O’FALLON, Mo. – Heaven Scent Bakery in O’Fallon, Missouri announced is closing its doors after nearly 30 years in business.
“We were looking for a good bakery place. So I Googled it and this place came up and it had a lot of reviews. So I told my husband it has over 1,000 reviews, so it must be really good,” said Mariana Torres.
This was the first visit to the bakery for the Torres family and, unfortunately, it will probably be their last.
“We said well we’re probably going to love it and now we’re going to have to search again and find a new place,” Torres said.
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The business has baked donuts, birthday cakes, and wedding cakes for 27 years.
“This is a family-owned business and they’ve come here with their families when their kids were younger, now they bring their grandkids and it’s just we are a staple in this community,” Tanith Swinney said.
Swinney said the bakery has tried everything to keep its doors open. Some employees are working more than 12-hour shifts but inflation is doubling their overhead costs and they can’t find enough employees.
“When I first started, I believe there was over 45 employees and now we’re barely running on 30. The people that are in the back, there is three people back there right now when there should be six or seven or eight,” Swinney said.
She said it is heartbreaking to close the doors at the end of the month.
“We do normal, every Sunday church donuts. We are Heaven Scent, we are donuts, we are O’Fallon,” Swinney said.