Anyone have an idea on how to price cupcakes for wholesale buyers to cafes and know how to get a cafe to carry your cupcakes?

Great question wondering that myself.

I compare selling wholesale to the process I had to go thru to purchase wholesale.

There is a pricesheet with minimum buy quantities. I couldn't buy 1 dz blueberry muffins. I had to buy a case of 48. Didn't matter if I only needed 24 ... if I wanted to buy at wholesale pricing, I had to buy in wholesale quantity. If I couldn't use the remaining 24 before they went bad, then I ate the cost when I threw them away or I ate the space cost they incurred as they took up space in my freezer.

The muffins weren't packaged in pretty little individual packets either. Four plain cardboard trays with 12 muffins on each, stacked inside a plain cardboard box. No pretty presentation ... that would be the value-added step I would add to the process.

So your first step would be to create a wholesale price list. What is the minimum qty that has to be ordered to merit wholesale pricing? Are there price breaks for higher volume and what is it? At what point are YOU saving money so you can pass that savings on?

I just got my wholesale license from the state a couple weeks ago. I priced somewhat lower but upped my dollar minimum.

The cafe at the shopping mall found me thru my website, I didn't contact them. She asked me what I could do for cookies. I made her about 5 different kinds (I did half a recipe) and she ended up ordering all 5. Now she wants to expand to other things so I am bringing samples of bar type confections for her to sample.

To get involved with wholesale, I would just go to the different places that you think handle your target market with some samples and a price list. good luck

Here's another indydebi thread where she defines "wholesale" in terms of her business:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-667442-.html

HTH