Pricing on Dipped Fruit

[mkfradin]

A successful restauranteur (currently a customer, potentially a great customer) came in and just asked me on pricing for dipped fruit (strawberries and grapes). While we do a very limited line of candy, we have not done fruit b/c it's too perishable. However, I'm inclined to do it for her and since tempering and dipping is pretty much a no brainer, I don't think it will be a big deal. Howver, I'm not sure what to charge. She is providing the fruit, and I'm supplying the chocolate. She has asked me to quote on a per pound basis. I'm using cacao berry couverture, so my cost for the chocolate is in the area of $5/lb.

I am guessing that the chocolate to fruit ratio will be about 1:4 (I'm being conservative, b/c there will be some waste), and that it will probably take an hour of my time. We are in a very affluent area (outside Chicago), which factors into my pricing, due to our overhead.

She wants a per pound price. Any suggestions?

Marjorie

P.S. As I read this over, it sounds like an SAT question. Sorry to bring back unpleasant memories, but I just hate giving too low of a quote and winding up kicking myself six hours later when I'm down to the wire.

[nicolekaplan]

i would not charge a per pound price but rather a per piece price, the same way she will probably resell and the same way that most other places price this type of item. your cost will be extremely low if she is paying for the fruit but your labor will vary depending on how small or large the items are. in nyc i noticed that godiva was charging anywhere from $4 to $12 per strawberry depending on the size (i know what kind of strawberry is worth $12). i would look into local pricing to decide what your time is worth.

[Shalmanese]

If you want to do it as a good service to a customer, why not charge her the amount of chocolate you use at cost + 10% and then a fixed price per hour for labour?

If you want to do it to make some money, telepathically figure out the maximum she is willing to pay and charge her 1c less than that :D.

edit: added per hour

Edited April 5, 2005 by Shalmanese (log)

[nightscotsman]

I agree that you should insist on charging per piece. The cost of chocolate should be quite low, so it will be your labor and overhead that you will mostly be charging for - things that just don't come by the pound. We do anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand strawberries a day, and while most are given away as amenities to VIPs and high rollers, as well as platters for banquets and the buffet, we also sell them for I think $3-$4 each.

[mkfradin]

THanks for the insights. I was hesitant to charge per piece since I have no idea what size fruit she will be providing; then we get into the whole issue with dipped grapes (what if there are three grapes per stem vs. five grapes per stem). Of course, this could get me in trouble if I'm stuck dipping 100 small strawberries vs. 30 large ones.

I wound up quoting her based upon a backwards formula, figuring out how long it would take me, doubling that (since I'm always wrong) and then adding a little something extra for the chocolate, and dividing that by the amount of fruit she wants dipped!! It works out to around $10/lb. which I think is fair given the price of gourmet chocolates around here. I don't want to be too cheap, because I don't want to be her source of chocolate all the time (too much trouble and takes me away from the stuff I should be doing) but on an emergency basis, I would like to help her out once in a while and make a little money in the process. There are plenty of "ladies who dip" who I imagine she could turn to in a pinch.

[therdogg]

  in nyc i noticed that godiva was charging anywhere from $4 to $12 per strawberry depending on the size (i know what kind of strawberry is worth $12).  i

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Okay, I don't know... what kind of strawberry is worth $12?

[simdelish]

  in nyc i noticed that godiva was charging anywhere from $4 to $12 per strawberry depending on the size (i know what kind of strawberry is worth $12).  i

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Okay, I don't know... what kind of strawberry is worth $12?

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Why, a New York strawberry, of course!

[nicolekaplan]

that was meant to have a question mark, my goof, however they are priced by the size and the $12 one is a jumbo or somthing like that. it must be the size of a grapefruit for that price

[Trishiad]

Hmm, I think I might have charged a bit more simply because it's such a last minute process. You can't do some today and the rest in a few days because of perishability. And I'm guessing that you have to prep the fruit she brings. Then there's whatever kind of packaging you'll put it all in (hard to layer chocolate strawberries). AND those grapes weigh soooo much less than strawberries and will take more time and not much less chocolate since they'll be covered all the way rather than just dipped on the end.

If you were selling chocolates how much per pound would you charge? Subtract what you'd be spending on the cream and butter or whatever and you'd be closer to a price more in your favor.

[Shalmanese]

I still say charge by the actual labour you perform. That way, she won't believe that your ripping her off and she can't take advantage of you by offloading 10lb of grapes.

[mkfradin]

I wound up quoting her $8/lb, b/c I realized that I wouldn't have to temper the chocolate, which takes a lot of the labor away (I hand-temper with my little Ray-tek!), and she was actually pretty taken aback at the cost. I explained to her that it was a lot of labor and if it took less time than I had estimated, I would be happy to pass the savings along to her accordingly. She said she'd get back to me. I wish I had told her that if it was anyone else, we wouldn't even be having this discussion, since I would have turned it down flat. I don't need to spend a few hours of my Saturday dipping fruit.

I know she has to think of her bottom line, but so do I. Saturdays are nuts and I could make $200 worth of cakes in the time it takes me to do her fruit.

[Rachel Perlow]

Is she paying for the chocolate separately? Because if you factor in the price of the chocolate, you're only making $3 pp, which seems overly reasonable to me.

[nightscotsman]

I wound up quoting her $8/lb, b/c I realized that I wouldn't have to temper the chocolate, which takes a lot of the labor away...

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I wouldn't recommend using untempered chocolate - you'll have problems setting (unless you put in the cooler right away, which will bring on it's own problems with condensation), dull surfaces and streaking.

[Wendy DeBord]

If she had a problem with $8.00 lb then it's best she walk, completely. She can't supply her own trained staff to make these (doesn't that seem strange, restaurants are total penny pinchers)..........then she knows that it takes some skill and skill costs money to hire.....and Sat. she doesn't have the time to make them either. I think once she thinks about this, she'll come back to you.

I don't want to contradict Neil but I don't deliberately temper my chocolate for dipping strawberries (although I always add seed chocolate to my melted pot). Once the chocolate hits the cold strawberries it's set in seconds literally. I typically add a garnish like chocolate curls or chopped pistachios on my sb's too.........so you can hide imperfect chocolate if that inadvertently happens. If you wrap them in a tray bag right away you won't get condensation either.

[Trishiad]

hmmm, to temper or not to temper? Temper is not just about the look but also the texture. Even on a piece of fruit it should have a nice snap to it. Don't get me wrong, i'd love to have some chocolate curls or nuts on my berry but I still want the underlying chocolate to crack when I bite into it. And I'm not terribly fond of those berries when they're served cold because the flavors are dampened and they're difficult for folks with sensitive teeth.

[mkfradin]

Well, the point is moot b/c she decided not to go for it, which is fine with me. She did understand that I was trying to help her out by agreeing to do it in the first place, which was nice.

With respect to tempered chocolate v. untempered chocolate, I find it annoying when I bite into a piece of fruit and the chocolate shatters and drops away from the fruit. I demand a good ratio of chocolate to fruit!!!! So in that case, the "snap" of the chocolate is not really a consideration, rather the ease of consumption is. I don't know if untempered chocolate would solve this problem, but I was willing to try it. When I've seen berries dipped in untempered chocolate in the past, I haven't noticed streaking or dullness, but I will certainly keep your precautions in mind, Neil.

The restaurant does not do high end stuff, so I understand their reluctance to pay top dollar, but it always blows me away when I get someone who wants wholesale and they say, "Oh, we want really high quality stuff," yet they expect to pay Sysco prices.

[nicolekaplan]

cheap people will get what they pay for so don't worry, it's not like her tiny purchase was making ot breaking your business. i never compromise on price as mine and my staffs time is worth a certain minimum price irregardless of the product. you are exactly right by realizing that you are skilled labor and that is worth more than anything.

on the question of tempering, i always choose tempered chocolate because i like the texture however i have heard great things about pate a glacer and all you need to do is melt and dip.

[celenes]

Gee I lucked up on this topic because I was speaking to my big client yesterday and the topic of chocolate covered strawberries came up as a special offer for Mother's day offering.

I was wondering what to charge too. Here's the scenerio, my client services several cafeterias in Corporate office buildings. Periodically depending on the upcoming holidays etc. they will have special offers like this Mother's Day deal. My primary focus is cakes, however I have done strawberries before and they have worked fine. I don't expect the volume for the orders to be extreme (so I say now) but I am clueless on how I would like to position the offer to my client.

It sounds to me like based on the comments on this thread I should offer them a per piece price and then let them take it from there? Correct? I would think they would want me to put the strawberries in some type of pickup and go packaging, then that calls for different pricing.

Thoughts?

BTW the local chocolate company here, Malleys sells their chocolate covered strawberries for $13 for a box of 12 if I remember correctly and of course Godiva is much more.