Lead Stories

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

To minimise the amount of food that it dumps, the Captain's Bakery outlet in Portmore, St Catherine, carries out a constant assessment of its customers and food supply.

"So on slow days (Mondays to Thursdays) we will cook a small amount," manager Leita Brown-Bryan told The Sunday Gleaner.

However, Fridays and Saturdays see much heavier traffic and, "most of the time on a Friday we have to try hard not to run out. Between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. on a Saturday we really have a rush," Brown-Bryan said.

She noted that after 9 p.m. on Saturdays, the customer traffic slows down and the balancing of demand and supply really begins.

In making the case, Brown-Bryan cited the popular meal of fried chicken and said if that runs out on a Saturday night, more is not prepared. Instead, customers are offered jerked chicken.

Few extras

"It is not like we are going to lose the customer. They will have something else," she said.

There is the odd occasion, though, when the balance does not quite work out and Brown-Bryan said the last time that happened fried chicken was thrown out.

Patties which are left over, "are dumped or our staff gets them", though she said the amount of patties remaining at the end of the day is normally low.

Giving away leftovers is not an issue. Brown-Bryan said: "There might be people who ask for donations. We give them fresh products. If it is not good enough to be sold to the customer, it is not good enough to be had by anyone."

Bread is baked every day except Sundays and bread that is done on Monday, is carried over to no later than the next day.

"On Tuesday, we have hot bread in the early afternoon," Brown-Bryan said.

Small amounts of leftover bread are broken up, packed in sugar bags and sold to fishermen as bait for their fish pots.