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The Rotunda
Thursday, January 30, 2025

The Bakery closes for good

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The Bakery

The Bakery, a small Farmville business which has been around for 12 years, is set to close at the end of April, according to one of the owners, Synthia Starkey.

“We opened for the Heart of Virginia in 2004,” Starkey said.

Among the many accomplishments they have achieved as small business owners, they have provided bread for the Prince Edward County School System for roughly five years, which they stopped services for during the spring of 2016.

“It was tough because you never knew when the orders were coming and the orders were huge, so you had to call people in… we weren’t big enough to have people working all the time,” said Starkey.

The owners would have to call people into work when the order was placed, causing employees to work unbelievable hours, up to 120 hours a week, according to Starkey.

“When we gave that up, that was good…I’m assuming now Flowers is supplying the bread to Prince Edward,” stated Starkey when asked about who currently supplies the bread.

The owners have been talking about retirement since the fall of 2015.

“We should have had the business on the market… but we are really just ready to retire,” said Starkey.

The Bakery

The business now has a storewide 20 percent off sale on all items, excluding items used within the store.

When asked about whether or not they would be closing at the end of April, Starkey replied, “we’re trying to sell the stuff off the shelves, we’ve got a sale going and so we’re not specific exactly when, but we’re sure it’s going to be that last week.”

According to Starkey, they have had the best business around Christmas and right around graduation.

“The sale has definitely improved sales and I hope it continues to so we can sell out of our merch(andise),” said Starkey.

When asked about who is taking over the space, Starkey stated she wasn’t sure it was something she should mention.

“The Bakery is finished, we didn’t sell it,” said Starkey. “We heard some people were interested, that didn’t pan out so that’s it. So when we close, The Bakery closes.”

They will announce their official closing over Facebook.

When asked how much they were trying to sell The Bakery for, Starkey did not think it was worth mentioning, since the space was already rented.

“If someone wanted to get our recipes or all of our expertise or our suppliers… well that would be something to talk about,” stated Starkey.

The Rotunda reached out to Larry Atkins of State Wide Realty Co., who was unavailable for comment.

The Bakery has been a part of Farmville and its culture for over a decade and with that, the owners simply hope it has left a lasting impact.

“It’s interesting, we tried to bring a bit of sophistication to Farmville and hopefully people appreciated it and enhanced or increased their knowledge… because that was the whole point,” said Starkey.