pricing of home produce at open days/allotment shows

[Sparkly]

I am interested to find out what people charge for selling cakes and home made preserves at their open days. Obviously I know this varies alot by the area. The area where our site is is quite mixed. The area as a whole is quite affluent, but where the site is is right in the middle of an area where there is council housing/small terrace houses and on the other side there are 4/5/6 bedroom detached houses with huge gardens. The people that attend the show are a mix of the 2, as are people who have plots on the site. The home produce sold at the show has historically always been very cheap. 1lb jars of jams, chutneys and preserves for £1. Cakes 20-50p a shot. I am just concerned that out prices are too low. There are a small number of people who put a huge amount of effort into donating items for the show and it costs a small fortune. I don't feel that inclined to do this if the profit isn't really going into the allotment. I see people every year who buy whole cakes, pies etc for half the price it would cost them for a value-priced supermarket rubbish version. They know it is an absolute bargin or else they wouldn't be doing that! Now I don't want to price people out. Especially as there are quite a few pensioners that come every year to the show, but I want the grounds to be making back more more than it is cost me, and others, to do this. Or else, I might as well put £100 in the ground funds and save the effort!!

I would really appreciate if you would post how much you charge for preserves and cakes at your shows and, ideally, give me an idea of the demographics of the area.

[Sparkly]

[Digeroo]

It rather niggles me if organisations charge less for an item than it costs me to make.  Pensioner have enough money to buy cakes.    They should at least be the same price as the supermarket versions if not a bit more. 

[Sparkly]

Yes, well I agree! Others don't though! I think they are still in the days of 5p krispie cakes at the church fayre. I think that they really just don't realise the cost of making these things.

[Squash64]

Our area is just average I suppose, no really expensive houses but no really cheap ones either.  Cakes on our cake stall sell for £3 for a loaf-tin size cake and correspondingly less for smaller ones.
I don't remember the price of the vegetables apart from beetroot which were 3 for £1.  Almost all the veggies and cakes sold out.

I know what you mean about making more back than the ingredients cost.  I only use dairy-free marg now, free-range eggs and special cake flour which costs £1.78 a kg.  I must be mad!

[Sparkly]

Is that a lb loaf tin Betty? What about slices of apple pie, cupcakes (I mean muffin-sized properly decorated ones), fairy cakes, jars of jam etc?

[pumkinlover]

We charge £1.50 for jams and chutneys (1 lb)

Cakes we cut up and sell with cup of tea for max. profit. When we sell cakes we try to take into account the cost/ time involved, size etc so varies.

I agree with your concern, I spend a day baking for the alpine show and a day for the allotment show every year, and use a lot of good quality ingredients -as do a lot of other people.  To sell for peanuts is just not on. Saying that it is a community event and I get pleasure from seeing people enjoying the events.  

One retired local who we all know (and is not badly off!) stopped me the other day and asked who baked a particular cake at last Septembers allotment open day. I could not  remember- "what  a shame" she replied - as she would have liked that person to bake for her at other times as at the price we charged she might as well get someone else to bake for her!!!!!!!! ???

(Same local heard me reduce the price off a bag of vegetables as I thought it felt underweight- and asked me to do the same for her bag) ::) ::) ::)

[irridium]

went to the Stoke Lane Open Day in Nottingham yesterday (not my site) and was surprised to see that all their produce (donated veg, homemade and shop-bought cakes, teas, drinks, eggs, fruit) was donation only.. i found customers were only giving 10 pences for drinks, cakes and about 50p for an armful of fruit and veg! i didn't notice the preserves there but i got there quite early so maybe these were put out later on.. apart from that, all the plotters were really nice and chatty....

[Squash64]

Is that a lb loaf tin Betty? What about slices of apple pie, cupcakes (I mean muffin-sized properly decorated ones), fairy cakes, jars of jam etc?

I think it would be a 2lb loaf tin size.  I'm not sure of the prices of the other cakes but I could find out.