Guide · 4 min read
What to say when a café says no to stocking you
A café almost never says no outright. I have counted eight things they say instead, and six of them have a next move inside them. Reply in the same thread and ask for something smaller than the first time. I write twice. After the second unanswered message I stop and put a month in the diary.
The eight answers
What they say, what I take it to mean, the reply I send, and where I stop. Brackets are yours to fill.
I keep every reply under four lines. Past four I am arguing, and an owner who feels argued with does not hand over the counter, the spot your jar has to earn.
1. They do not reply
SilenceI read nothing into silence. It landed mid-shift on a phone that is also taking orders.
One follow-up, carrying a price the first did not. I stop after the second unanswered message. A third gets you blocked.
2. They already have a supplier
Second placeThat is usually true, and I like the answer anyway. They stock the category, and suppliers miss deliveries.
I would rather be the second number in that phone than not be in it. Keep the MOQ, the smallest order you take, at one carton. When they name a supplier they like, I diary six months and stop.
3. The margin is too low
Price or creditSometimes the margin really is too thin, and sometimes they are seeing whether I fold. I give both the same two options.
Offer a scheme, a trade offer in goods or price, or a credit period, the days before they pay. When they want both, I stop.
4. Send a sample
Needs a dateI cannot tell real interest from a polite exit until there is a date on it.
Name the drop day and the day you come back before you hand anything over. I would rather keep the units than leave them undated. I stop after a second sample with no order.
5. Come back after Diwali
Festive seasonI take this at face value. Festive weeks are the worst time to change anything on a counter.
Write the date down and turn up on it, opening with their own words. I stop when a second date passes and nothing changes.
6. They buy through a distributor
One step backNo store breaks this for one jar. Go to the DB, the distributor who bills the store.
A store's yes in principle is what gets a DB to take your call. I stop here, argued out in distributor or direct to retail.
7. Too expensive for our customers
MRP questionThey are pricing you against the shelf they know, and now and then your MRP really is wrong for that street.
A smaller pack protects the MRP on the big one. Three stores on one street saying this, and I stop pitching and go back to the grammage.
8. The owner is not here
Wrong personThe person at the counter cannot place an order and can absolutely kill one. I do not pitch them.
Get the hour and come back at it. Be decent to the counter staff and they will introduce you. I stop after three visits with no owner.
The margin numbers
I quote margin on MRP, the store's cut against the printed price, because that is the number the owner already thinks in. Margin on cost sounds like a trick.
Indian distribution guides put traditional trade at 15 to 25 per cent, general trade retail at 25 to 30, and premium health food nearer 15 to 20 because the rupees per unit are larger.
A café is not a kirana, the neighbourhood grocery. It buys one line for one counter.
- Printed MRP
- ₹250
- PTR, what the café pays you
- ₹175 30 per cent on MRP
- They earn per unit
- ₹75
- Six a week off one spot
- ₹1,800 a month
Illustrative. Work your own in the margin calculator.
If the store buys through a distributor, that cut lands on top of theirs: roughly 3 to 8 per cent on packaged goods, 8 to 14 in bakery and confectionery, with a super stockist adding 5 to 7 above it. I give days before I give points. Credit of 7 to 21 days is normal in general trade, and I would rather carry a week of that than sign away four points of margin for good.
No credit until a store has reordered twice. And say the number in rupees: ₹90 a jar moving four a week beats ₹140 moving one.
Coming back after a no
Six of the eight are a not now with a date on them. The only real no I have heard is a happy supplier, or an MRP the street will not carry. A flavour called too expensive in April can go out in an October gift box at the same MRP.
So name the month you will ask again, in the last line you send, and keep it. I would rather hold thirty refusals with a month written on them than thirty maybes I never wrote down.
Turn up with something they did not have last time, a smaller pack or a store two lanes over now carrying you. I lose more of those dates to a busy month than to any store saying no. Mira keeps them and writes the message on the day, in your voice.
Sources
The margin bands above, each from a published Indian distribution guide.
- Traditional trade at 15 to 25 per cent on MRP, retailers at 20 to 30 per cent by category and geography, premium health food at 15 to 20: FMCGMath, FMCG profit margin calculator
- General trade retailer margins of 25 to 30 per cent: Scico, distributor margins in FMCG
- Distributor gross margins of 3 to 8 per cent on packaged goods and 8 to 14 in bakery and confectionery, and credit of 7 to 21 days in general trade: SpireStock, FMCG distributor margin and profit guide, India 2026
- Super stockist margin of 5 to 7 per cent: Storewise, FMCG distribution margins and sales structure