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.