Indy some people just don't appreciate quality stuff.

We sell mainly cookies, brownies, banana bread, some cupcakes and slices of cake to friends in the neighborhood.

I make all goodies from scratch and use real butter in everything. Due to the heat this summer we have had to use crisco icing on the cupcake frosting or it melts in about a minute though.

We have alot of regulars who appreciate the freshly baked cookies and treats.



We charge $2.00 for 6 small chocolate chip cookies. That plus the plastic box weighs 4 oz. If someone spends $8.00 or more in food they can get a $2.00 box free.

Most people who know the quality and taste are eager to buy and usually will 1 - 2 times a week. But sometimes my eldest son runs into someone who says, $2.00 for 6 cookies? I can go to the liquor store and get 6 for a $1.00!

Then go then! Go spend $4.00 in gas to get to the super market. That irritates me to no end. Not because some people are too cheap to appreciate good quality fresh cookies, but because my son comes home wondering if we are charging too much.

I tell him if we are too high then all these other people wouldn't be buying. Let them go walk 20 minutes to the nearest liquor store and buy crappy cookies that have sat on a shelf for months.

Recently we took the kids out to dinner at Home town Buffet. It was dessert time and my eldest son went and got a cookie. He started eating it and was like, "This don't taste good."

I said, "Of course it doesn't. It is not fresh. Who knows what junky ingredients are in it."

Funny thing is, 3 of my kids took a bite and not one of them could even identify WHAT kind of cookie it was! LOL

I gave it the old sniff but wasn't brave enough to eat it. There looked like a few nuts on it so I told the kids it was peanut butter. Case settled!

You know really if people don't want to pay the prices you charge for the cookies you make then DON"T do it for a cheaper price just to sell cookies. It's not like the product is sitting on your shelf rotting away and needing to be sold. People have BMW taste with Ford Neon prices. It's no skin off my back to NOT do something for a cheap price. I refuse to do it. Just remember your time is worth something. When people balk ask them if they would do their job for less money...when they say no then tell them you don't either.

Teri

I am the baker for a small grab and go deli, and we charge 1.50 a cookie, and these are just your regular chocolate chip, snicker-doodle type cookies. Nothing too special, just darn good. We haven't had many people complain about prices, and are thinking of raising again because of all the extra costs now. I also work at Starbucks, and I figure if people are willing to pay $4 for a cup of coffee that they deem "very good" then they should have no problem paying that much for my baked goods!

Sstaph that is what I tell my son all the time. We live in a world where people spend $4.30 at Starbucks just for coffee. Some people do it every day. Some once a week, some once a month as a treat. but they still pay!

I have some customers that come in 3-4 times a day and don't have a problem paying. I keep asking if I can be their child

3-4 times a day? WOW! lol

Yeah, I usually work the morning shift and see them 2 times, but on the rare occasion I work a double, I see them at least once more. Granted, I live in an area with a lot of retirees, so if they want to spend their time and money at a coffee shop, god bless them.

My brownies are 1.75 and they are about 3" x 3" x 1". Mind you, I just bake them, and the owner prices them. I still think he needs to raise the price, but oh well. It's his profit, I'm still getting paid.

Solecito

Thank you for the compliment. I have actually gotten about 15 different request from people for the recipe so I am all out.




J/K!!!

lol

I will pm it to you. one lady already baked some yesterday and said they were the bomb. haha

If you think they look delicious, wait til you taste them! You have to use real butter though. If anyone else wants the recipe please pm me as I don't always go back to threads I have posted in.

Thank you so much!! I'll give them a try this weekend.

If I were to make sugar cookies that were iced very simply how much should I charge for each one or per dozen for that matter? I only sold them once, and I kind of pulled the price out of the air. How much more should I charge if I wrap them individualy in a bag? Please help!! Thanks!

I just went to a local place and paid $1.50 for a 3X4 inch brownie (kid wanted it). It was dry and bland. I would GLADLY pay $4 for a GOOD brownie.

My local "mom & pop" bakery has chocolate cupcakes that are really not chocolate-y. You can taste the freshness & home-madeness though. It's a quality you can't duplicate with store bought or box.

Funny is my 4 year old can taste the difference. She knows the good stuff from the not. She'll pass on cakes at birthday parties! She didn't like the brownie either!

Fourbucks....I love it. (I love Starbucks, actually...and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf...and Peet's....)

I love Fourbucks too--my fav is their skinny cinn dolce latte. I charge $1/ inch for my cookies & $.25/cookie more for bag & curly ribbon, $.35 more for bag & fabric ribbon.

I would rather pay more for a good dessert than cheap crap. Give my dd a couple more years & she'll want quality. Right now it's how it looks.

Wish I could find the perfect cookie recipes for oatmeal raisin & choc. chips. I just like hearty looking cookies that don't spread to kindgom come & are abt 1/2" high. They have to be out there somewhere. If I can make my chocolate choc. chip cookies like that then the reg have to exist too.

Add more flour to your oatmeal cookies to prevent spreading so much. In my order to the car dealership, my oatmeals are so soft and moist that they were sticking to each other and the dealership couldn't separate them to lay them out, so we stopped making them until I could work it out. Customers of the dealership started to complain because "those great oatmeals!" weren't being served anymore. (gosh! broke my heart! ).

I told the girls to add more flour to make the dough a bit more stiffer and to bake them just a little longer to every-so-slightly crisp them up (without making them "crisp"). Worked great. One employee told my husband "they taste better than my gramma's oatmeals and she made the BEST!!"

I love to find the secret to those big chunky loaded puffy cookies. Mine always come out like pancakes. Pancakes with chunk puffs if I add nuts and chocolate chunks. I've got down the crisp vs chewy (Thanks Alton!) but the thick cookies just baffle me.

I know what you mean cakemakar. I have the soft down for sure, just not the spread minimal instead of all over the place.

I made this recipe http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/174/Recipe.cfm.
I can tell you mine look nothing like that. They are about 4 1/2" in diameter. They taste awesome (didn't put cinnamon though). But I want a cookie that looks like that! And I sure would charge a pretty penny for it too! Indydebi, do you think butter Crisco might keep it from spreading so much? I chilled the dough overnight. may try these babies--http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/2199/Recipe.cfm . Sometimes I wish I knew the science behind baking

I went to a new local deli/bakery the other day & they were selling cookies & brownies for $.75. I should have gotten one, but I did try the brownie & I would bet $ it was from a box. But people go on & on about how good everything is there. I did get the strawberry cake & I know it had canned frosting w/ some fresh berries thrown in. I am bad but I was thinking "mine's better"---arrogant I know. But I asked my dh & he said it was ok. He knows better by now!!!

We have a tamale place here that is supposed to be the best. People rave and rave about it and how they place big orders before events. I've tried all their flavors more than once, they were the nastiest things ever.
Only my grandmother makes them right!!!

Boy am I glad this thread came up -- I just got a corporate account for a local bank and I've been doing a lot of cookie pricing homework! Thanks for posting Indy!!

This topic is really interesting to me as I love doing decorated cookies but as of yet haven't started selling them. How do all of you arrive at your prices? Do you do market research in your area? Figure up cost of all ingredients/supplies then add a markup - or double the cost and add a markup?

When I was selling hand painted shirts and other crafts I would double the cost of my supplies and add 10% which, at that time, was sort of an industry standard but not sure that still applies today. This was several years ago when not many people were "crafting" and making certain projects was more time consuming than using the quick-kit projects that are available today.

I've tried the cold dough and the shortening, I still get flat cookies (well, besides the chunks. )
It was recommend I try a higher protein flour, has anyone tried this?

On these cookies, make sure you're using FRESH ingredients. My girlfriend couldn't figure out why her cakes weren't rising and blamed the Wilton pans and her oven. Even went as far as having her oven calibrated at a cost of a couple hundred dollars, and bought an entire set of brand new FatDaddy pans. Turns out the baking powder she was using was about three years past the expiration date. When she switched to a new can of baking powder her problem was solved!