How to sell sauce packets to restaurants: case prices, samples and weekly deliveries
A kitchen buys packets for its own takeout bags, by the case, often every week. It wants the price per case, how many packets are in a case and how much is in each, the minimum, the delivery day, and your ingredients and allergens in your own words. Agree the day, the price and the payment terms in writing before the first delivery, and keep a record of which lot went to which kitchen.
Lead with the case
A restaurant is not buying shelf space or a shopper's margin. It is buying portions: a packet goes in the bag with an order, so what it weighs up is the price of a case against the orders that case will serve.
Say it the way they will use it: how many packets in a case, how much in each, and the price per case as you charge it. A buyer left to multiply a unit price by a case pack will round differently from you, and the first invoice will not match the number they had in mind.
The sample
Bring or send the packet itself, not a jar of the same sauce, with the case price and your delivery day written on what you hand over.
A kitchen decides at the pass, not in a meeting. The cook tries it with the food it will go out with, so ask when service is quiet and leave enough for a few orders.
The questions to agree before the first delivery
Write the answers down, and send them back so you both have the same copy:
- Which day you deliver, and the hours the kitchen can take a delivery
- How many cases a week, and how much notice a change needs
- The price per case, and how long it holds
- The payment terms, and the day they count from
- Who to call when a delivery is short or late
- Whether they want a barcode on each packet: ask, and keep their answer with their name
A weekly order
A standing weekly order is an agreement on both sides. Write down the day, the number of cases and the price, and how either of you skips a week or stops it.
Keep each week's delivery as its own order with its own invoice. A late payment on one week then stays visible instead of disappearing into the next.
The records to keep
The same records a shop would ask about: the lot code on every case, the day the lot was made, what went into it, and which kitchen received which lot.
If one kitchen tells you something is wrong with a packet, that record is how you find every other kitchen that received the same lot, in minutes rather than a week of emails.
Say what you have recorded
When a kitchen asks for your ingredients, your allergens or how long a packet keeps, answer from your own records and say they are yours. If something is not recorded yet, say "not recorded" rather than guessing; a guess is the answer that comes back to you.
Common questions
Check this yourself
This is general information for U.S. food businesses, not legal advice, and rules change. Check it against the sources below and against your own state's rules before you rely on it.
Sell by product · Sell by state
What each state’s cottage food law says, in its own words: sell by state. Every kind of product: sell by product.