Who gets what from the shelf price?
Wholesale pricing is a three-way split of one bag's retail price — your cost, your margin, the retailer's margin. See all three move at once. No signup.
Wholesale price
$9.35
55% of $17.00
Your margin
42.9%
$4.01 per bag
Retailer margin
45.0%
$7.65 per bag
Where the $17.00 shelf price goes
Your cost · $5.34Your margin · $4.01Retailer margin · $7.65
Your wholesale margin is inside the typical 40–50% band. Retailers typically look for 40–50%+ on bagged coffee — below ~45% many buyers will push back or pass.
Single case$9.35 → 42.9% margin
5+ cases · −5%$8.88 → 39.9% margin
10+ cases · −10%$8.42 → 36.5% margin
Conventional case-volume discounts, applied to your base wholesale price. If the 10+ tier drops your margin below sustainable, the discount belongs in the base price instead.
Questions
The wholesale conversation, before it happens.
- How do I price wholesale coffee?
- Work backwards from the shelf price. Retail buyers think in terms of their own margin — most want roughly keystone, a 50% gross margin — so specialty wholesale usually lands at 50–60% of MSRP. Set the shelf price the market will bear, choose your share of it, then check that the resulting wholesale price still clears your cost per bag with a sustainable margin, typically 40–50%.
- What margin do cafes and retailers expect on bagged coffee?
- Grocery and specialty retail generally expect 40–50%, with keystone (50%) the comfortable default. Cafes selling bags at the counter are often satisfied with slightly less because the bag rides along with drink sales. An offer leaving the retailer under about 45% gets pushback; under 40% most buyers pass.
- Should I give volume discounts on wholesale coffee?
- Small, conventional steps — about 5% at five cases and 10% at ten — reward the accounts that make your production efficient without wrecking the rate card. The discipline that matters: check your margin at the deepest tier, not the base price. If the 10-case price drops you below a sustainable margin, the base price is too low.
- Should wholesale prices include delivery?
- State it either way, but price it. Local delivery folded into the price is common and simple; shipped wholesale usually goes freight-added, or free above a minimum order sized so the shipping cost stays under a few percent of the invoice. A minimum order exists to keep small orders from costing you money — set it from your real per-delivery cost, not from habit.