A blank, fillable price list that carries one product across the channel — your cost, your price, the distributor's price, and the retail shelf price — and shows the margin each tier takes and how those margins compound into the price the shopper pays.
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The price on your invoice is not the price the shopper pays. Between your dock and the shelf, a distributor and a retailer each add a margin, and every one of them marks up from your price — so the shelf price ends up a multiple of what the product cost you to make. Fill one line per product to see the whole stack at once, and check that your price leaves room for everyone downstream and still lands where shoppers will actually buy.
A is just a series of prices, each built from the one before it. This worksheet lays the chain out so you can read every step: your cost to make the product, the price you sell it at, the price the distributor sells it to the retailer at, and the retail shelf price the shopper pays. The margin at each step is the difference between what that tier paid and what it charges.
The convention across the channel is to quote as a percentage of the selling price, not a on cost. When a distributor says it needs "25 points," it means 25% of what it sells the case for. Keep every margin in this worksheet on that same basis so the tiers stack cleanly.
Start from the cost per unit on your COGS / recipe-cost worksheet — that is the true cost this stack sits on top of. The example values in every table are illustrations to keep the fields legible; replace all of them with your own. Download a blank copy to fill in for your own products.
This traces the stack — it does not set your price
The worksheet shows what margin each tier takes and where the shelf price lands. It does not decide your price for you, it is not pricing or accounting advice, and every distributor and retailer negotiates its own terms. Treat the margins here as placeholders for the real numbers your buyers quote you, and confirm those before you commit to a price.
Do this once per product. Each tier buys at the price the tier above it sells at, so the chain links top to bottom — your selling price is the distributor's cost, the distributor's price is the retailer's cost, and the retailer's price is what the shopper pays. Read the margin at each step as the price out minus the price in, over the price out.
| Channel tier | Buys at (cost in) | Sells at (price out) | Margin per unit (out − in) | Margin % (÷ price out) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (example) You — the maker | $3.60 (your cost to make) | $6.00 (your price) | $2.40 | 40.0% |
| (example) Distributor | $6.00 (your price) | $8.00 (distributor price) | $2.00 | 25.0% |
| (example) Retailer | $8.00 (distributor price) | $12.00 (retail shelf price) | $4.00 | 33.3% |
A 25% margin is not a 25% markup
A distributor buying at $6.00 and selling at $8.00 keeps a 25% margin — $2.00 over its $8.00 selling price. Measured the other way, that is a 33% markup on the $6.00 it paid. Same two dollars, two different percentages. The channel quotes the margin; if you plan against the markup by mistake, you will set your price too low and hand away the difference. Keep every tier on margin-of-price and the arithmetic stays honest.
Each tier's margin looks modest on its own — 40 points for you, 25 for the distributor, a third for the retailer. But margins stack multiplicatively, not additively: the retailer marks up a number that already carries the distributor's margin, which already carries yours. At these three margins the retail shelf price is exactly double your selling price and about 3.3 times your cost to make. Fill in your own shelf price and cost, then divide one by the other to see your product's real multiple.
| Where the $12.00 shelf price goes | Per unit | Share of shelf price |
|---|---|---|
| Your cost to make it | $3.60 | 30.0% |
| Your margin | $2.40 | 20.0% |
| Distributor margin | $2.00 | 16.7% |
| Retailer margin | $4.00 | 33.3% |
| Retail shelf price | $12.00 | 100% |
The shopper pays $12.00; you keep $2.40 of it. That is the reason to build your price to survive the whole stack rather than to look good on your own invoice — the margin you set has to still be there after two more tiers have taken theirs.
The stack above runs forward: start from your cost, add each margin, arrive at the shelf. The honest real-world direction is often backward. Shoppers pay a price the shelf will bear — a — and the tiers below it each take their cut from that fixed number, leaving whatever remains for you. Start from a realistic shelf price, strip out the retailer's margin, then the distributor's, and see what price you are actually left with.
| Price backward from the shelf | Example | Your entry |
|---|---|---|
| Target retail shelf price | $12.00 | |
| − Retailer margin (33.3%) → distributor price (shelf × 0.667) | $8.00 | |
| − Distributor margin (25%) → your price (distributor × 0.75) | $6.00 | |
| Your cost to make (from your COGS worksheet) | $3.60 | |
| Your margin at that price (your price − cost) ÷ your price | 40.0% |
If the number left for you won't clear your cost, the product doesn't work at that shelf price
When you strip the downstream margins out of a shelf price and the price left for you doesn't cover your cost plus the margin you need, the product cannot ship at that shelf price. The only honest moves are to take cost out of the product, raise the shelf price and test whether shoppers still buy, or drop the item. And in the real channel there is more to subtract than tier margins — , promotional allowances, and freight all come out of your side of the stack, not the shelf price. Leave room for them before you commit.
Once the stack is clear for one product, lay your line out as a single price list so you can compare across it. Hold the tier margins you actually negotiate constant down the column, and the shelf prices and multiples fall out of your cost and your price.
| Product (pack) | Your cost | Your price | Your margin % | Distributor price | Retail shelf price | Shelf ÷ your cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (example) Roasted tomato salsa, 16 oz jar | $3.60 | $6.00 | 40.0% | $8.00 | $12.00 | 3.3× |
| (example) Hot pepper sauce, 5 oz bottle | $1.80 | $3.00 | 40.0% | $4.00 | $6.00 | 3.3× |
| (example) Simmer sauce, 24 oz jar | $5.40 | $9.00 | 40.0% | $12.00 | $18.00 | 3.3× |
Keep the pack size on every line — a price without its pack is not a price, and the shelf price only makes sense next to what the shopper is holding. Carry the identity and pack from each product's spec sheet so the price list and the spec agree.
Number and date every version so sales, the distributor, and whoever sets your list all work from the same prices. Re-run a line whenever your cost, a tier's margin, or a shelf price moves — a price list built on last season's cost is a margin you no longer have.
| Field | Example | Your entry |
|---|---|---|
| Product and pack size | Roasted tomato salsa, 16 oz jar | |
| Your cost per unit | $3.60 | |
| Your price | $6.00 | |
| Retail shelf price | $12.00 | |
| Price-list version | Rev. 1 | |
| Prepared by (name, role) | Sam Ortiz, Operations Lead | |
| Date prepared | 07/15/2026 | |
| Next review (or trigger) | On cost or margin change |