Each would be worth $1.50 in walmart, and due to anti price-gouging laws, it would be illegal to charge more than that.
So after 10 days operating, with presumably at least a few people on-site, they have produced goods which can sell for $300, or a revenue of $30 per day.
I think this is more a publicity excercise than a commercial operation...
> In its first fully functional 10-day period, they milled a ton of wheat; under normal circumstances, that would've been a year's worth. As a result, it has already been able to deliver 200 three-pound bags of flour to local stores and bakeries.
Assume that the ramp up was bumpy. Maybe they can do half a ton a day (5x), and they have >3x as much product as they've sold... they might be able to do $500 a day until the equipment breaks down. For a tourist trap that could be pretty respectable.
This is stoneground flour produced in small batches which will almost certainly be sold at a premium price. Flour in the UK is commonly sold in 1 or 1.5kg packets in supermarkets and this would be priced anything from £2.00 to £4.00 ($2.5 to $5 / €2.3 to 4.6)
If they were trying to get flour to people in the most efficient way possible they'd be using that manpower to repackage from wholesale distributors. There's no shortage of flour milling capacity -- the shortages are distribution related.
This is touched on in the article.
As it stands, they're really producing a negligible amount of flour. A nice gesture, but not the kind of thing you'd do if you're earnestly trying to address a problem. It's very clearly a stunt -- not that there's anything wrong with that.
I mean, I wouldn't call it a publicity exercise, but they quite explicitly say they need to make up for lost tourism income. Call it an operational pivot.
The lesson here is it's good to have a diversity of offerings. Some of their budget probably comes from historic site funds and maybe they also offer weddings or events, but the point is there certainly is a commercial interest in this.
This flour could be selling higher, and creating more incentive to produce.
But I agree, that publicity stunt bit is needlessly agressive
[1]: https://sturminsternewton-museum.co.uk/theme-content/uploads...
* Assume Bad Faith
* Be Pessimistic
And if I may add another bullet point to yours
+ It's all hopeless so why bother trying to change it.
Most are registered with the SPAB: https://www.spab.org.uk/mills
And if it's meeting a need, I would suggest that the immediate cost isn't the primary concern or benefit here.
And it’s something for the limited staff to do while otherwise unemployed.