How is Ghirardelli brownie mix so cheap? Am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

It's sometimes on sale for $2 a box. We love the dark chocolate one. I use a half stick of French butter instead of veg oil the box suggests and it makes the most spectacular brownies. It doesn't make sense.

[Anonymous]

I love their turtle ones and stock up when it's on sale

[Anonymous]

The actual ingredients are super cheap. It's just sugar, flour, vanilla, salt, soybean oil, baking soda, some unspecified artificial flavor, and chocolate components (cocoa and bittersweet chocolate chips).

In the amounts per box, all of those are pennies worth. The most expensive items are likely the chocolate components, and if anybody could get them in great bulk pricing, it would be a chocolate company.

I think the difference in quality is probably (?maybe?, don't know for sure) that they use higher quality chocolate off their other supply lines. They can either make money by charging a lot and selling little, or charging less and selling a lot. I bet they are going for more of a corner the market strategy, given that they can get the ingredients cheaply.

[Anonymous]

Aren't chips like $5 a bag? Are the chips they put in boxes lower quality than the ones they put in a bag? Is there other junk in there I'm not detecting?

We make brownies very infrequently, but I made a large batch of these Ghirardelli dark chocolate ones last night for the Super Bowl and everyone wouldn't shut up about how amazing they were.

[Anonymous]

Chips are less than $2 a bag and they do not include an entire bag of chips in each mix. Also, I would think that Ghirardelli has access to LOTS of even cheaper wholesale chocolate!

They are good, but I prefer homemade without the oils - only eggs and butter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren't chips like $5 a bag? Are the chips they put in boxes lower quality than the ones they put in a bag? Is there other junk in there I'm not detecting?

We make brownies very infrequently, but I made a large batch of these Ghirardelli dark chocolate ones last night for the Super Bowl and everyone wouldn't shut up about how amazing they were.

I mean…Ghirardelli is not buying its own chips at retail to put in its brownie mixes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't chips like $5 a bag? Are the chips they put in boxes lower quality than the ones they put in a bag? Is there other junk in there I'm not detecting?

We make brownies very infrequently, but I made a large batch of these Ghirardelli dark chocolate ones last night for the Super Bowl and everyone wouldn't shut up about how amazing they were.

I mean…Ghirardelli is not buying its own chips at retail to put in its brownie mixes.

I'm the PP who listed ingredients above and noted this, and I'm surprised this was even an assumption to begin with.

But apparently, it can be said again -- they are a chocolate company that likely uses their own product at cost to manufacture, not even wholesale prices -- certainly not retail markup.

[Anonymous]

They are also part of the huge Lindt company, which helps drive down their production costs even more.

[Anonymous]

Cheap chemical laden sugary ingredients are unfortunately what taste good to us. There's no secret.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't chips like $5 a bag? Are the chips they put in boxes lower quality than the ones they put in a bag? Is there other junk in there I'm not detecting?

We make brownies very infrequently, but I made a large batch of these Ghirardelli dark chocolate ones last night for the Super Bowl and everyone wouldn't shut up about how amazing they were.

I mean…Ghirardelli is not buying its own chips at retail to put in its brownie mixes.

No but to make them yourself, you pay retail. I always have a box in my pantry. I would not consider any other brands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheap chemical laden sugary ingredients are unfortunately what taste good to us. There's no secret.

Is there really chemical junk in these when you use good butter instead of oil vs. from scratch?

[Anonymous]

I make brownies from scratch all of the time and the ingredients are unbleached flour, eggs, vanilla, butter, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and unsweetened baking chocolate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't chips like $5 a bag? Are the chips they put in boxes lower quality than the ones they put in a bag? Is there other junk in there I'm not detecting?

We make brownies very infrequently, but I made a large batch of these Ghirardelli dark chocolate ones last night for the Super Bowl and everyone wouldn't shut up about how amazing they were.

I mean…Ghirardelli is not buying its own chips at retail to put in its brownie mixes.

No but to make them yourself, you pay retail. I always have a box in my pantry. I would not consider any other brands.

Right, but the PP was asking why the mixes are so cheap if the chips are expensive…it’s because Ghirardelli does not pay the retail markup for their own chips.

[Anonymous]

Brownie mix is nothing but premeasured flour, sugar, and cocoa powder.

[Anonymous]

People do love those brownies. They are the easiest dessert hack.