Sample result
Menu Pricing Strategy Builder for Restaurants
The owner asked this:«I have not touched prices in fourteen months and my goal for the year is to raise margin WITHOUT raising menu prices. Is this policy any use, or do I skip it?»
① The short answer: it is of use, and here is why
Your goal forbids raising the price of a published reference. It forbids nothing that follows.
| Lever | Does it raise a menu price? | Does it happen this year? |
|---|---|---|
| Technical floor per dish | No: it is a limit, not a move | Yes |
| Fixing the ladder by opening room above with additions | No: current prices stay put | Yes |
| Ending rules and thresholds | No: it sets how future numbers get written | Yes |
| Channel rate card | No: the platform menu is another channel, not the house menu | Yes |
| Adjustment sequence with a traffic light | Yes | Written and dated for month 13 |
Four of the five levers run this year. The fifth is documented with its order, so that the day it is needed it does not get decided in an afternoon. Having no policy is not the same as not raising prices: the first is paid every month, the second is a decision.
First, a stop. The house's costing is 7 months old. This assistant's rule is not to build policy on numbers older than 3 months: that would be decorating a mistake. Everything that follows carries that reservation, and step 1 of the plan is re-costing the eight highest-rotation references.
② The current ladder: where it is broken
| Category | Ladder today (COP) | Gap | Diagnosis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desserts | 28,000 · 28,000 · 28,000 · 28,000 · 29,000 | 1.04x | Five dishes crowded into 1,000 COP. There is nowhere to trade up: the whole section is nailed to the floor of the house range |
| To share | 68,000 · 70,000 · 70,000 | 1.03x | Three references, two at the same price. Same disease, less volume |
| Fish | 58,000 · 66,000 · 66,000 | 1.14x | Two tied at 66,000: the customer has nothing to choose between them with |
| From the stove | 38,000 · 40,000 · 46,000 · 60,000 | 1.58x | A correct ladder over a 4-reference category that adds up to 129 units a month. Here the problem is not price |
| Soups and broths | 28,000 · 30,000 · 34,000 · 50,000 · 60,000 | 2.14x | A 16,000 COP hole between the mote (34,000) and the ajiaco (50,000). Whoever will not spend 50,000 drops to 34,000 |
| Starters and picadas | 28,000 · 29,000 · 30,000 · 34,000 · 38,000 · 68,000 | 2.43x | Five crammed at the bottom and one alone on top, 30,000 away. At 2.43x it scrapes the point where a category splits into two markets |
| Traditional mains | 38,000 · 40,000 · 44,000 · 46,000 · 48,000 · 54,000 · 62,000 · 72,000 | 1.89x | The only healthy ladder on the menu. Eight even rungs inside the safe gap |
Your declared range is 28,000 – 72,000 COP and you are using a third of it. 17 of the 34 references live between 28,000 and 40,000; from 66,000 up there are seven. The 48,000 average ticket explains itself — not by what you charge, but by where you put the rungs.
The full example has 1 more part(s): you see them inside the library, with your account.