First time vending this weekend, looking for suggestions

I don't vend, but the sandwiches seem expensive. What is your profit margin on the sandwich vs. the other options?

I would consider throwing in a bag of chips and/or a drink for that price.

I think it looks great! Vending prices are always higher than normal.
I personally would lose the sliders (time consuming) and the family platter. Make everybody buy meals (better profit) especially if your serving on your own. Good prices, good food and FAST service is where the money is!
If theres really that many people expec ted i would think of a third hand while your tending meats and what not.
Good luck!

Bbq Bubba said:

I think it looks great! Vending prices are always higher than normal.
I personally would lose the sliders (time consuming) and the family platter. Make everybody buy meals (better profit) especially if your serving on your own. Good prices, good food and FAST service is where the money is!
If theres really that many people expec ted i would think of a third hand while your tending meats and what not.
Good luck!

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Good advice right there!!

For me - vending a festival and only having one person helping would be a problem. For a festival of 5-10k people I usually have 3-4 people helping me. We have one person who takes orders and money, one making sammies and meals, one assisting that person and handing out food getting drinks filling sauce bottle cleanup etc. and I am pulling pork slicing brisket, cooking all the other things.

HBMTN said:

For me - vending a festival and only having one person helping would be a problem. For a festival of 5-10k people I usually have 3-4 people helping me. We have one person who takes orders and money, one making sammies and meals, one assisting that person and handing out food getting drinks filling sauce bottle cleanup etc. and I am pulling pork slicing brisket, cooking all the other things.

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good point

long lines turn me off.

if you get really backed up by the lack of help that could be a problem

I definitely agree with the previous posters regarding "help". To maximize your sales/profits you should have more than one helper. For those numbers I would want at the very least three (3) other people assisting.

We do an annual one day festival that pulls 3K-4K in attendance. There are numerous food vendors and we end up with about 300 sales all in a 1.5 hour time span. We have 5 people working the booth and it is CRAZY fast paced. If we didn't have that amount of staff we would not be able to server those numbers and would probably lose half of those sales to other vendors.

I would also suggest cutting down your selection. Keep it simple. Also beware that ribs are a tough item to cook/serve at a vending type setup. Our vending menu consists of Pulled Pork/Pulled Brisket sammies, choice of sides (cream corn, smoked baked beans, coleslaw), potato chips and beverage (bottled water, canned soda). We sell the items individually and let the customers decide on what product mix they want to order. We keep all prices at even dollar amounts so we don't have to use coins for change (sales tax is included in our prices, makes the sales easier). We tried ribs one time and found that it takes too much time to cook/serve them and the price was not well accepted by the customers. (this will vary depending on the attendees and the type of venue you are at)

Edit:
Pricing for our vending goes as such.
Sammie (6oz meat on a 3.5" bun) = $7 (our cost ~$2)
Sides (approx 4 oz) = $1 (our cost ~$0.30)
Beverage (12 oz water or can soda) = $1 (our cost ~$0.25)
(of course pricing is a regional thing so take that into consideration as well)

ButtBurner said:

good point

long lines turn me off.

if you get really backed up by the lack of help that could be a problem

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I've always heard the person with the biggest sign gets the biggest line. And if the line is that long it must be good.

BBQ Bubba is right on (as always) however if you only have two people serving, the menu and options have to be reduced. Platers, with this with out that will drive you nuts..meats and options of one or two sides, now you have bread, suasage, beans, cole slaw, pot salad...
pot salad has to be chilled..
just offer a meat samie with....if you have two items then put both on...that would be your combo..
This weekend I am only offering during the day
brisket or pulled pork samies
ribs
mac n cheese
cole slaw
combo will be only sammie with mac
later hours the ribs will end, due to alcohol confussion, they never can decide if they want 2 bone a or 1/2 rack and profit on ribs is low
if you will only have a 2 deep line then the time to make platters is justified
however at a festivall too many choice confusses the customer and me trying to remember what goes where, I have to keep it simple for me..
all vending all meat should be ready to heat / serve
by reducung options, will save space for you warmers and reduce the amount tryinig to hold then waste
and the line will move faster..and they will spend the same amount

I like your reduced menu. That should make things more manageable. I can understand your fears about "hurting your wallet" on wages. However, you could look at this "first time festival" setup as an advertising expense if it ends up as a negative cash flow.

Sales at festivals are a bit fickle. It can depend on the type of festival (i.e. who is attending), number of competing food vendors, length of festival (days), total attendance, well you get the picture.

Our approach to a festival that we have never attended or are unable to obtain reliable history on from sources is to to use the SWAG method (Scientific Wild A$$ Guess :shock for expected sales and use our results to decide if we want to do it again and adjust accordingly. We always look at a new venue as a learning experience and don't necessarily use profit expectations as a criteria to decide to try it out. If it is profitable then we celebrate and repeat. :mrgreen:

Hey if everything was already known......things would get pretty boring. :wink:

I believe you will find that Vending is a different animal than Catering, even though there are similarities.

menu looking good for 2..
I have been looking for a way to do the tv menu also, however need to do economy minded..are you running a cd player with a burned cd?
I am going to do more private parties vrs vending next year, however even at a private party it should go good..

I would have spent the $150 on some helpers.

ButtBurner said:

I would have spent the $150 on some helpers.

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Agreed.

Are those pics of YOUR actual product? Looks good.

What are pork "side" ribs?

I like that menu... how did you create that?

We did our menu board with a 32" TV and wall mount. I remove it from the mount after vending and put in a safe box but leave the pivot mount. Down sides 1) TV's are only about 200-300 lumens which can be hard to see sometimes and anything other than a white background on a bright day is difficult to see. Menu boards are about 1200 lumens and easy to see. 2) If you put sound on it then it makes it hard to hear customers placing orders and they don't seen to like it. 3) You need a back up plan for rain conditions. TV was $225 and wall mount $35

It is nice to be able to change the menu on the fly if we run out of something and also scroll to catering pictures or "Like us on Facebook" or pictures of our food.