The muffin sold out at ten. The card still says $3.75.

Dear bakery and cafe owners,

You already know how the case looks by 4 p.m. The cards went up at 6. One has a buttery thumbprint on it. One still says "Blueberry muffin" over an empty tray. And someone at the register has just been asked whether the morning bun has nuts, and is walking to the back to check.

Big grocery stores fixed the card problem with electronic shelf labels: small e-paper screens that change when the price changes. I couldn't find a version made for the bakery case, with allergen icons and a sold-out button, that talks to the POS you already use. So I'm building one.

I'm Alek. I'm a software developer, and Case Cards is my project. Here's how it will work:

1. Connect Square once. Case Cards reads your item library: names, prices, and any allergens you've already marked there.
2. Set today's case. Each morning, tap your weekday, weekend or holiday set, or drag today's items onto tags. Each tag redraws on its own.
3. Let it run. Change a price in Square and the tag follows. When something sells out, tap "86 it" and the tag says SOLD OUT.

In the kit ($349, once):

• Twelve small e-paper tags (black, white and red), a little smaller than a business card
• One hub that plugs into an outlet and joins your Wi-Fi
• Twelve clips and stands for case shelves and glass
• A one-page start card. Kits arrive paired and tested.

In the app ($29 a month, or $290 a year):

• Names and prices synced from Square
• Icons for the nine major allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy and sesame, plus vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free badges you choose
• One-tap SOLD OUT, with an optional time to hide sold-out items
• Saved case sets for weekdays, weekends and holidays
• Printed allergen labels for your bagged and boxed items, on standard Avery or Dymo labels, from the same information
• A one-page allergen chart for the counter

Extra tags are $24 each.

What I'm asking: reserve a founding kit with the reply card below. It costs nothing today. I'm planning to ship the first kits in early 2027 to a small group of founding shops, starting with shops I can visit and set up in person. Before anyone pays, I'll email you the ship date, a photo of the real kit and a payment link, and you can still say no.

Founding shops keep the $29 a month price for as long as they stay subscribed, and they get my direct email for anything that doesn't work.

Thank you for reading. If your case cards are fine the way they are, I'd like to hear that too. Write to me at hello@REPLACE_ME.com.

P.S. You stay in charge of your allergen information. Case Cards shows what you enter and confirm. It never decides for you.