Café Pricing Strategy

Opening a café can be a great adventure, but you should have knowledge of how to structure your menu prices. There are many factors involved when creating a effective café pricing strategy. Café pricing entails taking into account food cost, food waste and overhead of your café.

When you design a menu for your café you should include items that allow you to make a profit on your food and beverages. Café pricing strategy calls for taking into consideration your overall operating expenses. These expenses need to built into your pricing with the assistance of a skilled certified public accountant (CPA).

When creating menu items you should try to use products that are going to be used for several menu items. For example, if you buy turkey breast for a particular sandwich, create 2-3 items that call for turkey to be used.

You can price your items so that you will attract customers to your café. If you plan on serving wine and you pay $10 for that particular wine, then you will want to charge $5-7 per glass of wine. Most bottles of wine have 4 servings of wine per bottle.

Consider doing "price bundling" when thinking about café pricing strategy. This consists of offering a special price for several menu items. For example; if you charge $3.00 for a cup of soup and $5.00 for a sandwich, then charge $7.00 for both items together. This helps to let people know that they are getting a deal.

Also consider doing "complimentary pricing." Offer a rock-bottom price for a latte such as $1.00 per latte and then charge $3.00 for a biscotti. Offer these two items together. You can be very creative with how you offer these special café items.

You should consult a CPA to assist you in pricing structure and the costs that you incur with regards to your cafe.