Selling Que on the street

[chromestacks]

Once winter hit this year I wanted to keep smoking delicious BBQ. I talked to my butcher (who is also my commisary) about setting up on his store front to sell. We came to an agreement to set up on Fridays and Saturdays. He sells me the meat at cost along with any other ingedients that I might need. We buy serving containers and utensils through one of his vendors. Again we get this at cost. A typical dinner is a meat, 2 sides, and a bread. No drinks are sold. Meat portions are 1/2 lb and sides are 4 oz. A good exmple is PP. dinner roll, salt potatoes, and beans retail at $7.50 ea dinner. cost on ea dinner broke down is PP=.70 per half lb, dinner roll=.17, salt potatoes=.15, beans =.07 container=.13, untensil packet=.10. this gives a total of $1.32 cost not figguring in rubs, sauces, charcoal/wood. I would think I could get another .50 in these cost per serving. Bringing the total cost to $1.82 which should equal $5.46 retail. But atlas I have not put any labor in the equation. Is the labor figured in the 3x cost? Or is that something I should add in with the cost? I think my retail prices are fair as we usually sell out. The general goal was to keep it so 2 people can eat fo >$20.00. I know I have rambeled a lot. Am I in line with my pricing or going to cheap? I should also mention I am splitting the profit 70/30 with the butcher we consider this as rent for the space. I get the 70%.

[PorkQPine]

Make sure you are using cooked weight for the cost of the pp. Anyway, using your numbers you will net $2.55 per dinner and if you sell 50 dinners you will have made $127.40 less what ever you expense for your time. If you consider that it usually takes about 10 hours for PP to cook and you will travel to and from the store plus you will spend at least a couple hours prep and probably 4 hours selling plus another hour or so clean up and you might have product you don't sell, are you sure you want to do this?

[chromestacks]

Thanks porkQpine. I am using cooked weight when calculating the cost. You say net 2.55 per dinner but, cost per dinner is $1.82. I am charging 7.50 so wouldnt my net be $5.68 per dinner? ($7.50-$1.82 = $5.68 )That is how I figgure it any way. $5.68 x 50 = $284.00 which is about where it usually comes out. I would get $198.80 of that at 70%. Plus I am looking at the exposure for my catering (booked 2 future events last month alone) and almost $200.00 a day for wages comes out to $13.30 per hour. (15 hour day) Did I also mention how much I love to Que? Just trying to explain more details here.

[PorkQPine]

Sorry, I used the wrong retail number. If you are collecting the money and selling outside you will need to make sure you lhave insurance as opposed to the meat market selling the food and hiring you as a private chef. Is there a way you can sell sodas? This will increase your net for the same amount of work.

[HandsomeSwede]

Originally Posted by PorkQPine

If you are collecting the money and selling outside you will need to make sure you lhave insurance as opposed to the meat market selling the food and hiring you as a private chef.

Yes, this would be my main concern right now rather than whether you can make another 50 bucks a day. I see you are in NY. I am currently in the process of getting permits and licenses for vending and catering in NY and even if you are selling in front of someone's store you still need insurance to cover your site and your cooker. If you are cooking the food offsite and bringing it over you can probably make a couple of bucks for the time being but that is all going to be a moot point when the fines from the HD or a lawsuit from a sick patron rolls in. Offsite prep requires an HD certified kitchen in NY.