How Many Bags Should a New Café Order?
2 May 2026 · 4 min read · VP Ventures, Edmonton
First-time bag buyers either order too few (and run out mid-month) or way too many (and store boxes for two years). The right number comes from three figures you already know.
The formula
Daily transactions × takeout ratio × days of cover. A café doing 120 transactions a day at 60% takeout hands out roughly 72 bags daily — call it 500 a week. A 90-day first order is about 4,500 bags; a cautious opening might start at 2,000 and reorder with real data.
- New location, unproven traffic: order 60–90 days of your projection
- Established shop adding branded bags: order 90–120 days of known usage
- Multiple sizes: 70/30 split between your common size and the large
Why not just order the big band?
Per-unit price drops with volume, but a first design is a hypothesis — menus change, logos get refined, and a storage room full of last year's bag is expensive regret. Order the band that covers a quarter, learn, then commit to volume on the reorder.
Timing the reorder
Reorder when stock hits four weeks of cover. Production runs 1–2 days from proof approval, and reorders skip the proof stage if the artwork is unchanged — but four weeks keeps a buffer for busy seasons.
Next step
Custom printed paper bags →