Thanksgiving bakery preorders for pies, rolls, and desserts.

What this sale actually is

Customers want a pie on the table Wednesday night. You need a short menu, a close date, and pickup windows that do not dump every order at 4pm. Sell whole pies and dozens of rolls. Quote custom cakes separately if you take them at all. This is one preorder sale for Thanksgiving, then bake day for the pies that sold.

A practical timeline for 2026

• Oct 20-25: lock flavors, tin size, and prices from ingredient plus packaging cost.
• Nov 1: publish the menu and open preorders. Share one link.
• Nov 8-10: payment cutoff if you will not bake unpaid orders.
• Nov 16-18: hard close, about a week before pickup, so you can shop and block oven time.
• Nov 23-25: bake day, then pickup windows on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• Nov 26: the holiday. Do not schedule pickup on Thursday unless you mean it.

Thanksgiving menu ideas

Three pies and one side is a full weekend. Add a fourth only after you have done the oven count.

• Pumpkin pie, 9-inch, sold whole.
• Apple pie, same size, if both crusts fit your timeline.
• Pecan pie with a lower quantity limit. It costs more and sets faster than you expect.
• Dinner rolls by the dozen. They can bake in a gap between pie loads.
• A small dessert box (bars or cookies) only if pie demand is already capped and you still have mixer time.
• Skip “build your own pie” and last-minute flavor swaps. They do not scale.

Set quantity limits from the oven

• Count how many pies fit per bake and how many bakes fit before midnight.
• Subtract time for cooling, boxing, and labels. Hot pies stacked in boxes ruin the crust.
• Publish a quantity limit under that number, not over it.
• When an item sells out, leave it sold out. Extra pies promised in DMs are how you miss pickup.

Pickup on Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday or Wednesday before Thanksgiving is when most families can still take a pie home. Short windows beat one long afternoon.

• Two or three windows, for example Tuesday 4-6pm and Wednesday 10am-12pm.
• Customer picks the window at checkout.
• Pack in window order and label the name on the box.
• If you sell out of Wednesday windows, do not silently move people to Thursday.

How BakeryFlow can help you

• Plan your Thanksgiving menu.
• Publish quantity limits, an order close date, and pickup windows.
• Share one storefront link instead of collecting orders in messages.
• Manage payments, offer discounts and coupons, and collect reviews after pickup.
• Bake from the order list of what sold.

Frequently asked questions