Buying certain food items—like pies—wholesale and ready-made can make your business a whole lot easier. Pies can be time consuming to make and purchasing high quality pies wholesale allows you and your employees to focus on other food areas where you excel, in the long run saving time and energy. And if you want to operate a small food business (perhaps just selling desserts), you may find that operating a certified commercial kitchen is difficult and expensive; selling pies made in someone else's kitchen is a great way to start or expand your business.

There are a variety of pie sellers to choose from, offering everything from unusual, gourmet flavors to traditional, down home favorites. When deciding what prepared pies to purchase for your business, you should:

1. Determine which flavors your customers most crave.

2. Research reputable prepared pie makers who sell wholesale.

3. Track which pies sell fastest and slowest in your establishment to prevent food spoilage and wastefulness in the future.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find a pie seller who specializes in fruit pies

Fruit pies are the basis of a good pie collection. Many American favorites, including apple pie, peach pie and blueberry pie can be purchased made from quality canned, frozen or fresh fruit. Look for a pie maker who has a range of traditional and less-traditional flavors, and expect that some varieties will be available only when the fruit is in season.

I recommend: Sweet Lilly's Bakery offers a scrumptious line of wholesale fruit pies, including lemon blueberry, coconut key lime, lemon strawberry and apple caramel. The Pie Lady sells a variety of baked pie wholesale, including fruit pies like cherry, apple, blueberry, concord grape, rhubarb, raspberry and peach pie.

Get in touch with a pie maker specializing in cream pies

Another favorite category of pies is cream pies. Unlike other baked pies, cream pies are often 'sinfully rich' and vary from down home banana cream flavors to complex mixtures made from several scrumptious ingredients. Keep in mind that cream pies should always be refrigerated and never left out at room temperature for any length of time.

I recommend: Cyrus O'Leary's Pies has a nice selection of wholesale dessert pie, including Kahlua cream, banana cream, coconut cream and chocolate cream; click on "Award Winning Pies" in the left hand menu for more information. Kathy's Pies provides wholesale pies, including banana cream, "Bayoo Goo," butterscotch cream, chocolate cream, coconut cream and peanut butter cream.

Discover specialty dessert pies

Then there are speciality pies--slightly more exotic, gourmet pies, often made from familiar and beloved ingredients like cappuccino and candy bars or cookies. Some pie makers with larger selections carry these in addition to more traditional fruit and cream pies, while other pie makers specialize in specialty pies.

I recommend: Pellman Foods offers a small line of wholesale pies, including peanut butter pie. Mazelle's Desserts has a small selection of specialty desserts, including cappuccino pie. Giammanco & Sons Produce sells wholesale Snickers, brownie, Heath toffee crunch, Oreo cookie, Reese peanut butter and other sinfully delicious pies.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Display your pies in an enticing manner. If you have a refrigerated section near the eating area, be sure to place your best-looking pies inside it. Or, if your pies are kept from customer view, be sure to have excellent photographs or descriptions of your pie offerings on the table or prominently displayed in the menu. Customers often don't plan on eating dessert, but if they see or read about a scrumptious pie, they are more likely to splurge and treat themselves.