Customer Spotlight: Q & A with Swedish Bakery in Chicago

The summer’s heat has set many records throughout the central U.S., extending into the Great Plains and mid-Atlantic, as well as in the Southeast. For businesses and organizations located in these areas impacted by these heat waves, it can be very challenging to manage energy costs, without a strategy or the necessary resources set in place.

We asked Swedish Bakery, one of our customers located in Chicago, how they have been managing their electricity costs. Swedish Bakery, a Chicago favorite, is a family-run business with a single shop located in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood. The bakery, with a kitchen and retail shop, produces thousands of pastries every year. Here are the thoughts that Dennis Stanton, co-owner of Swedish Bakery, shared with us.

Q: According to the National Weather Service, last month was the third hottest month in Chicago on record. How do you use energy to keep your business running?

A: We make Swedish coffeecakes, cookies, sweetrolls, cakes, and more with unique ingredients and have been in business for more than 80 years now.

We rely on energy to heat the ovens that we use for baking, and we need electricity to keep our facility cool. We also need electricity to keep things cold in our large refrigeration unit and to power a variety of other machinery.

We get really busy around the holidays and have a steady flow of customers all year long.

Q: How do you manage your energy costs on a monthly basis? Do you use our Customer Portal?

We signed up for one set price for electricity, which gives us an idea of what our bill is going to be during the contract period. I log in online to pay our bills and renewed our contract recently online as well.

A: Would you recommend that other Constellation Energy electricity customers log into our Customer Portal to manage their account?

I definitely would.

Q: Why?

It makes paying your bills much easier and saves you the trouble of sending your bill in the mail. I wish that other companies that we do business with would develop such an easy way to transact online. It really does save a lot of time.

A: Other than saving time, what other benefits are there?

I know you can do other things after logging in, including viewing contract records, but we mainly use it to pay our bills. If you are with Constellation Energy for your business and have not yet checked it out, I highly recommend that you do.