Family remains paramount to the mission and success of leading panaderías in Georgia and Alabama, where many Hispanics know and love the flavors and fresh product assortments available at their local stores.

When Cardozo Bakery started business in 2019, owners Uriel, Miguel and Gabriel Cardozo dedicated themselves to the craft of bakery and serving their local community in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Georgia.

“This is our first bakery,” Cardozo’s owners explain. “We worked constantly from the start, making Mexican breads and cakes, and little by little adding more items.”

Giving back to their community is highly important to Esquisito Bakery in Lawrenceville, Georgia, with five retail locations in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. This innovative bakery business is owned by Luis and Dalia Diaz and managed by their daughter Katia and manager Lupe Calderon.

‘We have a strong commitment to our community. We have raffles for free cakes, and we gain new customers who try it out and keep coming back for more,” Luis shares.

In addition, the family-owned bakery runs a successful rewards program in which loyal customers carry a rewards card that is linked to their social media marketing.

“We work a lot on social media,” Katia explains. “Our mission is the backbone of our company.”

Esquisito Bakery operates with a team of highly skilled and informed employees who are all dedicated to the common mission of serving their customers with the best possible services and product quality.

They have a formal quality control program in the bakery in which there is a checklist for staff to monitor and update as each workday progresses.

The bakery adheres to stringent quality control standards following health department rules and regulations.

“Everything is clean and fresh,” Lupe Calderon points out. “Everyone here works together.”

At La Conchita in Montevallo, Alabama, just south of Birmingham, owner Moises Mateo and his wife Maria operate this quaint treasure located in the middle of a small college town, where shoppers come daily for their favorite breads and sweets.

“Before we arrived, this town had no Mexican bakery,” Moises shares. “We wanted to do something that serves the community.”

Why community matters

Community is increasingly important to today’s bakery shoppers, and what is most notable about shopping trends involving US consumers overall is that bakery shopping at mainstream retailers is shifting toward a preference for immediate consumption.

 According to supermarket data from Circana, the true impact of inflation in the current economic climate is “less food on hand.” What this means is consumers are not stocking up on groceries at nearly the same rate as pre-pandemic.

In 2023, using all fresh foods before they go bad scored higher than other methods for combatting food cost inflation than other shopping or eating changes, according to Circana.

Also of note, breads/buns/rolls/tortillas rank eighth among the top 10 foods and beverages consumed in-home, trailing carbonated soft drinks (No. 1), fruit (No. 2), and salted snacks (No. 3).

“Snacking is still a lifestyle in the U.S.,” says Jonna Parker of Circana. “Snacking more doesn’t mean snacking better.”

In annual eatings per capita, savory snacks and sweet treats are trending up, while better-for-you snacks are creeping down over the past three years, according to the latest Circana data.