MMMM.. BRISKET..
The BBQ BRETHREN FORUMS.  



Our Homepage Donation to Forum Overhead Welocme Merchandise Associations Purchase Subscription Amazon Affiliate
Go Back   The BBQ BRETHREN FORUMS. > Discussion Area > Catering, Food Handling and Awareness > Catering, Vending and Cooking For The Masses.

Notices

Catering, Vending and Cooking For The Masses. this forum is OnTopic. A resource to help with catering, vending and just cooking for large parties. Topics to include Getting Started, Ethics, Marketing, Catering resources, Formulas and recipes for cooking for large groups.


Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 05-10-2012, 01:27 PM   #1
FireTowerBBQ
Is lookin for wood to cook with.
 
Join Date: 02-02-12
Location: Grand Cane, LA
Default Need Your Opinion on Vending Quantities

I've got a festival next weekend. It's 3 days. Fri from 5 - 10pm, Sat from 8am - 12am, and Sun 8am - 2pm. There are 10 other food venders, only one of them is BBQ and they are just a church group selling ribs.

I'm selling spare ribs, chopped brisket / pulled pork sandwiches, and BBQ nachos (PP or Brisket). It's not a huge festival, they expect around 3000 people. Saturday being the largest volume.

I know vending is a gamble, but given the information, how much meat do you think I should buy. I'm really pushing the nacho's. They are a good seller. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
__________________
Custom PitMaker BBQ Trailer
FireTowerBBQ is offline   Reply With Quote


Old 05-10-2012, 02:22 PM   #2
teej
On the road to being a farker
 
Join Date: 02-29-12
Location: Chatsworth, GA
Default

No way would I go to a festival expecting 3000 people with 10 food vendors and try to offer that many items. I would for sure leave off the ribs since someone else is selling them already. If nachos are the big seller, I would focus on that and plan to serve 300 people or less over 3 days. High cost items like these rarely pay off at events like this in my experience.
teej is offline   Reply With Quote
Thanks from:--->
Old 05-10-2012, 03:21 PM   #3
HBMTN
is Blowin Smoke!
 
Join Date: 10-16-08
Location: Virginia
Default

I'd have about 30 butts and cook 20 and see how far that got me. Cook the rest if needed/ 3-4 briskets would do in my area, not sure about the nacho's.

That said 10 food vendors with 3000 people over 3 days, I'd stay home.
HBMTN is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-10-2012, 03:41 PM   #4
FireTowerBBQ
Is lookin for wood to cook with.
 
Join Date: 02-02-12
Location: Grand Cane, LA
Default

Normally I would not do it, but it's 10 minutes from my house. And I always do good at local events. 10 venders is a lot, but most of them are funnel cake, fried pie, popcorn, snack food type items. I think there are only 3 of us selling "real food". Thanks for the advice though. I may decide to leave out the ribs.
__________________
Custom PitMaker BBQ Trailer
FireTowerBBQ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2012, 08:26 PM   #5
Bbq Bubba
somebody shut me the fark up.
 
Bbq Bubba's Avatar
 
Join Date: 05-03-07
Location: New Baltimore, Mi.
Default

You havent said what kind of festival? Nobody eats before noon and usually not till evening?
At most your gonna sell to 10% and thats reaching.
Stay home and SAVE money.

YMMV.
__________________
Owner of Bubba's BBQ & Catering L.L.C.
Beer Snob
I cook the #bestbrisketnorthoftexas. Get over it.
#detroitporkmafia
BBQ Person of the Year 2013
Bbq Bubba is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-14-2012, 04:54 AM   #6
kurtsara
is one Smokin' Farker
 
Join Date: 07-27-07
Location: Minneapolis
Name/Nickname : Hey you
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bbq Bubba View Post
You havent said what kind of festival? Nobody eats before noon and usually not till evening?
At most your gonna sell to 10% and thats reaching.
Stay home and SAVE money.

YMMV.
Most of our events we have our first customers about 10 am
kurtsara is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-14-2012, 10:01 AM   #7
FireTowerBBQ
Is lookin for wood to cook with.
 
Join Date: 02-02-12
Location: Grand Cane, LA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bbq Bubba View Post
You havent said what kind of festival? Nobody eats before noon and usually not till evening?
At most your gonna sell to 10% and thats reaching.
Stay home and SAVE money.

YMMV.
I've never vended at a festival where I didn't sell until noon. We usually start getting customers at 10 am. From 10 - 2 is usually high volume. Then it picks back up around 5.
__________________
Custom PitMaker BBQ Trailer
FireTowerBBQ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-14-2012, 02:30 PM   #8
armor
is one Smokin' Farker

 
armor's Avatar
 
Join Date: 03-26-08
Location: Virginia
Default

The best advice has been given....stay home and enjoy the day.
__________________
Mike

Risk is the price you pay for opportunity.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!
armor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-14-2012, 09:30 PM   #9
FireTowerBBQ
Is lookin for wood to cook with.
 
Join Date: 02-02-12
Location: Grand Cane, LA
Default

Definitely won't be staying home. I've already committed. I'll give an update on how it goes.
__________________
Custom PitMaker BBQ Trailer
FireTowerBBQ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-15-2012, 01:17 PM   #10
Bamabuzzard
is One Chatty Farker
 
Bamabuzzard's Avatar
 
Join Date: 05-09-07
Location: Shreveport, LA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by FireTowerBBQ View Post
Definitely won't be staying home. I've already committed. I'll give an update on how it goes.
Are you attending the River City Festival in Logansport? If so I think I met you last year in the Holiday event they had down there that sucked so bad. We were the ones selling the BBQ sauce and Cajun Pickles. The lady told me they were expecting around 2500-3000 people.
__________________
Checkout our Original BBQ Sauce & Cajun Pickles

www.doubledsbbq.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Double...12864168786570
Stumps Baby Gravity Feed Smoker
Backwoods Patio Unit
Char Griller Offset for grilling

Last edited by Bamabuzzard; 05-15-2012 at 02:20 PM..
Bamabuzzard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-23-2012, 10:21 AM   #11
luke duke
is One Chatty Farker
 
Join Date: 01-16-10
Location: Dallas, TX
Default

How did it go?
luke duke is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-23-2012, 04:12 PM   #12
Bamabuzzard
is One Chatty Farker
 
Bamabuzzard's Avatar
 
Join Date: 05-09-07
Location: Shreveport, LA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by luke duke View Post
How did it go?

We were at the same event as Firetower and it sucked......again. They overbooked food vendors, screwed up our application, and grossly overshot on the estimate of how many people would be attending. After we covered our cost and made a little profit we packed up and left. Won't be going back to Logansport. Burn me once shame on you, burn me twice shame on me. We gave them two chances and they flopped both times. It simply isn't worth our time. The two events we've attended there, it seemed people weren't there to spend money but to simply walk around. Nothing wrong with that, they have that right, but vendors want to go to places where the people spend money.

We spoke to numerous other vendors (both food and craft) and they were not happy either.
__________________
Checkout our Original BBQ Sauce & Cajun Pickles

www.doubledsbbq.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Double...12864168786570
Stumps Baby Gravity Feed Smoker
Backwoods Patio Unit
Char Griller Offset for grilling

Last edited by Bamabuzzard; 05-23-2012 at 08:56 PM..
Bamabuzzard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-24-2012, 07:38 PM   #13
FireTowerBBQ
Is lookin for wood to cook with.
 
Join Date: 02-02-12
Location: Grand Cane, LA
Default

It went pretty good for us. There were definitely too many food vendors, but we ended up making a decent chunk of change. Definitely glad I didn't stay home.
__________________
Custom PitMaker BBQ Trailer
FireTowerBBQ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-25-2012, 08:37 AM   #14
Bamabuzzard
is One Chatty Farker
 
Bamabuzzard's Avatar
 
Join Date: 05-09-07
Location: Shreveport, LA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by FireTowerBBQ View Post
It went pretty good for us. There were definitely too many food vendors, but we ended up making a decent chunk of change. Definitely glad I didn't stay home.
We talked to the guys directly across from you selling the corndogs and lemon ice drink. They were not pleased at all with how it was organized. He told me they do a lot of rodeos that bring in 7,000-8,000 people and there's not as many food vendors as were at the shin-dig we were at Saturday.

Glad you came out ahead. I'm just happy we cleared our costs and made a little profit. But we won't be going back.

BTW, your pulled pork sammy was excellent.
__________________
Checkout our Original BBQ Sauce & Cajun Pickles

www.doubledsbbq.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Double...12864168786570
Stumps Baby Gravity Feed Smoker
Backwoods Patio Unit
Char Griller Offset for grilling
Bamabuzzard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-27-2012, 11:04 AM   #15
FireTowerBBQ
Is lookin for wood to cook with.
 
Join Date: 02-02-12
Location: Grand Cane, LA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bamabuzzard View Post
We talked to the guys directly across from you selling the corndogs and lemon ice drink. They were not pleased at all with how it was organized. He told me they do a lot of rodeos that bring in 7,000-8,000 people and there's not as many food vendors as were at the shin-dig we were at Saturday.

Glad you came out ahead. I'm just happy we cleared our costs and made a little profit. But we won't be going back.

BTW, your pulled pork sammy was excellent.
Glad you enjoyed it. Maybe we'll run into y'all again soon!
__________________
Custom PitMaker BBQ Trailer
FireTowerBBQ is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


Forum Custom Search: Enter your Search text below. GOOGLE will search ONLY the BBQ Brethren Forum.
Custom search MAY not work(no display box) in some configurations of Internet Explorer. Please use compliant version of Firefox or Chrome.







All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:18 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
2003 -2012 © BBQ-Brethren Inc. All rights reserved. All Content and Flaming Pig Logo are registered and protected under U.S and International Copyright and Trademarks. Content Within this Website Is Property of BBQ Brethren Inc. Reproduction or alteration is strictly prohibited.
no new posts