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Ask The Expert: Kris Barton

Q. What advice would you give a person who wants to become a baker? A. A baker has to have passion for their work,which requires them to be detailed oriented and organized. because you want to provide the highest quality product to your guest. The product needs to be golden brown in color, shaped correctly (ex. dinner rolls, french bread etc.) and have overall eye appeal for the guest and of course the product has to taste good

Q. What type of education do you need to become a baker? A. The bakers back in the day, had Dunwoody training. Target doesn't require a education they do onsite training.

Q. What hours do you typically work? A. Depending if the bakery is a scratch or non scratch bakery the hours vary. Target does a 11p-7a shifts for high volume stores and 4a-noon shifts for low volume stores. Scratch bakeries like Driskills bakery (the store I use to work for) started the bakers at 7p-6a.

Q. Are there a lot of job openings in the business? A. Recession, Recession, Recession......there has been very little turnover in the Target bakeries

Q. Do people specialize in one area or more? A. With Byerlys and Driskill, the bakers must be able to bake everything from breads, cakes, browines, turnovers etc.

Q. What are the benefits of working for a big company rather than a small town shop? A. Big companies: Health insurance, 401K, Pension, Holiday pay, Promotions, Reviews...and hopefully a paid increase yearly. Small town bakery: Satisfaction of having a job. Benefits do not exist as above. Q. Any more information you wish to give? A. With being in the bakery business for over 20 years, A LOT has changed. In house scratch bakeries are almost non existence. A few Cub stores and Ma and Pa store still do the old fashion baking. Most bakeries have a central warehouse that do all the baking and than they ship the baked goods to the stores. The warehouses are like a assembly line of machines, kicking out massive amts of product.