Selling and marketing
How to Sell Baked Goods to Local Cafes: Price and Pitch
A plan for landing your first cafe account, with wholesale pricing that covers ingredients, labor, and overhead.
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What to remember
- Cafes buy a short list of items you can repeat every week.
- Cost the whole batch before you say a price out loud.
- A one page sheet beats a long email every time.
- Get the order cutoff and delivery day in writing.
The pitch is the easy part. The hard part is knowing how to sell baked goods to local cafes without giving away your margin on the first order. Here is the order that works: price first, sheet second, sample third.
What a cafe needs from you before it says yes
A cafe owner is not shopping for a hobby baker. They are filling a gap in a display case that has to look full every morning. What they need is a small list of items you can make the same way every week, at a price they can mark up, delivered on a schedule you keep.
That means fewer items, not more. Three to five things you have made many times beat a long menu you are still testing. Say plainly which days you deliver and how much notice you need, because the owner is planning a case around your answer.
Price wholesale so you both make money
Wholesale is not your market price with a discount slapped on. Build it from the batch up: ingredients, packaging, your time, and overhead. Then add a margin. The guide to pricing baked goods for wholesale walks the same math in more detail.
For example, say you bake 24 muffins for one cafe. Ingredients come to $9.60, or $0.40 each. Packaging adds $4.80, or $0.20 each. Your time is 1.5 hours at $15 an hour, which is $22.50, or $0.94 a muffin. Overhead, meaning oven power, the delivery run, and your $20 a month Brevl shop spread across the month, adds about $0.25 a muffin. That is $1.79 each. At a wholesale price of $2.75 you keep $0.96 a muffin, about 35 percent.
Build a one page sheet the owner can read in a minute
One page. Your name and phone number at the top, then a short list: item, unit size, wholesale price, order cutoff, and delivery days. Add one line about labels and one about how you handle allergens.
Leave the photos for later. The owner is reading this between customers, so the numbers need to be the biggest thing on the page. Print ten copies and keep them in the car so a drop never waits on a printer.
From first email to first delivery
Pick five cafes within your delivery range
Choose places you can reach in one run. Note the quiet hours and who handles the pastry order.
Cost one item at wholesale
Add ingredients, packaging, your time, and overhead for a full batch, then divide by the count and add a margin.
Write the one page sheet
Item, unit size, wholesale price, order cutoff, and delivery days. Print ten copies.
Drop a sample at a quiet hour
Bring one item, the sheet, and a clear ask for a small first order.
Confirm the first order in writing
Repeat the items, the count, the price, the delivery day, and the payment terms in a short message.
Mistakes that cost you the account
The first order is a test, and the small things are what get noticed. A late drop, a muffin that is a different size than last week, or an invoice that arrives three weeks late will undo a good sample.
Keep the rules for selling baked goods legally in view while you do this. A label that is fine at a market table may not be fine on a cafe shelf.
What to check before you commit
Start with your state. A cottage food laws guide advises sellers to confirm their state’s revenue caps, allowed channels, and labeling requirements on the official state site before selling. If cafes are not an allowed channel where you live, you need to know that before you pitch.
The other route is a wholesale license. A wholesale bakery license readiness guide lists six things a seller needs, including a commercial kitchen, product liability insurance, written standard operating procedures, and FDA labels. That is a bigger step, and worth costing before you promise a cafe a weekly order.
Keep the account after the first order
A cafe that reorders is worth more than five new samples. Deliver on the same day each week, keep the size and the pack count the same, and send the invoice the same day you drop off.
When you need to raise a price, give notice and explain it in one line. Owners plan menus ahead, so a surprise change is the thing that ends the relationship.
If you want more places to sell while the cafe account builds, selling baked goods to coffee shops covers a close cousin, and pricing baked goods to sell keeps your retail price in line with your wholesale one.
Try the free bake pricing calculator
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Common questions
Do cafes pay wholesale or retail?
Cafes buy at wholesale, which sits below what you charge at a market or from your own shop. The trade off is volume and a repeat order. Ask the owner what they plan to charge on the menu, then check that your price still leaves you a margin after ingredients, labor, and overhead.
How do I find cafes to approach?
Start with places you already buy coffee from, then work outward by neighborhood. Walk in at a quiet hour, mid morning or mid afternoon, and ask who handles the pastry order. A short list you can visit in one afternoon beats a long list you never get to.
Do I need a license to sell baked goods to a cafe?
Check your state rules before you pitch. A cottage food laws guide advises confirming your state's revenue caps, allowed channels, and labeling requirements on the official state site. If cafes are not an allowed channel where you live, ask what a wholesale license would require, including insurance and a commercial kitchen.
What should I bring to the first meeting?
One printed sheet with your items, unit sizes, wholesale prices, lead time, and delivery days. One sample of the item you most want to sell. A pen. Leave the sheet behind even if the answer is no, because owners change suppliers and a clear price list is easy to find again.
How do I get paid by a cafe?
Agree on terms before the first delivery, then invoice the same day you drop off. Brevl takes card payments through your own Stripe or Square account, plus Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash, so you can offer whatever the owner already uses.
Sources
General information, not legal or tax advice. Check your state's official rules before you sell.