Loading the stall van on Saturday morning
The wholesale orders are baked and packed. Now the owner decides what goes to the market: a few trays of sourdough, the seeded, cinnamon buns, the focaccia that always sells, some cakes. The quantities are roughly what they took last time, adjusted for the weather forecast and a hunch.
At the market, the cinnamon buns sell out by ten, and at two o'clock the van comes home with a crate of rye. Nobody wrote down last week's numbers, so the next Saturday is another guess.
Why market stalls are hard to plan
Market sales vary with weather, season and which market it is, and each stall is a small operation run by busy people. Card sales are recorded by the payment terminal, but by total, not by product, and cash sales are not recorded at all. What came home is noticed but not counted.
- Stall quantities are decided the night before from memory.
- Different markets sell different things.
- Card terminal totals are not broken down by product.
- Leftovers are not counted when the van gets back.
- The stall bake competes with wholesale orders for oven time.
What guessing costs
A market stall is also a shop window for the wholesale side. Cafe owners and deli buyers wander past, and a stall that has sold out of the thing people come for, or looks half empty by noon, does less for the business than it could.
Sales lost when popular lines sell out early. Bread brought home and wasted, or sold off cheap. Oven time taken from the wholesale bake for stock that does not sell. And an unclear picture of whether each market is worth the Saturday.
Stall planning we build
- Each market is set up with its day and the products you take there.
- When the stall van is loaded, quantities of each product are recorded on a phone.
- At the stall, products are set up on your card terminal's product buttons where it supports them, such as Square or SumUp, so card sales are recorded by product, and a quick tally screen covers cash sales.
- What comes home is counted and recorded.
- For each market, the system shows taken, sold and returned per product, with the weather on the day for context.
- Before the next market, it suggests quantities from past markets of the same kind, for you to adjust, and adds them to the night's bake plan alongside the wholesale orders.
| Recorded | Used for |
|---|---|
| Taken to the stall | Starting point per product |
| Sold, card and cash | What each market buys |
| Brought home | Where quantities were too high |
| Takings per market | Whether each market is worth it |
A Saturday you can plan
Popular lines go in larger numbers and sell out later. Less comes home. Each market's takings and waste are visible, so you can decide which markets to keep. And the stall bake is planned alongside wholesale orders, not squeezed in at the last minute.
Staff running the stall get a clearer job too: a list of what is on the van, a quick way to record sales, and a count at the end. No notebooks.
The same records show which products work at markets but are not yet sold to your trade customers. A focaccia that sells out every Saturday is worth offering to the cafes on your rounds.
Could this help your stalls?
- Stall quantities are guessed the night before.
- Popular lines sell out early.
- Unsold bread comes home most weeks.
- You are not sure which markets are worth doing.
- Card terminal sales are not broken down by product.