A bakery's profit margin is the share of a month's sales left after ingredients, packaging, bakers' and counter wages, rent, utilities and any commission, divided by sales. For example, the calculator below opens with a retail bakery in US dollars: $38,000 of sales a month, 28% for flour, butter, eggs, sugar and boxes, 36% for labor, and only 8% of orders through delivery apps. Swap in your own figures to see the margin before and after the apps and what those orders would leave if customers ordered from you direct.
Part of the free Restaurant profit margin calculator.
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Your net margin
Example numbersFood, drink and labor together.
What you would keep if no order paid commission.
Delivery apps take $760 a month: 22% of the profit you would otherwise keep.
At 25% commission, once 36% of your sales come through the apps, the month makes nothing.
The same $3,040 of orders on your own ordering page, paying a 2.9% card fee ($88.16) instead of commission.
Moving those orders to your own page would keep $672 more a month, $8,062 a year.
Compare with US restaurants
US limited-service median income before taxes, 2024: 4% of sales (food and drink 32.4%, labor 31.7%). From the National Restaurant Association's survey of more than 900 US restaurants. Medians, not targets.
Move app regulars to your own ordering page
Make a Menuthere ordering page with your menu and a QR code. Orders on it pay 0% commission, so regulars who order direct leave you more.
Sales, food and labor as a share of sales, rent and other costs. Example numbers are filled in to start.
The share of sales that comes through the apps and their average commission. The calculator takes it off your margin.
See your margin with the apps and with the same orders coming direct, then copy the numbers for your partner or accountant.
Update butter and eggs, they swing the most
In the government's monthly price survey, a dozen large eggs averaged $2.27 in September 2026 against $3.49 a year before, and butter $3.96 a pound against $4.79. Flour barely moved at about 55 cents a pound. Re-cost your laminated doughs and custards first when prices change.
Count the early shift at its real hours
Bakers in the US earned a median of $17.86 an hour in May 2025. Bread and pastry are made hours before the doors open, so the labor % must include the night or dawn shift, not just the people serving at the counter.
Put day-old waste into food cost
Unsold loaves and pastries are ingredients you paid for and did not sell. Add a week of waste to your food cost % before you judge the margin, and use the result to bake closer to what sells on each day of the week.
Questions owners ask
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Put your items on a Menuthere page. Customers pick, fill in their details and the order arrives on your WhatsApp. Free, with no commission.