC is better for it. The bread keeps rising-hope we will too!

Anonymous | 11:04 a.m. July 26, 2008

Well, all I can say is The Baker at Avenues rocks, and I will always eat his bread.

one more | 10:22 a.m. July 27, 2008

.....And one of the two great bakers is on her way to Ashland. How lovely... SLC gets to keep one baker and one moves on to Ashland. Wish you all great success! Thank you Avenues Bakery.

L | 9:49 a.m. July 28, 2008

I loved having breakfast at the Avenues Bakery, I will miss it terribly. And my family will also miss Gina, she was our favorite waitress and always so nice. We are certainly going to miss out on real bread, where will I go now?

Mike | 9:58 a.m. July 28, 2008

I find it amusing, yet not surprising, that the Des News does not pull any of the comments from the right wing wackos blaming it all on congress. Clearly they are "off topic" according to the rules of engagement.

I also find it amusing, yet not surprising, that some of these people commenting on there talk about the wackos in Ashland. People in Utah having the audacity and lack of self acknowledgement to call OTHER people crazy! LOL!!! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

It is also a shame that more people in Utah still dont see the value in supporting small local business and why, as landlords, it is everyone's best interest to find a way for us to keep them here! Stop being so greedy-- eventually we will all fall.

This lack of just simply getting the big picture is why I sold most of my commerical and residential properties in Utah and moved to San Diego. What a breath of fresh air the real world is.

TRACY | 9:13 a.m. July 29, 2008

IT IS SAD THAT THEY ARE MOVING AND THEIR BREAD WAS WONDERFUL I HEARD A GREAT NEW LOCAL CONCEPT IS LOOKING AT THAT LOCATION SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES IF THE RUMOR IS CORRECT IT WILL BE A WONDERFUL ADDITION TO THE AVENUES AREA

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3 photos

Michael Brandy, Deseret News

James Delamare bakes bread at the Avenues Bakery. The bakery's owners, Kathie Chadbourne and Paul Maurer, are moving their business to Ashland, Ore., where some costs will be slashed in half.

Gallery (3 photos)