For bakeries, butchers, and caterers
How to create a holiday preorders waitlist
Thanksgiving orders arrive by phone, by DM, and at the counter, and the count lives in three places. On the Monday before, the notebook says 140 and the DMs say 180, and the oven says 150. The ordering system your POS sells does it, for a monthly fee that is more than the pies make.
The pie list is a notebook by the register and a DM thread. 6 steps, about five minutes, or one click with the recipe below.
Step by step
Set up the Thanksgiving orders yourself
These are the exact values the recipe applies. Change any of them to match your line.
Create the waitlist
Sign in, click New waitlist, and name it "Thanksgiving orders". It starts as a draft, so nothing is public until you publish.
Set capacity to 150 in total
In Settings, set the capacity to 150 in total. When the 150th person joins, the form reads as full and says so.
Leave the hours open
Under Hours, leave the schedule off so people can join at any time. You can pause the list by hand whenever you need to.
Add the form fields
Email is built in. On the Form tab, add Name (required), Phone (required), Item (required), Quantity (required), Pickup day (required). Labels and help text render as plain text.
Show the counter
In Settings, turn on the counter so the form shows how many spots are left. People join faster when they can see the number.
Publish and share
Click Publish. The Share tab has the hosted link, a QR code, and the script tag or iframe for your site. The submit button reads "Reserve my order".
Or do it in one click
Use the recipe
The "Thanksgiving orders" recipe creates the waitlist with every step above already done. Sign in, click once, and it is live as a draft you can publish.
Recipe
Thanksgiving orders
- 150 total
- Open any time
- 6 fields
- 150 orders in total. Order 151 sees the full message.
- No opening hours. Open the list on November 1 and pause it at the cutoff.
- Asks for name, phone, item, quantity (1 to 3), and pickup day.
- The cap counts orders, not items. With three allowed each, plan for up to 450.
- Customers see their order number on the success screen.
After you publish
How the list runs
Cap the season
One hundred and fifty orders. Set it to what the ovens can do, not what the demand is.
Item and quantity
A dropdown and a number field capped at three. Both land in the CSV.
Pickup day
A multiple-choice field. Bag Tuesday first, sorted from the export.
Numbered orders
"You're #112." The phone stops ringing with "did you get my order?"
Cap a single item
If pecan sells out first, switch the item field to a slot field and give each item its own cap.
The counter list
Export the CSV on pickup morning. Or on Starter, webhook each order to a sheet as it lands.
FAQ
Questions people here ask
Does the cap count orders or pies?
Orders. If you allow three each, 150 orders could be 450 pies. Set the cap to what you can bake, or set the quantity maximum to one.
Can customers pay for the order online?
No. Unwaited does not take payments. Take payment at pickup or send a checkout link from your POS when you confirm.
Can I cap each pie separately?
Yes. Turn the item field into a slot field with a capacity per item. Pecan greys out on its own when its 40 are gone.
Can I close orders on a specific date?
Pause the waitlist from the dashboard at the cutoff. Opening hours are weekly, not dated, so the pause button is the cutoff. The form shows the closed message after that.
Related
Keep reading
- FeaturePosition numbersWaitlist position numbers that never collide
- For your businessThe waitlist app for gyms, studios, and class schedulesTwenty spots in the 6:00 AM class, forty across the week, registration that opens the evening before.
- AlternativeTap to Queue (taptoline.com) alternativeA no-app QR walk-in queue: guests scan, take a number, and watch their live position while they wait on site.
Five minutes by hand, or one click.
Free for 100 signups a month. Unlimited waitlists. Every setting above stays editable.
Create this waitlist