Why not just make it yourself? It's just flour, water, and salt. It's far easier than yeast-based breads and easier than most quick breads, too. Two ingredient (self-rising flour and heavy cream) biscuits are about the only thing that's easier.
The article gives an interesting overview of the history of hard bread, but doesn't mention how Newfoundlanders eat it today. In a fish soup? With tea? Pure? Or all of the above?
Wow, this is actually interesting, I had not heard of people eating hard attack since the American
Civil War. But looking at a map, it doesn't look that difficult to get to, so I'm curious why not just fly it in?
Because no one else really eats it or makes it. AFAIK that Purity factory is the only one in Canada making it and outside of Newfoundland it's hard to find on a normal day even in the rest of Atlantic Canada. And when you do, it's the Purity version shipped over. It's very much a Newfoundland food.
>Grocery stores across Newfoundland and Labrador have been struggling to keep hard bread in stock since a fire at the Purity factory in March put a crimp in the company’s baking operations.
Is it really that hard to raise the price to keep it in stock?
I love how in economics, a shortage can be solved by increasing the price instead of by increasing the quantity. It really makes you understand that the field of economics uses stupid definitions of words.
If you are trying to slow down sales to the point that you are able to consistently replenish stock before the last batch sells out, raising the price will reduce the volume of hard bread being sold. At some point the volume should be low enough that it stops going out of stock.
Just “having hard tack in stock” isn’t the objective to solve for, though.
I’m actually skeptical this shortage affects people too badly, since the stuff lasts forever. Probably enthusiasts have enough in their pantries to last them through a temporary factory downtime?
Raising the price doesn't increase the supply, it just selects who can access it. Most of the people will still not get it, just for a different reason.
Probably not, right? Demand is already there. The factory is already incentivized, it’s just damaged and needed time to get back to full capacity. A contender isn’t just going to spring up because prices are temporarily high.
Even if you already had a factory that could easily be converted to this product, you’d have to factor in the switching cost, opportunity cost, shipping, marketing and regulatory stuff. This likely offsets the consumer’s willingness to pay extra during the shortage, and as soon as the original factory is back, they’re going to price you back out. They’re already operational, as per the article.
In the longer run, maybe, but if the factory is already working to rebuild then arguably that incentive is already met and it's more just the time it takes to get capacity back up, which is not as flexible with spending money on it as people would like.
Why not just make it yourself? It's just flour, water, and salt. It's far easier than yeast-based breads and easier than most quick breads, too. Two ingredient (self-rising flour and heavy cream) biscuits are about the only thing that's easier.
> Proper hard bread couldn’t be home baked.
The article gives an interesting overview of the history of hard bread, but doesn't mention how Newfoundlanders eat it today. In a fish soup? With tea? Pure? Or all of the above?
This has nothing to do with this board's subject matter.
This board is for the discussion of "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity".
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
If this article generates substantial discussion and doesn't veer off into pointless arguing, it qualifies.
Without fish and brewis Newfoundland is just... a big rock.
Wow, this is actually interesting, I had not heard of people eating hard attack since the American Civil War. But looking at a map, it doesn't look that difficult to get to, so I'm curious why not just fly it in?
Because no one else really eats it or makes it. AFAIK that Purity factory is the only one in Canada making it and outside of Newfoundland it's hard to find on a normal day even in the rest of Atlantic Canada. And when you do, it's the Purity version shipped over. It's very much a Newfoundland food.
>Grocery stores across Newfoundland and Labrador have been struggling to keep hard bread in stock since a fire at the Purity factory in March put a crimp in the company’s baking operations.
Is it really that hard to raise the price to keep it in stock?
How does that solve the problem?
I love how in economics, a shortage can be solved by increasing the price instead of by increasing the quantity. It really makes you understand that the field of economics uses stupid definitions of words.
If you are trying to slow down sales to the point that you are able to consistently replenish stock before the last batch sells out, raising the price will reduce the volume of hard bread being sold. At some point the volume should be low enough that it stops going out of stock.
Just “having hard tack in stock” isn’t the objective to solve for, though.
I’m actually skeptical this shortage affects people too badly, since the stuff lasts forever. Probably enthusiasts have enough in their pantries to last them through a temporary factory downtime?
Well if the goal is to avoid you out of stock, just keep one more packet in the back room and never sell it.
That clearly isn't the goal.
You know what's really oversupplied in this subthread? One sentence contrarianism.
(not that I haven't done it myself occasionally, but guys you really are not helping anyone here including yourselves)
Raising the price doesn't increase the supply, it just selects who can access it. Most of the people will still not get it, just for a different reason.
A higher margin increases the incentive for people to make more, though.
Probably not, right? Demand is already there. The factory is already incentivized, it’s just damaged and needed time to get back to full capacity. A contender isn’t just going to spring up because prices are temporarily high.
Even if you already had a factory that could easily be converted to this product, you’d have to factor in the switching cost, opportunity cost, shipping, marketing and regulatory stuff. This likely offsets the consumer’s willingness to pay extra during the shortage, and as soon as the original factory is back, they’re going to price you back out. They’re already operational, as per the article.
In the longer run, maybe, but if the factory is already working to rebuild then arguably that incentive is already met and it's more just the time it takes to get capacity back up, which is not as flexible with spending money on it as people would like.
Would you make a hard bread factory if the price was higher? How high?
It doesn't increase supply, but it slows down how fast the supply sells out. This allows there to always be supply available for purchase.
That implies that everything with a price is always out of stock.
It implies no such thing.
The presence of a price "selects who can access it", hence there's not enough stock to give it away for free. (Sometimes deliberately.)
There’s plenty of stuff you couldn’t get rid of if you gave it away for free. You seem to be ignoring demand.
Wut? That makes no sense.
No, it implies that everything with a price and a supply issue will likely still face that supply issue even with a higher price.
Everything with a price has a supply issue.
No, it doesn't.
Oh, OK.
I'm really glad we sorted this out.