Switched our pastry case from printed labels to a chalkboard and cut waste by a third
For two years I was printing those little date stickers for every croissant and muffin in the case, and every night we were tossing stuff that was still perfectly good. Last spring I grabbed a $12 chalkboard from a craft store on a whim and started writing the bake times right on it instead. Turns out people actually read it, and my crew stopped secretly pulling things early just because a sticker looked old. We went from tossing about $180 of pastry a week down to around $60, and honestly the case looks warmer too. Now I'm wondering if the same trick would work for our grab and go sandwiches, has anyone tried ditching labels for a board on cold cases?