Comment by datsci_est_2015
4 hours ago
You’re disregarding training, labor, and the intangibles of culture and tradition. Those things should be cheaper, but in America we’ve basically all but destroyed bakery artisanship at the altar of capitalist efficiency, so its rarity has now made its products more expensive. Cheese is in a slightly better position, but only barely, and very regionally-dependent (Wisconsin and Oregon, for example).
So yeah, I don’t disagree, it should be about half the price if we had better artisan programs in the US. But I don’t think wonder bread and Kraft singles should set the bar for grilled cheese pricing.
The difference between wonder bread and home bread isn’t rocket science. They use refined enriched wheat with a bunch of additives for shelf life whereas homemade bread is just wheat, water, yeast and salt. The raw materials for homemade bread are vastly cheaper. They make tons of factory processed bread that are dirt cheap and are indistinguishable from some artisanal baker making it.
Cheese has more nuance to it and I agree the difference between Kraft singles and an aged cheese are vastly different especially in time and labor. For instance Gruyère ages for a minimum of 5 months. All of that being said, your artisanal food truck isn’t making the Gruyère and only about $1.50 worth of cheese goes into it (compared to $0.35 if you used kraft singles).