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  • Soda margins

    Wondering how many sell 20oz bottles versus cups and how much you get the 20oz for and what's your pour rate is for cups?

  • #2
    me personaly im think about the amount of time it takes to pour a soda vs the time it takes to grab a bottle. if you have a full on snack bar or such then it is by choice only but if not i would even look at vending machines. just ame sure to place that trash can near the entrance and in the queue line to collect all that trash.
    The Care Taker
    John "DarkTombCreations.com"

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    • #3
      There's probably less spillage from bottles too. Depending on how busy your haunt can get and if it's dark where people are walking around, people could be spilling everywhere with cups

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      • #4
        Cups sell for $2.....cost is $0.05.....bottles sell for $1.50 and cost $.75 each.....cans sell for $1....cost about $0.30 each (atleast here in CT)......biggest margin=Cups, but it's a larger initial investment because you have to get the machine and run the lines and have all those boxes of syrup....it's a bigger pain in the ass, but if you don't mind the extra work to do it...than go for it, but if you just get cans than you'll have very little initial investment, quick service time, and a halfway decent return.

        I'm looking to expand alot on concessions this year, and I believe that Insane Shane himself is doing a Transworld class on it since he does like $40k in sales just from concessions.

        Personally, I'd love to have a bar/nightclub paired with the haunt, as long as they go to the haunt before they get all liquored up afterwards lol. Soda sells for a lot less than beer, and beer costs only a little bit more but can sell for $6-8/bottle! Now THAT is a nice profit.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by screamforadream View Post
          Cups sell for $2.....cost is $0.05.....bottles sell for $1.50 and cost $.75 each.....cans sell for $1....cost about $0.30 each (atleast here in CT)......biggest margin=Cups, but it's a larger initial investment because you have to get the machine and run the lines and have all those boxes of syrup....it's a bigger pain in the ass, but if you don't mind the extra work to do it...than go for it, but if you just get cans than you'll have very little initial investment, quick service time, and a halfway decent return.

          With cans and bottle, if you have a local recycling center, you can collect them in separate containers and get a few bucks back from that as well. Cans are selling for about 53 cents a pound around here...
          http://www.bigscaryshow.com
          http://www.rabidbadger.org

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          • #6
            In Northern CT stores sell bottles for $2. I think machines would be more mess/effort for the increased margin and overhead too. You can also have a machine do the work for you.

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            • #7
              Also check into local ordinances. Does the booth have to cover any health regulations? Here in Las Vegas anyone distributing food has to have a valid health card. Also you can not distribute cans out of a tub of ice/water. The heath issue is that people put their hands in the water transmitting contaminates on to the can and the can touches your lips. You can only use bottles in ice/water because the lip of the bottle that touches your mouth is sealed under the cap.

              If you are pouring soda you may have to get a different licence than if you distribute bottles. Check into it first, it may dictate the answer.
              R&J Productions
              Las Vegas, NV
              www.LasVegasHaunts.com

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              • #8
                Selling alcohol would be a real nightmare (pun intended). Here in PA anyways, you'd need to purchase a liquor license ($100s of thousand dollars in investment, and doubtful you'd ever make your return). Plus there are very strict laws regarding the sale, service & transportation of alcohol. Then, the training costs for your staff, and the overall liability related to it.

                Sodas by the can would give you the best profit margin with next to nothing as an initial investment. If you work with a vendor like Pepsi, your costs would be pennies to the can, as long as you meet a minimum order size.

                Selling "by the cup" sounds alluring for a few reasons at first...

                If you go with selling soda by the cup (depending on the cup size you sell) you may save some money in soda product by not pouring the entire amount of a can into a cup. For instance... selling an 8oz cup of soda and still having at least 4oz to pour into the next cup of soda sale (depending on how heavy-handed you are with ice). BUT, you would need to purchase the cups and ice - which would not be needed as much (or at all, if you have refrigeration space) if you just sell a can over the counter. ALSO, you will double your trash/waste/storage/labor needed if you sell by the cup - full cans, empty cans, clean cups, used cups, ice, refrigeration, increased wait time for the customer, etc. Those all eat into the final profit, so it ends up in "the wash" with cups.

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                • #9
                  Bottle water is a prime seller in Texas.
                  Joshua
                  www.hauntedprints.com
                  info?hauntedprints.com

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                  • #10
                    We actually just had a think on the news last night about how dirty the ice is in restaurants. Mold, mildew, employee contact, etc ... For the added labor, need for ice, power, CO2, etc... I'm thinking ordering 20oz bottles is much easier. They should self refrigerate too least up north here. You have less waste to as at the end of the season what do you do with half used soda syrup containers? I imagine they don't keep.

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                    • #11
                      I do cans. They cost me about $.27 each via Sam's Club and are much more easy to manage simply based on packaging. I sell them onsite for $1 and can easily get more. I sell Monster for $2.50 a can. Staff gets 50% or more of everything. A local scrap lady cleans the cans up for me, even from the trash.
                      Like a midget at a urinal, you gotta be on your toes

                      http://www.wellstownshiphauntedhouse.com

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                      • #12
                        [QUOTE=sean;131418]I do cans. They cost me about $.27 each via Sam's Club and are much more easy to manage simply based on packaging. I sell them onsite for $1 and can easily get more.

                        Ditto Cans stack in a refrigerator so much nicer. You might have to look at how many cans vs 20 oz bottles you can hold...then take into account your crowd size. From 30 - 35 cents to $1 is not raking it in...but you also do not put the gouging idea into your customers head. We sell a lot of 1/2 gallon jugs of cider and hand them as many paper cups as they need.

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                        • #13
                          We do bottles. A 24 pack of 24oz bottles of Pepsi products (Pepsi, Dew, Mug root beer, etc) is ~14 from Sams Club, just shy of $0.60 per bottle. Sell them for $2. We could probably get into the 2.50 range, but then you're dealing with change, slowing the staff down, etc. I'm sure a fountain is far less expensive per-pour, but it's just so much easier to deal with bottles. We have an upright sliding door cooler that can hold easily 20 cases or so if you configure the shelf's right. Also, we do a TON of sales in Monster and Red Bull. They have a much higher cost, but we adjust the price accordingly. We went through ~50 cases of Monster over our 29 night season last year. We prefer bottles over cans for a few reasons, 1 is that it's inevitable that people will hide them to take them into the haunt. The bottles at least stay closed. They also seem to take them home with them. The few canned products that we do sell (Monster and Red Bull) always seem to end up all over the parking lots. I see FAR less bottles in the parking lot than I do cans, which is interesting, since we sell far MORE bottles than we do cans. We started a "recycling" thing this year, just 55gal drums scattered throughout with plywood toppers on them with a hole cut for a can to fit through. We ended up with a total of two 55 gallon drums filled with crushed cans. I still need to get those down to the scrap yard.. That seemed to help a little with keeping the cans from being scattered all over the parking lots, but not much.

                          We also do hot chocolate, pumpkin spice and french vanilla out of a 3 dispenser Curtis machine. It's *significantly* slower than grabbing bottles out of the cooler, but in our climate, you have to do a hot drink. Hot chocolate is a huge seller and easily our highest profit item. I figured it out a few years ago, a 20oz cup (our "large") costs something like $0.11 in mix and a nickel for the cup. Water is included with our lease (thank god! I fill and drain our 8000gal water attraction 3-4 times per operation season to keep it clean!)
                          Last edited by Brandon_K; 02-17-2012, 11:15 PM.
                          -Brandon Kelm
                          Operations Manager & Technical Director

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