You costed one item, cup and lid included. What came out?
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No judgment in this thread. Half of us are finding out that our best seller is our worst margin, and that is exactly the kind of thing worth knowing on day 10 instead of at tax time.
This is going to sound crazy, but I have never priced out any of our drinks. We've just been going off of vibes and competitor prices. *insert melting face emoji here* So my first item to cost was a basic 16oz iced latte with whole milk. It costs us $ 1.03 to make and we sell it for $5.00. My biggest shocker is how much the cup, lid, straw, AND STICKER (the real shocker) cost.
It especially pained me as I watched staff makes their shift drinks this weekend and then just toss them away. I kept thinking, there goes a quarter, there goes a quarter. Anyone else ever have these thoughts after doing pricing? Or a recommendation on where to get cheap stickers?
You're not crazy, vibes and competitor prices is how many, many shops roll. (I really like "vibes and competitor prices" a lot, may have to steal that!)
The good news is that for your basic 16oz iced latte, you're at 20.6% COGS, that's GREAT for never having run the menu-item level COGS before! Many find 40+%, so you're starting from a great spot on that one!
I also love that you're seeing "there goes a quarter, there goes a quarter" now, too - the next step with that is finding ways to either keep them from using the to go cups (we bought cheap tumblers for the staff to use at work, gave them fun coffee stickers to put on them, and that worked - just have to keep reminding them to use them on shift). Finding new places for less expensive cups, lids, stickers, etc is absolutely the right next step.
Have you looked into stamps at all? I've heard some owners say they really like the look, though I'm not sure how well they stamp the PET cups for iced drinks. Maybe those have to be stamped earlier so they can dry before filling?
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