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Concession Tip July 2017

How to Refresh Your Operation

By: John Gibson, University of North Texas

As the 2017 Fall Season quickly approaches, there are several steps that you can take during the summer months to provide a facelift within your operation. During the summer of 2016, my team and I were able to partner with several of our distributors and vendors to help fund the re-branding of our Concession Stand signage. Their partnership allowed us to create new signage above each stand, and along the columns between windows, updating the visibility of our Concession Stands. In conjunction with this re-branding, we created specific Stand Themes, paired with specialty menu items at each location.   These themes included:

• North Texas Cantina
  • Brisket Sliders, Brisket Nachos, Chili-Bread Bowl, Jalapeno Sausage Wrap

• Scrappy’s Favorites
  • Pizzas, Smoked Sausage, Chicken Tenders

• Victory Grill
  • Cheeseburgers, Philly Cheesesteaks, Grilled Chicken Sandwiches

• Syracuse’s Backyard Grillers
  • Hickory Smoked Sausage, Bratwurst, Jalapeno Cheese Sausage

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Concession Tip May 2017

New Stand Idea/Theme

By: Chris Lauber, University of North Dakota at R.E Arena

Changing your menu to keep up with trends and new food items is always a good thing. Changing an entire stand concept is a whole other animal. Will the new concept work or flop? How much will it cost to implement? What is the concept? These are just of few of the questions you will face if you change the entire concept and menu of a stand. Having just finished my first season at Ralph Englestad Arena (Home of UND Hockey), I’m starting to work on ideas for the next season. One idea that I thought of was an “All Day Breakfast Stand.” Why you ask? All day breakfast is not a new concept but it has been gaining steam over the last couple of years with various restaurants adding it to the menu. In addition I found myself having to add breakfast menu items to a stand several times this past year for a variety of events. That is when I thought, why not turn a stand into an All Day Breakfast Stand? As I floated the idea around I got very positive results. Some items that have been put on the proposed menu include: breakfast sandwich, plate of hash browns, breakfast street tacos, big bowl of cereal, breakfast burger, and of course milk and orange juice. As many of us wind down our seasons and go into the summer and start to work on next year’s plans, keep in mind the trends you see in the industry and the problems you face in your account and see if you can create a concept for a stand that could be the next big hit for your operation. Stay tuned as I will be posting updates on how the stand goes.

Take care NACC members.