A New York Bakery Is Selling a Loaf of Bread for Almost $60 — and Not Everyone Is Happy About It

A bakery on Lafayette Street in New York sells sourdough rye bread made from just four ingredients: water, flour, salt and time. A whole loaf, weighing about a kilogram and a half, costs customers nearly $60, with a half loaf going for $30 and a quarter for $15.

"First of all, this is a substantial piece of bread. The price reflects all the effort and costs that go into making it — from importing organic rye flour from Austria to the baking itself, done right here on Lafayette Street," co-owner Tim Auer told People magazine.

Why the Bread Takes So Long to Bake

According to Auer, preparation time plays a major role too. The rye starter has to be fed daily and left to ferment, which takes about 24 hours. The dough then has to rise twice, get shaped into a loaf, be baked, and finally rest for around 12 hours before it can be sold or eaten.

What Bread Usually Costs

On average, New York bakeries sell sourdough bread for around $10, with specialty varieties going for $14 to $16. By comparison, a loaf at a well-known Prague bakery costs the equivalent of roughly $4 to $7.

The bakery has a long tradition — it was founded by Auer's great-grandfather and has been passed down through the generations. By opening a New York location, the owners are betting not just on the product itself but on showcasing the craft of baking: thanks to the open kitchen, customers can watch on the spot as a nearly $60 loaf comes together. Besides bread and sandwiches, the bakery and its website also sell a baseball cap with the shop's logo for $80, a wooden knife for $18, and a wooden cutting board for $180.

Backlash on Social Media

Alongside enthusiastic customers willing to shell out tens of dollars for bread that would seem unusually expensive to Europeans, the bakery has also drawn its share of critics. Under its Instagram post, people haven't hidden their outrage. "I'm a baker myself, and charging $60 for a loaf of bread is completely out of line. At a time when we should be talking about sustainability, respect for food and accessibility, turning a basic staple into an expensive luxury item for the rich looks really bad," one commenter wrote.

"You charge $60 for bread but pay your baker only $23 an hour," another user added. "Stop turning bread into a luxury good," wrote yet another commenter.

The chain Lidl capitalized on the bakery's viral attention and its steep prices for its own campaign, putting up ad banners reading: "$60 for a loaf of bread? Ours is a lot cheaper — $3.99."

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz