First Day vending

Had my first day at a local Farmers Market in Corona on Sat. After staying up till 0330 smoking 40 lbs of brisket, 40 lbs of pork butt, 8 racks of St Louis style ribs, 3 full trays of beans, prepping 4 fattys, I decided to get 2 hours of sleep. Got up loaded trailer and was ready to get to the market by 0700 for the 0830 start time. Trailer had a flat tire s#%t!! Got there and was unloading.....My giant cambros (UPC1600) tires got stuck in the floor gap and took about 45 min to unload. Got smokers going to draw the crowd and was ready about 0930. Our chairs we brought did not get used, We were busy until about 1pm non-stop. Gave away lots of samples, in hopes of return business and several folks came back with other family menmbers to order more. Sold 4 racks of ribs and several large containers of pulled pork, brisket. We ran out of brisket and had about a lb of pork and 4 bones left. The lady running the market said she had several dozen folks telling her how good it was. I had given her a big sampler plate earlier. Well I'm done bragging. My partner and I, along with my 16 yr old son (who actually got up at 6 to help) had a good time and plan on being at this place for a while. Hoping to get a few small catering gigs as well. Our menu lists pre ordering on large quantitys, hope this will generate sales as well. Lots of work though!! I need to get a backwoods or spicewine or similiar type. My old Traeger and 2 UDS's got a workout.

BBQ Grail said:

Congrats on two things. First on a successful day.

Second on finding a Farmer's Market that Bigmista hasn't grabbed...

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Ssssssh, not so loud!

txschutte said:

Congrats. Did you come over or under your expectations?

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Little of both. Did not make the $$ I thought with all the customers, but since we were handing out samples and over doing it on the large orders, we ended up giving away more than had planned. I was going to get a scale for the large orders, but had decided to wait until next week. My scrimping on the scale probably cost me more than the money I saved. We had several orders for 1 lb, 1 1/2 lb, etc. Overall the atmosphere and having people tell you how good your food is, was more than anticipated.

I used 1 of the big igloo ice chests, the kind that takes 2-3 guys to lift. I only had cole slaw and sauce to keep cold. The drinks were in another ice chest. I can actually use the lower half of my cambro for cold and upper for hot. I will probably do that next week since I will be adding potato salad to the menu. The UPC1600 holds 16 full 4" deep pans. The health inspector was at the market as well, I did not see who it was, so I guess we were o.k. Had all the food and ice chests 6" off the ground and our screen walls up. Used a beverage cambro for the hand wash station. Forgot how boiling hot it keeps the water even after 6 hours (don't ask how I know).

Chuckwagonbbqco said:

If you are going to sell meat by the pound---make sure that your scale is certified by weights and measures. People always talk about dealing with Health Depts, Fire Depts, etc. but you must also deal with weights and measures if you are selling by the pound. What I do is sell by volume---by size of container.

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Thanks, I was wondering about that. I did buy 8 oz and 16 oz containers for the sides, but should probably go with those for the meat as well. I think we were way over doing it on our guesstimates the first day. One person came back twice for more lbs of meat. As far as the racks, I told folks they would get at least 12 bones in a rack, if not more. Everyone seemed pretty satisfied.