Food

[AVDad]

Those of you that are or have been owners or managers; what is the best approach to find distributors for foods and drink that you sell/sold? I've been told Costco and BJ's are good too.

At the moment I am thinking about the general energy drink category and Gamer Grub. What others should I be looking at stocking?

The shopping center has a Pizza restaurant, BBQ, bakery with coffee and a family Steakhouse and we'll be talking to them about catering deals for parties and lock-ins.

What am I missing in the food column?

[Deeds]

If you haven't got bawls that's easily accessible and its normally not,  I would go monster through a coca-cola distributor for your area they usually give great deals (and I mean GREAT deals) if you offer to be the only energy drink you offer.

As for food Sams Club, Costco, and BJs are good options (Little funny thing about these three people they all carry some derivative of my network designs or something I've personally installed in the majority of their locations, and I rarely hear people mention BJ's the wanna be sams club, costco of the new england area)

I hear great things about Gamer Grub too, the owner even talked about advertising here at one time.  I've never personally tried it but I think Rsteele can vouch for them.

-deeds

[RsteeleAUG]

Like Deeds said you definitely want BAWLS and Gamer Grub. They are more expensive and still sale like crazy because they aren't found just anywhere.

I'm the only place in the area with BAWLS. Gamer Grub can be found at Toy's R Us in some places but if you can get it the gamers go nuts over it and it tastes pretty good too.

Drink distributors offer a lot of choices I think the Coca Cola here has 20 flavors of monster, NOS, Full Throttle, ect. Any specialty items they offer seem to do well. PEACE TEA is big here also through coca cola. Arnold Palmer now made by Arizona is popular so I pick up a case or two when I see it usually at Bilo the mark up is enough to make it worth having.

We offer around 10 different soda's, gatorade, fruit juices, 5 flavors of tea, lemonade, water, yoo hoo, frappacino, and 10 different energy drinks (including 3 flavors of bawls John stops by and sells them to me on his way to his Columbus GA store!). Sam's club and Costco can usually beat distributor prices however their drink selection isn't as broad.

Snacks and candy we use Sam's Club. Chips, candy bars, cookies, rice krispy treats, slim jims, other beef jerky, suckers, air heads, m&m's, reeces pieces, kit kats, reece cups, Laffy taffy, sour straws, sour patch kids, ANYTHING SALTY OR SOUR enough to get them to buy more drinks. Oh and pop tarts we have strawberry pop tarts and kids buy them up like crazy...

We were asked to do healthy snacks once upon a time so we picked up chex mix, trail mix, other granola type foods and absolutely no one bought them. Including the person that requested those items. We take suggestions from regulars seriously if enough people ask for a certain snack and sam's has it we'll try a box out and if it sells well we buy it to sell here. Sam's doesn't charge tax on any resell items I'm sure most wholesale stores sell tax free to resellers.

[Rieja]

I would like to have food as well and am thinking of going to Sams Club to get microwaveable food.  They sell hamburgers, breakfast sandwiches and others quick to heat items.  If the customer microwaves their own food (only a min or 2) then there is no need for a health inspection or licence for a restaurant etc (but that may depend on location).

I used to do this for a outdoor club I belonged to.  The genre of people match a gamer profile.  About 100 people go camping for a weekend and I would "serve" them the food.  Breakfast sandwiches were always a hit.  Energy drinks, soda, bottle water, chips, fraps and other items sold like gold as well.  I made a decent profit on it.  Markup wasn't as deep as I wanted cause the profits went back into the club but people stated they would have paid more and most didn't want change back.

Anyone have experience with this or can project if it would be valuable?

[RsteeleAUG]

I think in our city microwavable food and even coffee machines require health inspections. Maybe this depends on you local codes and regulations.

We just keep lots of delivery menu's from 2 or 3 pizza places, Chinese food, ect. Any discounts the places give me I try to pass them along to my customers. We have tables and chairs set up for a dining area and urge everyone to clean up after themselves, but sometimes there is still a sizable mess.

We mark everything up 200%+

[Rieja]

In PA it is any prepared food which needs an inspector.  I talked with a commercial planner and they said you can really get away with a lot depending on how you set things up.  He is the one that stated "let THEM cook it" and you bypass the law because you did not prepare it.  So get a microwave in there and just keep it clean.

I am definitely looking to hook up with a local pizza shop and negotiating some cross marketing there.  Either a cut of the profits or advertising.  But having ALL the profit in house would be ideal.  I also would discourage (very nicely) bringing in your own food/drink.  <shrug>  I'd be lienient on that though lol.

[Alomax]

From experience, keeping food out because you want people to buy yours is a severe pain in the ass, and you (and your employees) have to watch it like a hawk.  It's not worth the pain in the ass, and in the end doesn't really boost your bottom line if all you have is microwave food. Sometimes you just need some Taco Bell.

Rather, I'd work up some incentives for buying yours, but let them bring in outside stuff if they want.  Decide for yourself if you want food/drink by the stations.  In my experience, spills aren't that common (surprisingly). Most are on the floor, and I periodically ask people to not put drinks on TOP of the towers, where they would do far more damage if they fell.

[Rieja]

Awesome.  Thanks for the feedback