The catering tables were priced before anyone put a cost against them. Working back from the
bakery's own goods-plus-labour figures gives a model that reproduces every one of them to the
cent -- $15.00/hr, mini $0.4167, cupcake $0.6667, a 12x17 pan $18.00, cakes $7.00/$10.50/$12.50 --
and the 8-inch solves to $10.50 from the parties table and independently to $10.50 as the wedding
cake, which is the check that made the rest trustworthy.
Two facts from the bakery did most of the damage. A pan cuts 48, so portions had been judged on
the cupcakes alone -- barely a third of the food. And the bride & groom cake is ceremonial, so it
feeds nobody. Against 1.25 servings a guest, five of the nine live columns promised more than they
held: all three weddings (the 200 by 37 servings) and the two smaller parties.
The fix is deliberately asymmetric. The weddings get more food so the familiar 125/200/250 can
stand, because that is the number a customer says out loud. The parties get a corrected label,
because feeding the middle one properly would have taken its cupcakes to two dozen -- the same as
the tier above -- leaving the two $2 apart in cost with only cake size between them.
Prices follow the costs. Weddings were assuming four hours of labour; six is honest, and it
reconciles with the three a Gatherings order takes. At six the old prices returned $11.92 an hour
on the 125 -- less than a Large office box -- so all three go up 20%, which still asks only
$1.48-$1.91 a serving. The entry party goes to $57, not to make it pay but to hold it at $4.00 an
hour, the same deliberate floor as the Small office box. The middle party stays at $76: at $88 it
was a column nobody could rationally buy, since the $98 beside it feeds fourteen more people.
Office prices do not move at all -- at 1.25 a head those boxes are already conservative.
New Gatherings table, because the page went from "30-40 people" to "125" with nothing between, and
the bakery confirmed those enquiries come in. Sized from the pan rather than guessed, labels
rounded down.
Delivery and a wedding deposit were never stated anywhere; both are now.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
austinandClaude Opus 5