After Heather VanHoose posted a $16.77 receipt for a Sweet Oaks Bakery caramel apple, thousands debated its price. The Paintsville, Kentucky, bakery charges $15 plus tax and a card fee; founder Lydia Johnson says about $10.50 goes to production, leaving roughly $4.50 profit.
The Fruity Pebble apple is a large Granny Smith dipped in homemade caramel, coated in crunchy cereal and drizzled with white chocolate; Johnson says it weighs about 1.5 pounds. Sweet Oaks’ regular caramel apples cost $10; Johnson says the gourmet price rose from $12 last year amid inflation.
Johnson says the roughly $10.50 production estimate covers ingredients, packaging, labor, transportation and overhead. Sweet Oaks has three locations, 35 employees and a 15,000-square-foot commercial kitchen; it makes, packages and transports apples to its other stores. VanHoose said $16.77 was significant for her family but acknowledged she could have set a $10 spending limit.