> wrote in message
...
>
> How do you go about deciding what to charge for food/menu items in a
> cafe? It was a no brainer to decide on prices for bottles of water,
> juice, pop, etc. but now my husband is getting ready to open up the cafe
> part of the place and we're stuck on how to set prices. I assume you
> figure out what each item costs to make, then decide on a price, but
> what if your costs differ from month-to-month? Like, let's say chicken
> wings are 99 cents a pound this month, but next month they're $1.39 a
> pound. Is there a set formula for figuring this stuff out?

A friend (ex-restaurant chef who now runs a café) tells me that the formula
she uses is basically 300% of cost price. Sounded very expensive to me,
until I worked it out. She charges ?7.50 for a 'full Irish' breakfast, for
example (fried egg, bacon rashers, white pudding, black pudding, sausage,
beans and a grilled tomato, plus unlimited tea or coffee and toast with
preserves). She's lucky in that there's no competition within 12 miles, but
the café attracts workmen every day, who hate to pay over the odds, so she
must be getting it about right. Her prices stay the same through price
fluctuations in ingredients, only increasing (or, rarely, decreasing) when
there's a sustained trend in the cost price.

Hope that helps a bit!

Jo


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