Robby Ds Lil Greens
The Wholesale Pricing Cheat Sheet for Food & Drink Founders
The Wholesale Pricing Cheat Sheet for Food & Drink Founders
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The margin math for setting a wholesale price that stores will accept — and you can actually survive on. Built from real experience pricing a food and drink product through indie retail.
Most founders set their wholesale price by halving their retail price and hoping it works. This guide shows you why that goes wrong — and how to run the actual math before you walk into your first buyer conversation.
What's inside:
- How retail margin math works across indie cafés, specialty food stores, natural grocery, and juice bars — what each store type actually needs
- The wholesale ceiling formula: calculated backwards from what buyers need, not what you want to charge
- Your COGS floor: ingredients, packaging, freight, payment processing, and spoilage reserve — what most founders miss
- Gross margin check by stage — what's survivable, healthy, and distributor-ready
- A full worked example with real numbers (12-pack beverage, soup to nuts)
- The distributor haircut math: how the numbers change when a distributor enters the picture
- The 5× markup rule: a quick sanity check before you pitch any buyer
- 5 common pricing mistakes that cost founders shelf placements
Instant digital download. One practical reference to read before your first buyer conversation — and bookmark for every one after it.
→ Once your pricing is set, The 10 Indie Retail Cold Email Templates ($9) covers the actual pitch emails to send.
→ For the full sourcing and outreach method, The Indie Retail Playbook ($19) covers how we landed our first 3 reordering wholesale accounts.
The margin math for setting a wholesale price that stores will accept — and you can actually survive on. Built from real experience pricing a food and drink product through indie retail.
Most founders set their wholesale price by halving their retail price and hoping it works. This guide shows you why that goes wrong — and how to run the actual math before you walk into your first buyer conversation.
What's inside:
- How retail margin math works across indie cafés, specialty food stores, natural grocery, and juice bars — what each store type actually needs
- The wholesale ceiling formula: calculated backwards from what buyers need, not what you want to charge
- Your COGS floor: ingredients, packaging, freight, payment processing, and spoilage reserve — what most founders miss
- Gross margin check by stage — what's survivable, healthy, and distributor-ready
- A full worked example with real numbers (12-pack beverage, soup to nuts)
- The distributor haircut math: how the numbers change when a distributor enters the picture
- The 5× markup rule: a quick sanity check before you pitch any buyer
- 5 common pricing mistakes that cost founders shelf placements
Instant digital download. One practical reference to read before your first buyer conversation — and bookmark for every one after it.
→ Once your pricing is set, The 10 Indie Retail Cold Email Templates ($9) covers the actual pitch emails to send.
→ For the full sourcing and outreach method, The Indie Retail Playbook ($19) covers how we landed our first 3 reordering wholesale accounts.
FAQ
Is it organic?
Yes! Our microgreens are organic seed, soil, zero chemicals and we adhere to all
organic growing practices. Any additional products used in our microgreen
products are also organic and locally sourced where possible.
Do you ship nationwide?
All of our products are shipped nationwide, except for our fresh microgreens which are only Virginia statewide.
Where is this made?
Produced by Robby Ds Lil Greens in Front Royal, Virginia. All microgreens are grown in a certified farm. All products created in a FDA certified kitchen.
Do you offer subscriptions?
Yes, most of our products have a subscription service.