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Author Topic: Concessions Alternatives - Pretzels etc... Ryan Navaroli Film Handler Posts: 63 From: Athens, OH, USA Registered: Nov 2005 posted 02-09-2009 10:54 PM                        Related to my previous post we are getting ready to open 3 new digital 3D screens. We would like to shake up our concessions some to hopefully improve our percap on an increasing number of patrons (fingers crossed). Here is what we have. Popcorn - sm 46oz 2.75, md 85oz 3.50, lg 130oz 4.25 - no refills Soda - sm 16oz 2.25, md 22oz 2.75, lg 32oz 3.25 variety of candy 2.25-3.00 nachos w/cheese 3.75 add chili, jalepneos, xtra cheese .50 cotton candy made in house - 3.25 slushies - 2 sizes 2.75, 3.25 kids pack - 3.50 crappy coffee that is neglected and mostly for us - 2 [popcorn topper area with self serve butter and 12 kernal seasons toppings (people really like these)] We are a college town with a population of 20,000 + 20,000 students and serve a slightly larger area and hopefully much larger with our upcoming 3D. The single item we are mostly thinking about right now is Gourmet Pretzels. Singular packaged ones. From what I understand its about $150 for the warmer and about a buck per product. We'd probably sell for around the price of the nachos with cheese side and others. How have pretzels done for you all? Ice cream is another thing I have tried to push for. You can usually get the freezer for free so its just product to worry about. Obviously it seems this would do best in summer months. Anyone have thoughts on various ice cream products? Does anyone sell energy drinks? Beef Jerky and Trail Mix are other things that have been thrown out. I think we are trying to stay away from hot dogs etc because it is a different food operating license. Also for context our only competing theater sells popcorn, candy, drinks, and hot dogs for $1 and has $4 tickets. They dropped prices crazy to compete with us. I don't know how they make money. This is a little all over the place so my apologies, we are just looking at shaking things up.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-09-2009 11:28 PM                        No matter what you do, your majority of sales will probably always come from the Big 3: Popcorn, soda, candy. So don't put TOO much effort into shaking things up unless your new idea is easy to prepare and very profitable. (Have you looked at Gold Medal's "funfoods" catalog?) You don't show Bottled Water on your list. That is an amazingly good seller. We have cherry and unflavored. I would say sales of the unflavored are about 20/1 over the cherry, at least. You can get a no-name bottled water and make crazy amounts of profit on it. We sell energy drinks (16oz cans) - they do quite well.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 02-09-2009 11:49 PM                        Bavarian Brothers soft pretzels are a pretty good seller at our theatre. The cost is about $1.00 each and we sell them for $3.50. The company will provide you with a steamer and dressing trays. Since we have a BIB nacho cheese dispenser, we also sell a cheese cup for 50¢. On a busy day we'll sell 40-50 pretzels. With a market of about 40,000, I would guess that your busiest rushes are in the ballpark of 300-400 people. Typically we'll sell 10-20 pretzels for that size rush. The other plus is they can be microwaved to order in about 75 seconds and the quality is still pretty good.  |  IP: Logged Ryan Navaroli Film Handler Posts: 63 From: Athens, OH, USA Registered: Nov 2005 posted 02-10-2009 05:00 AM                        Mike - We do have bottle water. $2.25 a bottle. It amazes me how it sells. I feel kind of guilty when a family gets 4 of them. The energy drinks, juices, iced teas and other soda alternatives have always interested me. You can't beat that mark up on the fountain soda so its very hard to try and see what would add new business and not just substitute others. Right now we have been looking at Gold Medal pretzels but will look into Bavarian Brothers. Our Friday Saturday busy round is usually between 600-800. With matinees from 200-400ish. Weekdays we are open 3 rounds and don't usually do more than 100 for the 7. One concern we had with the pretzels was having enough stock on hand / vs having to throw them away. Also, the concern of if we introduce them its kind of hard to take them away and anger people.  |  IP: Logged Damien Taylor Master Film Handler Posts: 493 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2007 posted 02-10-2009 05:30 AM                     Is there such a thing as Choc Bombs (Large staff-made ice cream cones dipped in chocolate) in the States, or has my whole world just been shattered? These things are an institution of Aussie, and I assumed the international cinema experience, not to mention phenomenal sellers with a huge markup potential.  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 02-10-2009 07:19 AM                     Ryan, you say you have a college crowd? Your crazy to not be selling some sort of energy drink. Monster and Rockstar is something you really need to look into. We sell Rockstar and they do awsome. Do you offer refills on your soda? If your looking for something to help up your percap, you could offer refills on your large for say .50 cents. If you don't offer refills now they customer will think thats a great deal for the large. Plus your going to add roughly .45 cents per refill of profit. The pretzels is a great item, Bavarian Brothers is what we carry and we take the plain pretzel and offer Salted, Cinnamon, Garlic, and plain. As well as the option to buy cheese.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-10-2009 09:35 AM                        quote: Ryan Navaroli The energy drinks, juices, iced teas and other soda alternatives have always interested me. You can't beat that mark up on the fountain soda so its very hard to try and see what would add new business and not just substitute others. That is true. The main reason we decided to add the energy drinks is, the kids were sneaking them in. We sell quite a few of them but they're not blockbusters by any means -- and of course there is a new one every five minutes so you have to stay on top of the trend. Our concession kids keep us pretty well abreast of what's "hot."  |  IP: Logged Poon Limpapun Film Handler Posts: 40 From: Pathumwhan Bangkok Thailand Registered: Nov 2007 posted 02-10-2009 11:59 AM                        Pretzels and Churros are a great addition to the Concession and we get them from Gold Medal Products. However, what we do locally here in Thailand is that we have a number of different flavours for our corns and they are Regular Butter, Caramel, BBQ, Cheese, Corn Cheese, Sour Cream & Onion, Olive Oil & Organic Corn (Premium $$), Strawberry, Coconut, Tropical Fruit et al. We also have a number of flavours on rotation. What we have been doing so far is trying to create Healthy Menu options on our Concession as our crowd tends to be health conscious these days and our Olive Oil Organic selection tends to be really popular. We also have Fresh Fruits, Light Yoghurt, Biscuits and Low Fat Ice Cream on offer and they are really making lots of Cash.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 02-10-2009 12:20 PM                        Kernel's Seasonings sells mini shakers for 75¢ which are labeled for $1.50 resale. It's a good alternative to offering the free shakers. They will send you the POP materials. I believe they are currently offering White Cheddar (our best seller), Nacho, and Kettle Corn. We don't sell a ton of these, but for the cost it's something easy to add. For what it's worth, we tried the free shakers for about 12 months based on their claim that it would increase popcorn sales by 3%. When we tracked our sales over those 12 months, the number sold of each size per 100 customers was completely flat - in other words no change. We didn't even see a decrease in the amount of butter topping we were using. Needless to say, it was difficult to justify spending $1000 a year for something that didn't add sales.  |  IP: Logged Poon Limpapun Film Handler Posts: 40 From: Pathumwhan Bangkok Thailand Registered: Nov 2007 posted 02-10-2009 03:26 PM                        We are in the process of adding Waffles and Sandwiches into our Concession Menu this Thursday. Will keep you guys updated  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 02-10-2009 06:59 PM                        Here's a quick solution...Raise your prices. You're a good two bucks cheaper on popcorn and soda across the board compared to the craptacular dumps around here.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-10-2009 11:02 PM                     quote: Poon Limpapun However, what we do locally here in Thailand is that we have a number of different flavours for our corns and they are Regular Butter, Caramel, BBQ, Cheese, Corn Cheese, Sour Cream & Onion, Olive Oil & Organic Corn (Premium $$), Strawberry, Coconut, Tropical Fruit et al. We also have a number of flavours on rotation. I can't believe that other theaters in the USA don't do that... It's so simple to do. I love Carmel Corn and Cracker Jack! I have but one customer out of hindreds that does this... and he has but three flavors... Mark  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 02-11-2009 12:25 AM                     quote: Kernel's Seasonings sells mini shakers for 75¢... We just started doing this mini shaker seasoning to our conc sales. Funny is that Wally-World sells the same stuff. But, it looks like you can use this seasoning for practically everything else you want to flavour. We've been doing this Caramel Corn as well - took a while to take off but not doing too bad with this stuff. But this caramel corn has its customer base in certain markets.. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Jack Theakston Master Film Handler Posts: 411 From: New York, USA Registered: Sep 2007 posted 02-12-2009 04:40 PM                     Has anyone tried bagged peanuts or mixed nuts? How did they do in comparison?  |  IP: Logged Poon Limpapun Film Handler Posts: 40 From: Pathumwhan Bangkok Thailand Registered: Nov 2007 posted 02-12-2009 06:09 PM                        We did have Bagged Peanuts and assorted nuts a while back and they were issues with audience members having Nuts allergy so we cancelled the product and the other reason is that the sales figures are just terrible. The sales mix for this product was like 0.9% and most of it ended up in the bin.  |  IP: Logged

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