Variable costs
Example: A taqueria adds up the tortillas, carne, hourly cooks, card fees, and takeout packaging on a single order and finds its late-night delivery daypart barely covers its own marginal cost, so the owner trims those hours.
costs that scale with sales
Costs that scale with sales volume: food ingredients, hourly labor (cooks, servers, bussers, dishwashers), credit-card processing, aggregator commissions, variable utilities (gas while cooking), takeout packaging.
Why it matters
Every sale has a marginal cost. Knowing what it is tells you which orders are actually worth taking — especially helpful when deciding whether a specific daypart, special, or channel pays for itself at the margin.
Frequently asked
What is variable costs?
Variable costs is costs that scale with sales volume: food ingredients, hourly labor (cooks, servers, bussers, dishwashers), credit-card processing, aggregator commissions, variable utilities (gas while cooking), takeout packaging.
Why does variable costs matter for a restaurant?
Every sale has a marginal cost. Knowing what it is tells you which orders are actually worth taking — especially helpful when deciding whether a specific daypart, special, or channel pays for itself at the margin.
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