I was about to say that $4.50 in labor cost doesn't seem outrageous, given the high retail prices but according to my low effort internet search in the US cheap

I was about to say that $4.50 in labor cost doesn't seem outrageous, given the high retail prices but according to my low effort internet search in the US cheap saffron goes wholesale for about $0.81 / gram and expensive saffron does for about $1.68 / gram. The retail markup on this is quite high! You could potentially make it work selling direct to consumer, which might not be so bad given the very low quantities we're talking about here.