I know what the target is for food cost in general, but I’m curious what the average food cost % is for various items.
I’m wondering what is normal for the different menu items like appetizers (fries, o-rings, chicken tenders, etc), simple pizzas (cheese or a couple toppings) vs specialty pizzas (like deluxe), sandwiches (clubs, burgers), hoagies, pasta dishes, and desserts.
I’m also wondering what kind of food cost is normal for homemade tiramisu and cheesecake.
I think this could be interesting to see what people do for their pricing.
We try to target every item to no more than 30%. Many will go higher for “add-on” items just for adding a couple dollars on to every order. We don’t because we get a lot of deliveries “just” for sandwiches, pasta and sides which would not give us a good enough margin.
Anyone else have any input? I’d like to know what is common for food costs. Everyone knows 30% on pizza and around 50% for wings, but what about everything else?
Ok, basic food cost… we would all like to dream it to be 30%. Real world, (my world anyhow) closer to 35%. My philosophy is anything you sell as an “upsell” that does not involve labour (ie canned pop, pre packaged dip,etc), who cares? You have to be a HUGE volume outlet to worry about the labour to reach over and put a dip on the shelf, then in the bag.
If you accept that, food cost plus labour cost should be approx 66%. So, add ons with a cost of 66% or less are a good thing! Less than 66% are great!!!
Don’t fall into the food cost trap of percentages only!!!
Look @ each items GP contribution, as well as the # of items sales & the labor needed 2 produce that item…
Steaks, for instance, have a higher food cost, but their GP contribution is greater than say, french fries…
My FC on steaks may be, for instance, 40%, but it contributes an $8 GP, while fries are 20% FC but only contribute, say .75 GP…I’ve gotta then sell 8-10 orders of fries to make the same GP as one steak…
So if I sell 10 steaks, I pocket $80, but I may only sell 20 orders of fries & net $8…
Your menu s/have a mix of items w/various price points and FC%…
There are many menu design techniques you can use to maximize your profitability…
I agree food cost varies on lots of things, We run just over 32% but a lot of times I notice when we do big promotions like wings breadstick 2 giant pizzas our food cost rises BUT we have larger ticket prices and return is better so I will take that, bottom line is shoot for about 30 percent on most foods but remember its about what you make per item that is just important.