To price a turkey club you add up its full cost first: the bread, meats, cheese and spreads by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the wrap, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one sandwich costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For a turkey club that costs $5.57 to make, a 50% margin after 3% fees means $11.84, rounded up to $12.00. The meat is more than half of what's in a club; two minutes at the line and the shop's rent are the rest. A boxed lunch order for an office is priced lower a sandwich. In the example below, a Bozeman sandwich shop prices its turkey club for the counter and an office order.
The short version
- Full cost = bread, meats, cheese and spreads a sandwich + your time + wrap + overhead.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
- Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
- Weigh the meat on each sandwich; it decides the cost.
- Spread the rent and power over the sandwiches you sell.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack costs each sandwich from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.
What goes into a sandwich's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Bread, meats, cheese and spreads | The batch's cost ÷ sandwiches a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ sandwiches × your hourly rate |
| Wrap | Per sandwich |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the sandwiches you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
The shop's year is in sandwich shop business plan, and what can be sold from home in can you sell sandwiches from home.
An example: a turkey club
Lunch Counter on Main, the made-up sandwich shop in Bozeman, Montana, I use in these examples, makes about 80 sandwiches over a weekday lunch:
| A lunch of 80 sandwiches | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Bread | 80 | $36.00 |
| Turkey and bacon | $172.00 | |
| Cheese, vegetables and spreads | $56.00 | |
| A batch | $264.00 |
| A sandwich | Cost |
|---|---|
| Bread, meats, cheese and spreads, $264.00 ÷ 80 | $3.30 |
| Time, 160 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 80 | $0.67 |
| Wrap | $0.10 |
| Overhead | $1.50 |
| Full cost | $5.57 |
At a 50% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $5.57 ÷ 0.47 = $11.84, so $12.00. At $12.00 a sandwich, each leaves $6.07. The board had said $11.00, which leaves $5.10. An office order of 30 boxed lunches at $10.50 leaves $4.62 a sandwich, made at ten in the morning before the rush. Pricing a bigger catered spread is in how to price catering.
Get the calculator
Download the sandwich price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's ingredients, amounts and costs, the sandwiches it makes, the hands-on minutes, the wrap and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator prices one sandwich. Turkey breast moves by the case, a generous slicer adds an ounce a sandwich, and the bread left at close changes what each sandwich really cost.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs each sandwich from its recipe and from what each batch used.
Recipes by weight. Each sandwich is a recipe, with unit conversion from the case or sack to the gram.
True cost from the batch. Each batch takes ingredients at their real cost, from the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows up in the next batch.
Price creep. A price-creep report per supplier shows which ingredient is quietly costing more.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a sandwich costs this week | Last season's sheet | True cost from the batch |
| Bread and meat left at close | Not counted | Waste by reason |
| An ingredient creeping up | Noticed at tax time | A price-creep report |
| Whether wholesale still pays | A guess | Margins on real cost |
Recipes, batches and true cost are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.