# Average food cost for a pastry shop/patisserie



## sugarman (Feb 18, 2011)

Hello,

I was wondering why the average food cost is for a free standing pastry/patisserie not producing breads. I have many years as a chef and runnning restaurants but would like to know if the food cost would be the same, around 30%. Thanks for all replies.


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

it is less


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## luis (Oct 24, 2012)

I actually have the same question, did you figure it out??? this is what I posted!!!

"Hi everyone, glad to be a new member of this new site. Anyways, my family owns several Restaurants in San Diego and in Tijuana, Me and my wife just opened a pastry shop and sell pastry to all of these restaurants, I have 15 years experience in the restaurant business and now learning the pastry side of it. This pastry shop is a separate business to the restaurants and I sell pastry to all the family restaurants, wholesale price and planning on also selling to the public, does anyone know what my COGS average would be in the pastry business, Im trying to find benchmarks that would help me out but cant find anything, I know that in the Resuarant a 30% cost is good but confused about how to price pastry for wholesale and also price for public sale."

Thanks!!!

Luis


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## bsneed (5 mo ago)

sugarman said:


> Hello,
> 
> I was wondering why the average food cost is for a free standing pastry/patisserie not producing breads. I have many years as a chef and runnning restaurants but would like to know if the food cost would be the same, around 30%. Thanks for all replies.


did anyone every respond here?


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

bsneed said:


> did anyone every respond here?


25% or lower.


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## JohnDB (10 mo ago)

Food cost, while relevant, is not a primary place to focus on controlling costs. 
Labor is important too....but not overwhelmingly so either. 

It's the "death by a thousand cuts" that you really have to watch out for. 
The company who does cash registers and credit card processing, the chemical and pest control, laundry services, packaging, and promotional expenses...all of these things add up....none are high....but $200 here and there by everyone on a daily basis will eat your lunch. 
To the point that you are buying lousy food, poor help, crappy marketing and falling apart at the seams. 

Food cost is just a starting point for pricing...not controlling costs. 40% heavy cream is market price....same as flour. Nothing to do but pay it. It costs what it costs. 

But laundry services can be cut by making people launder their own uniforms. Shopping around for credit card processing and cash register systems is confusing for profit reasons...meaning they are blood suckers...and it's your blood. Security systems and cameras help...so does the goodwill of your neighbors.


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## jcakes (Feb 18, 2007)

JohnDB has a very good point; a chef once said you don't make money on the onion, you make money on the peel.... repurposing things you think you can't use and would throw out is where you'll get the return. Some expenses are unavoidable (pest control, grease trap maintenance, hood cleaning). Personally I am too afraid of making a mistake with payroll so I gladly pay for that service, but I'm willing to shop around and continually get the best price for it. And the unexpected expenses (this week our cooler started to get warm, and I didn't wait to see if the problem would get worse, I called immediately and got someone out there to check. Spending $250 for that was unexpected but money well spent considering what would have been lost if the cooler went down for any length of time.)


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