Things to Consider Running a Successful Concession Stand

Concession stands have become part of our mainstream culture since the days of the Great Depression, when movie theaters finally succumbed to the commercial need to raise revenues by selling food and drink inside the theater.  Popcorn was the staple item, especially with the advent of World War 2, when sugar was rationed and candy became scarce and expensive.

Since then concessions stands have increased in popularity and spread across the country.  School fetes, county fairs, concerts, public parks, roadside catering, hotdog and knish stands on busy street corners; you name any situation where there are people to be found, and you will find concession stands.
While concession stands have a reputation for serving up “junk food”, this is not always the case.  Modern concession stands, whether static or mobile, are very well equipped and capable of providing excellent quality food to the hungry masses.  They are quick and convenient, and provide an excellent way to make money for the operators.

Here are some tips for making sure your concession stand is a runaway success:

Formulate your Business Plan

You should set out your business plan, which will include budgeting for capital and running costs as well as forecasting sales along with the obvious – where you are going to set yourself up in business and sell your food.

Establishing a business plan will help you to raise financing from the bank or third-party financing source.  Not only that, by establishing a business plan you are mapping out a route to business success and the majority of businesses which do not have one do lead to failure.

What are you Cooking to Sell?

Remember you are selling fast food – speed is of the essence both for you and the customers.  Obviously you need to have a variety of food and drink on offer, but the more choice you provide, then the greater the amount of time you will have to spend in getting it prepared.

In addition, the greater the customer choice you provide, then the greater the likelihood your customers will come up to the counter and waste time ordering the food leaving others to contemplate going somewhere else while you serve procrastinating customers.

Location

Which venues you are going to be targeting is crucial because this will directly impact your bottom line.  The first issue is traffic – more people attending an event means more sales for you, so take a good look at attendance figures.  The more popular an event is, then the greater the cost to you of getting a permit to sell your food there, so on the one hand you’ll get more sales but on the other, you have to fork out more cost to get in.

Competition

There are some concession stands which will sell no matter what the occasion – hotdog stands, for instance.
The problem with this is you are going to be working on lower margins and you have nothing to differentiate yourself from other sellers.  It will also be more likely that you will experience greater competition at venues for your hotdogs from the two or three other hotdog outlets.

Differentiating yourself from the rest of the food pack is important so you can corner your part of the market.  That said, there is no need to be “out there” with your food; remember you are offering convenience not cordon bleu cuisine!

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