Are Branded Paper Bags Worth It for Your Café?

Branded paper bags are worth it for a Sydney café, or any café, when enough bags leave your counter, in a style customers carry a long way, that the printed bag does work a plain bag can't. Work it out with your own numbers: count bags per week, note which bag style travels furthest, then compare the per-bag cost of plain stock bags against a custom-print quote.

Key takeaways

• Start with your own bag count, not a guess. Tally bags handed out over a normal week, split by style.
• A logo matters most on bags that are carried away and seen: handle bags and larger SOS bags, rather than small satchels that get opened at the table.
• Every plain bag on Packery has a carton price and a per-item price on its product page, so your plain-bag baseline is easy to pin down.
• Get a real quote through custom print or contact before deciding. Don't rely on rules of thumb.
• You can brand one bag style and keep the rest plain.

How many bags actually leave your café?

Count them for a week before you think about printing. Pull your till data for takeaway orders, or put a tally sheet next to the bag shelf, and record each bag by style: satchel, SOS bag (the flat-bottomed bag that stands upright), or twisted handle bag.

This tells you three things:

• Volume by style. Often most bags are small satchels, with fewer handle bags for catering or group orders.
• How fast you go through a carton. Satchels and flat bags come in cartons of 500, the smaller SOS bags in cartons of 2000, and larger SOS and handle bags in cartons of 250 or 500. Your weekly count shows how many weeks one carton covers.
• Where a logo would be seen. A bag used for a croissant eaten on the footpath outside your shop doesn't carry your name very far. A handle bag taken back to an office does.

Which bag style do customers carry furthest?

Handle bags and large SOS bags usually travel furthest, because they're used for bigger orders that go back to a desk, a car or a home. Satchels are often opened within minutes of leaving the counter.

Watch where each style goes for a few days:

• Twisted handle bags, such as the Kraft Bag – Brown Twisted Handle Small (Carton of 500) or the Kraft Bag – Brown Twisted Handle Medium (Carton of 250), are carried by the handle and held at eye level on the street, in lifts and on public transport. They're made from recycled paper.
• SOS bags, such as the No.16 Bag – Brown SOS (Carton of 250), stand upright on a counter or car seat and suit multi-item orders. Smaller SOS bags such as the No.4 and No.6 tend to hold a single item and get thrown out sooner. Packery's SOS bags are virgin paper.
• Satchels, such as the Kraft Bag – 2SO Satchel (Carton of 500), are flat paper bags for pastries, toasties and cookies.

If most of your bag volume is satchels and only a small share is handle bags, branding the handle bags alone may give you most of the visibility for a fraction of the print run.

What does a plain stock bag cost per bag?

Each product page shows the carton price and the price per item, so you can read your plain-bag cost straight off the page. Here are the stock bags most cafés compare:

Write the plain per-bag cost next to each style in your tally. White satchels and white SOS bags give a cleaner background for a printed logo.

How do you compare plain bags with a custom-print quote?

Ask for a quote on the exact bag style and quantity your tally points to, then put the quoted per-bag cost beside the plain per-item price from the table. All the bags above are marked as available for custom printing with your logo. Request a quote through custom print or contact.

When you ask, include:

• The product name and size, copied from the product page.
• How many bags of that style you use, based on your tally.
• Your logo file and the colours you want.

Once the quote comes back, the comparison is simple. The difference between the quoted per-bag cost and the plain per-bag cost is what each branded bag costs you extra. Multiply that by the bags you'd hand out of that style and you have the real cost of branding. Then decide if a customer carrying that bag away is worth that amount to your café.

If the numbers don't stack up, a plain bag with a sticker or stamp still puts your name on it.

Which one should I buy?

Match the bag to how your café actually sells:

• Coffee-and-pastry café with mostly single items: the Kraft Bag – 2SO Satchel (Carton of 500) for pastries and toasties, and the Bag – White D. Bread Satchel (Carton of 500) for loaves or larger baked goods. Keep these plain. They're rarely carried far.
• Café with office and group orders: the Kraft Bag – Brown Twisted Handle Medium (Carton of 250) for multi-item orders. This is the strongest candidate for your logo.
• Grab-and-go counter with small handle-bag orders: the Kraft Bag – Brown Twisted Handle Baby (Carton of 500) for one or two items with a handle.
• Takeaway lunches and meal orders: the No.16 Bag – Brown SOS (Carton of 250) stands up on the counter and suits stacked containers.
• Single sandwiches or wraps: the No.4 Bag – Brown SOS (Carton of 2000).

A common setup is plain satchels for small items and branded handle bags for the big orders customers carry away. For more on print options, read Printed Paper Bags. For a size-by-size guide to stock bags, see Paper Bags Wholesale: Bakery, Takeaway & Retail Sizes. The full range is in bags.

Ordering plain bags while you decide

There's no minimum order, so you can buy one carton of each style and run your tally with real stock. Delivery is a flat fee set by your postcode, and free once an order passes a set amount; checkout shows the exact cost, and today's rates are on the shipping page. Delivery takes 3–5 business days to capital cities, including Sydney, and 4–6 business days to regional areas. All orders are prepaid online. Damaged or faulty items are replaced or refunded free; unopened stock cartons can be returned within 7 days of delivery (10% restocking fee, return delivery at your cost). Reorder your regular bags quickly through quick order.

See also: paper bag size chart: every paper bag we stock with its size and price per bag.

Setting up or restocking your packaging?

Send us your list for a trade quote, or price it yourself in the cost calculator.

No minimum order · free delivery over $750 (metro) / $1000 (regional) · damaged items replaced free · Delivery details