Do most haunts now or plan to sell concessions?

[HauntedPaws]

I was amazed to find even my Xmas tree farm selling concessions. Or if you don't sell them via people do you install vending machines?

[Wellinton]

Almost 20% of our revenue came from concessions. We also pre-sold food vouchers the week before to the 100 volunteers so they didn't have to worry about the cash and could grab a drink or a bowl of chili when they had a chance before the Haunt opened. The concession workers had a file in the kitchen with everyone's vouchers and it ran smoother and more profitable than any other year.

[HLYWDIANA]

We do concessions, but only pre-packaged items, ie candy bars, soda, chips, ice cream, etc. We didn't want to go through the permit process of selling made to order food ourselves. It's just too much of an investment for what we want.

A good option if you don't want to deal with it yourself, is to find a food cart vendor. It's nice for your customers to be able to at least get a snack, and that way you don't have to deal with it.

[Frightener]

Its my understanding you can sell pre-cooked items such as hot dogs etc w/o a big mess on permits. Friends of mine setup booths at the art fairs we airbrushed at. They were selling hot dogs and hamburgers that you nuked up. They were actually quite good and most of their stuff came from wal mart. They were selling hot dogs for $1.00 and Hamburgers for $3. Soda cans were $1.00 and they did well. The people over the event asked what they were selling, they told them and they said that was fine and they didn't need a permit, but again, this isn't factual but it's what we were going to do at our haunt if we could.

[terrormasue]

We also had concessions. With the purchase of a VIP ticket you also got a meal. The permitting was not hard at all. We did pretty good.

Sue

[NateTheGreat]

we've always been afraid of the mess it would make so we've never done food other than bottled waters. We did try large candy one year, but it wasn't very profitable and it ended up the actors eating all the candy.

[graystone]

Concessions

I did a seminar on this at TransWorld a few years back. You can make tons of money on concession. The key to huge profits is offer things you can't get at fastfood, or a gas station. You can get chips and candy bars anywhere even a burger. Will you sell these? Yes will you make a ton? NO! We do about $45,000.00 on food alone at Disturbia. We offer.....
Hand Dipped Corndogs ( never frozen) deep fried!
Cotton Candy ( not pre bagged) and offer custom flovors of Green ( Sour Apple) Orange ( Orange Flavored) and Black ( licorice )
Rosted Hot Dogs
Candy Apples
Carmel Apples with over 10 choices of nuts, candies, and fruits that we roll them in
Nachos
Fries
Pretzels
Deep fried moon pies
Deep fried oriole cookies
Deep fried candy bars
You get the picture! Offer " Fun Foods" and you will see your profits go through the roof!!!!! Shane and it's I know this!!!! Shane

[MorgueofDoom]

Shane thats genius! I never thought of doing concessions that way, and it's all still quick to make. Good idea.

[monsterwax]

I wish I could get a vender to sell some of those oddball foods I saw in the Asian night markets a couple years back. Even if Americans wouldn't buy it, it would sure add creepy atmosphere to any haunt: Roasted dog, cooked rats on a stick, peeled snakes, and a whole slew of live creatures butchered before your very eyes. The S.P.C.A would have an ape fit, but they would fasten them down and cut open their skulls (of the apes, not the SPCA) to serve their warm brains without killing them. What torture chamber prop could ever be more effective than that? Oddly enough, the thing that bothered me most was the live seafood... mostly crabs... lined up in rows with all their claws and legs ripped off, helpless, slowly drying out, and probably eager to be tossed in the pot, just to end it all. (Heck, even the regular grocery stores set out their seafood in that manner.)

You do not want to be an edible animal over there. (Not that I can think of ANY animal that isn't edible there!)

I did see a commercial for a haunted house on Taiwanese television, and it was pretty entertaining. If featured two guys scared as ghosts and monsters menaced them in what looked like an Asian remake of Abbot and Costello meet Ghostbusters. Of course, I wanted to go see it, but it was in another city and I never made it. It was soon on the news because people were complaining the commercial was scaring their kids. (So they moved airing the spot to after 9pm.) Then it made the news again, after a customer hit one of the actors for scaring his girlfriend, and a fight broke out. That incident ended with the customer apologizing.

There was an earlier haunt that did fantastic business but was shut down during the height of the season because a rumor spread everywhere that people were being jabbed with syringes in the dark, attacked by a patron who stayed behind to spread AIDS. It was false, naturally, but ghosts and rumors are both held in high esteem over there. (I think I told that story before, but it's so weird, it's worth a repeat!)

[graystone]

Daniel

I assure you your profits will sky rocket!!! You will even have people who don't like haunts come by and eat once the word gets out on your menu! And to make it yourself saves you $$$$$$! Shane and it's give it a try! Shane

[Frightener]

You're completely right there, but how much of all that can one make without all the red tape? Some folks say that "if you even heat anything up you have to register and get licensed and inspected"

But yes, the menu sounds awesome.

[HauntedPaws]

You're completely right there, but how much of all that can one make without all the red tape? Some folks say that "if you even heat anything up you have to register and get licensed and inspected"

But yes, the menu sounds awesome.

50/50 split with vendor who already has the permits

[monsterwax]

Hard to imagine the vender would split it 50/50 when they have to pay for all the supplies. (Or are saying, split the net, not the gross?)

Shane, do you mind giving your menu prices? I'm curious what you charge for those items.

Thanx!

[HauntedPaws]

Yes the net not the gross.