Focus on simplicity for everything, including the concession stand. Consumers balk when presented with too many choices. Variety can be the spice of life, but it can also make for a tough concession stand. Focus on one or two food type items, no more than five drink selections, one or two healthy items, and three to five snack items.
“It’s really hard to design products in focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them” – Steve Jobs Business Week May 12, 1998
Now, I wouldn’t want to work for Steve Jobs or even spend time with him, but he moved a lot of product. So, I guess why complicate life? Don’t spend your time making hot dogs, pizza, Sloppy Joes, walking tacos, loaded baked potatoes, and gyros just to have a little of each left over. It’s too complicated.
Beverages – This is used for the most profitable area. Back in the days of the soda fountain, when the glass cost more than the liquid in it. Many high schools no longer have soda fountains and few youth programs will have access to them. Today it is more common for people to donate cases of soda, water or sports drinks and resell the individual containers for $1 or $2. I see events marking $1 water and soft drinks and $1.50 sports drinks. Great, now you have to make change and handle quarters for half of your transactions. Do this and make your likes easier. Water is the healthiest item and if they want to pay more for sugar water, let them. For donated items, the margin is the same $1 for all items.
Water $1
Soft drink $1
Sports drink $1 or $2, not $1.25, $1.50 or $1.75.
Coffee $1
Food Item: If someone is hungry and captive, which means they can’t go home or go to a restaurant, you can sell them pita bread and hot sauce for $2 and they’ll be happy. Their goal is to wrestle, watch wrestling, or train wrestling. If they were here for the food, they would be somewhere else. Pick one or two items and lean towards one.
Sloppy Joe $2 or $3 – Standard fare.
Pizza $2: Take out and bake will have a higher margin than delivery
Pizza can be easy.
Hot Dog $2: Miscellaneous meat tubes floating in green water are proof that viewers will eat anything.
Ham and Cheese on a Bagel $1 or $2 – This was a staple growing up. They would put it in a microwave for ten seconds and get a delicious treat. I recommend saving labor and using a larger bun to charge $2.
Chili Bowl $2 or $3 – Cheap, simple and not common.
Loaded Baked Potato $2 or $3 – Cheap, simple and not common. I saw a lot of leftovers in this. It takes 3 hours to bake 70 potatoes, so you can’t do more quickly.
Walking Cue $2 or $3 – Inexpensive, but a little trickier at the point of assembly
Healthy Snack – This is one area where I would do something more complicated. Why, because these are kids and nutrition is closely tied to wrestling at all levels, especially youth wrestling. I think all junior tournaments should offer a healthy option. This doesn’t mean you have to offer a salad bar, yogurt, and fruit option. Please choose one or two of the items below.
$1 Zip-Lock Bag of Grapes: Buy in bulk at a grocery store or warehouse like Costco or Sams, wash and bag the day before.
Grapes are a healthy snack for a wrestling tournament.
Individual bags of baby carrots $1 – Prepackaged. You count on mom to help you buy them, they don’t run out fast. Have a bottle of ranch dressing with cups of condiments to help sell them.
Bananas $1 – Self-wrapped, healthy and labor-free. What more could you want?
$1 Apples – Wash them and put up a sign saying so.
Oranges $1 – I am having trouble buying oranges for the house. Seems like a game of dice to get the sweet and juicy ones or the dry and yucky ones. Also peeling an orange with a hand that just struggled can still be gross.
Simple snacks: chips, cookies, chocolate bars, hot liquid cheese, gummy things, donuts, licorice, or whatever. Unless you are also getting people to donate these items, these are the lowest margin items. Don’t spend too much time on them. Get a chocolate item, a sugar item, and a bag of chips. If someone is dying for a Snickers and all you have is an almond Hershey bar, do you think they walk away without spending any money? No, you’re buying a bowl of chili with a diet soda and thinking you’re healthy by not buying the Hershey bar. You win $1 at the Chili bar across from the Snickers. Choose three to five of these items. Remember to keep it simple.
Chocolate Candy Bar $1 – Basic snack.
Sugar based candy $1 – Skittles, Starburst, Smarties…
$1 Cookie – This is a snack, don’t buy oatmeal raisin cookies, unless you want lots of oatmeal raisin cookies in your house.
Donut $1 – It’s usually in the morning so they can sell well. They seem like work to me and getting back to the day seems complicated.
Chips $1 – Go simple, just chips. I often buy nachos with hot liquid cheese, but I know it’s bad for me. From the sales side, it seems like a hassle.
Have a cash box ready for the day. Remember that anything you include that is not an even dollar amount slows down the process, forces people to do mental math, and increases the chance of running out of coins. Also think about the cleanup process at the gym when considering popcorn.
