How to setup sale of hot tea plus additional tea bags?

[Michael80]

Our shop will be selling hot tea in a couple of different cup sizes. Typically, a customer will choose the cup size and flavor of tea bag and that will determine the base price for that line item. But often, a customer will request a second (or third) tea bag if they want a stronger brew.

I want to track the stock levels and sales performance of each flavor. So I initially, considered creating an option set for the cup sizes and an option set for the tea flavors. But since there are eight different flavors (to start) and two different cup sizes, that would make 16 variations for the cashier to choose from during the sale. I think that's too cumbersome. Also, there isn't a different stock quantity for, say, a 12 oz green tea vs a 16 oz green tea: they both use the same green tea bag.

So my next plan was to create two different items: a "Hot Tea, 12oz" and a "Hot Tea, 16 oz". Then I set variations for the flavors that can apply under each item. This narrows the variations down to eight flavors, which is more manageable during the check-out process. It also displays nicely on the customer side of our Square Register, showing both the size (on the main item line) and the flavor (on the variation line). And I think this will allow us to accurately manage the inventory of our tea bags for each flavor.

But how to add additional tea bags to their order at a reduced price? For example, let's say that a 12 oz hot tea with one tea bag costs $2.00, but if the customer wants an additional tea bag with that, it adds $0.50 to that line item. How would I set that up? And I'd want it to correctly respond to available stock and also reduce the inventory of the tea bags when the sale is completed.

[ryanwanner · Accepted solution]

Hey @Michael80 !

Good question! With my shop I have teas set up kind of like you described in your second plan. We ring up the tea (we only use 16oz cups for togo and glass steepers for in store) and the tea selection is a modifier set.

Your second plan is definitely the way I'd go if you want that inventory control. Unfortunately, Square's inventory doesn't allow for modifiers to control inventory, so you can't put a modifier in for the extra bag. At the same time, you can't really put an "Additional Teabag" item in with the same variations because items aren't shared on an inventory level (i.e. if you sell one Earl Grey bag regularly, the inventory would not be updated for the additional teabag item). What you're asking for would definitely fall under a Feature Request.

I have two workarounds I think might work for you...

-Put the "additional teabag" modifier group in the Tea item. At the end of the day/week you can run a modifier sales report showing each one sold and update inventory. A kludge, but I think it would work for you.

-Take a look at historical sales for your teas and math out how many people actually get that second bag and adjust the base pricing. For example, if 1 person out of 20 orders gets the second bag, look at the costs of your box of tea--say $10 for a pack of 20 or 50¢ each. That means for every 20 drinks, there is an additional 50¢... or 2.5¢ additional per teabag to absorb that cost. If you raise the price of your tea by a nickel, you'll offset the cost and come out ahead.

I recommend the second one over the first to be honest. Not many people are going to notice a five cent increase, and you don't look like the bad guy for "nickel and diming" the ones that order the extras.

[Michael80]

Hello Ryan,

Thank you for the thoughtful and informative reply. It was very helpful. Regarding the second workaround, I'm not sure if charging extra for additional tea bags would make us look like "bad guys." My business partner used to be a barista at Starbucks many moons ago, and she said it was Starbucks' policy to charge for extra tea bags (some people would ask for three extra bags). Apparently, "nickel and diming" their customers didn't hurt Starbucks' reputation too badly! 😆 The other problem with simply giving away extra tea bags (even if you incrementally raise the overall cost of tea for everyone) is that people will learn they can get free tea bags that way and they will start asking for them even if they don't want to use them at the moment. It's like the people who clean out hotel rooms of all the toiletries and towels just because they feel entitled to take them.

Instead of workaround #1, I think I'll just add a sales item for additional tea bags (with all the flavor variations). That way, a customer can ask for as many additional tea bags as they want and, not only can we charge appropriately, but it will also update our inventory correctly. But it's a shame there isn't a way to do this from within the "Hot Tea" item.

[Michael80]

Well, the second plan is a bust as far as inventory control. In retrospect, I should have foreseen that a 12oz Earl Grey is completely independent, stock-wise, from a 16 oz Earl Grey. In other words, the stock variations (tea bag flavors) for each item (cup sizes) are not shared and thus do not pull from the same tea bag inventory.

I still haven't figured out how to resolve this. 😓

[Michael80]

So I gave up trying to differentiate between cup sizes. Instead, I decided to just offer hot tea in the 16 oz cup size. But then I realized that selling additional tea bags as a separate item won't work either because the inventory of the tea bag items won't be shared with the inventory of tea bags offered with the cup of tea. Ugh, this is soooooo frustrating!

So then I tried the modifier suggestion, adding a modifier for "# of Tea Bags" with 1 being the default (at no additional cost) and then 2 or 3 bags at additional cost. But then I ran a test purchase and found that the Modifier Report only shows the number of modifiers sold, but not the type (flavor) of tea bags that were sold. So that won't work for correcting inventory numbers.

At this point, I think I have to give up on the idea of tracking the inventory of our tea sales. Grrrrr. 😠

And to muddy the items editing pages, I've discovered that adding a modifier shows up in every item page, despite the fact that "# of Tea Bags" makes no sense to 99% of the items we sell. Why aren't the modifiers restricted to only the items where they are assigned? Imagine if you are running a full-service restaurant with many different dish modifiers? What a mess each item's editing page would become!

[ryanwanner]

@Michael80Ok that's really weird that every item got the tea modifier. It should have only gone to the items you tell it to.

Quick way to fix that: Dashboard -> Items -> Modifiers -> # of Tea Bags. Click Apply to Items, choose Select None, then find your hot tea item(s) and select them.

As for the rest, yeah, that's what I was talking about. I really wish there was a way to share inventory amongst items in the Point of Sale, but it's not built yet. 😞