Selling Food, Drinks, Other Trinkets...Worth It?

[NateTheGreat]

Hi everyone!

I was wondering first of all what trinkets are the best to sell to make the most profits. So far we are planning to sell: t-shirts (free advertisement for us, why not?), glow sticks, and syringe pens. How much do you think we should sell these for for the best price....where could we get these for the cheapest....and are there any other things we should sell for profits (and what price for them). =)


Also....I am wondering if selling food and drinks is worth it...I know a food permit is necessary.....is it worth the pain? What foods make the most?

Thanks so much

~Nate the Great
Fearoverload.com

[asanve]

Hi everyone!

I was wondering first of all what trinkets are the best to sell to make the most profits. So far we are planning to sell: t-shirts (free advertisement for us, why not?), glow sticks, and syringe pens. How much do you think we should sell these for for the best price....where could we get these for the cheapest....and are there any other things we should sell for profits (and what price for them). =)


Also....I am wondering if selling food and drinks is worth it...I know a food permit is necessary.....is it worth the pain? What foods make the most?

Thanks so much

~Nate the Great
Fearoverload.com

For the last few years we have been selling these things that look like a mouthpiece. They are made of clear plastic and have an on and off button and after you turn them on you put them in your mouth and they flash different colors. They sell like crazy and I believe we bought them from Oriental Trading. Our glow sticks didn't sell very well but the glow necklaces sold real well. Also candy bars sell great.

[NateTheGreat]

How much can you sell those glow necklaces or those mouth glow sticks for? This is great information! =)

~Nate the Great
Fearoverload.com

[Allen H]

Nate,
I do not know how big your show is, but size matters when it comes to retail stuff. I also do not know where in the country you are, but hot coco does really well at most places, candy and caramel apples do well too.
It may be in your interest to get a third party to set up their food booth as they will already have a license and such. Hot dog stands and cotton candy, funnel cakes, lots of folks have food booths are are dying to prey on your captive audience, you just charge them a percentage of sales and a small fee for electricity.
Allen H

[Jim Warfield]

One October I had two friends of mine do a food stand here. They named the food stand after themselves Sam & Ella.
One time a helper of mine tried to somehow blame me or this house for his "illness", then we discovered the Firemen running their food stand had given this guy a dozen left over hot dogs and he had eaten them all!
Blame the weinie not me! (And this guy was no "Kid" either!)
????

[NateTheGreat]

My haunt is in northern California and we are a large haunt. Anyone else have some more advise? It would be much appreciated. =)

~NatetheGreat
Fearoverload

[SomeThingInTheIce]

We sold hot dogs, sode, chips and glow bracelits. Had no luck with the hot dogs and chips, sold a lot of soda and ran out of the bracelits. They came 15 to a tube and we sold them for .50 ea. sell two and the tube was paid for. At first no one was buying them, so our guides asked if they could put some on and once that happened everyone wanted them. So if you do the glow stuff have people wearing some of it to show it off good.

[Dr. Giggles]

I agree with Allen, hire a third party. But be sure that people no literring will not be tolerated. Make sure they have time to eat/drink then throw out their food/drink BEFORE they enter the haunt. You have no idea how many times iv kicked a Mountain Dew bottle or a hot dog wrapper. We spent an untold amount of hours cleaning up the crap we sold these people. So be careful of this dont make the same mistake we did.

[rwrussom]

Doc haunt location

Hey Doc, Is your haunt in San Diego? Which one?

Sorry for the highjack!

[Dr. Giggles]

Smaller one known as The Gallows but this year i didnt do it i let my Cuzin handle it. I worked at the haunted trails in balboa park this year infact i want to do it again next year so i might disband the haunt. Its getting to expensive now. Its like a neighborhood haunt. We couldnt afford much advertising for the past season because times were tough. But we put it on anyway. We rely mainly on word of mouth but we had a decent turn out on the nights we were open. And i helped design Sanitarium up in rancho cucamonga. Great turnout for that one but i couldnt make it up. All proceeds from the neighborhood haunt goes to the Red Cross. We raised about 1.2 grand on donations as its free to enter the haunt. So we were pretty happy. Did you happen to make it down?

[rwrussom]

No, my daughter is at SDSU in an event managemnt program and this year she is doing internships. So I thought getting her hooked up at one of the lasge San diego events would be great experience.

[Dr. Giggles]

Hey if she wants il turn the reins over to her let her try to run a haunted house for a season ssee the work that goes into it and the planning Hahaha by all means but sadly we lost our premises this season so for her it would be like starting from scratch Oh wait internship...to bad she didnt catch me in like august otherwise wed be glad to have her on board. Im sure Evan could use all the help he can get hahahahah. But yeah if you want i might be able to put you in touch with Greg Defatta who owns the haunted trails of balboa park im sure he wouldnt mind having a helping intern around

[BruiseMuse]

Pop, candy, and pizza slices are always big sellers. I recommend either getting a third party to handle sales, or if you are doing it contact one of the major pop companies (Pepsi, Coke, etc) and they have a trailer you can get from them as long as you sell their beverage.

For warmer climates, we once had sold smoothies and they went over very well.

[Jim Warfield]

During those crazy, busy October nights we follow the 10-10 rule. We sell shots of whiskey for 10cents but only to ten-year-olds, then hot glue a mask on them and turn them loose in the house.
It makes for a wild time!
"Attack of the Psycho Midgets!"
"It smells like Kid-puke in here!?"
"Just part of the show, Folks, just part of the show!"

[graystone]

Yes Very Well...

Worth it to us at Graystone Manor!! We sell
Hand Dipped Corn Dogs
Cotton Candy
Hot Dogs, Chili Dogs, Chili Cheese Dogs
Nachos,
Chili Cheese Fries
French Fries
Candy and Carmel Apples
Pretzels
Chicken On A Stick
Pizza
Polish Dogs
Hambugers
Cheese Sticks
Funell Cakes
Drinks
Coffee and Hot Chocolate
We have an area that seats 200 that can eat at one time.

We also sell shirts, badges, Caps, Glow Sticks, Stand Ups, Posters, Shane and its you will find all this at Graystone Manor Shane this time!!!