I need to do a quote for Sept. 2010, 18 months away. I was thinking of doing my regular pricing and telling them it could be another 10% by their date depending on grocery prices.
Is this okay do you think?

I guess maybe a better way would be to give the quote but then state that that quote is good until _____ date. I wouldn't say anything about the pricing going up because it might scare them off unnecessarily.

I second that.

Yeah, it's kind of hard to tell them the price *might* go up. If you were in their shoes, you wouldn't be comfortable with that. I think if you have them sign a contract and expect them to stick to it, then you have to stick to the price. If you are confident your prices will be higher in 2010, then go ahead and charge them the 2010 price now, not later.
Good luck!

Huh. Kinda scary to think that prices might go up so badly that you would really be hurting with a 2009 quote. The way things are now, you never know. The chickens could all come down with bird flu and eggs might be a luxury item in 2010. Exaggeration, probably....but crazier things have happened!

About a year ago, we all experienced price increases that were insane!!!! It's made us a little gun shy.

I've seen caterers and cakers state "price to be finalized 6 months before event date". SOme may understand that .... some may hate the idea.

You can also look at what your 'cost' would be if you just booked it now. Example: My rate of $3.50/serving x 100 servings = $350. A 10% price increase would mean I'd get an extra $35 for this cake. My 10% add'l costs wouldn't be NEAR $35. Just for example's sake, let's assume my costs will go up about $15.

Is is worth a "loss" of $15 to get this order on the books now?

Sometimes when you break it down, it's not that significant. Your only problem that I can see at this point, is if you have a bad pricing structure in place now, which would skew the impact of the data on the future numbers.