What should a school concession stand sell?
Keep the menu short. Every extra item is another thing to stock, another price to remember and another few seconds per customer.
Items that hold heat or need no prep move fastest. Hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, candy, bottled water and soda will carry most nights. Add one seasonal item, coffee or cocoa when it is cold, and stop there.
How should we price items?
Round numbers. Whole dollars and half dollars only.
It is not about the margin, it is about the line. A $3.00 hot dog is faster than a $2.75 hot dog because nobody is counting quarters and no volunteer is doing arithmetic while six people wait. Rounded prices also make the cash count at the end far quicker.
Sample menu, example only
Set your own prices for your school. This is a worked example of the rounding, not a recommendation.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Hot dog | $3.00 |
| Nachos | $4.00 |
| Popcorn | $2.00 |
| Candy | $2.00 |
| Bottled water | $2.00 |
| Soda | $2.00 |
| Coffee or cocoa | $2.00 |
| Combo, hot dog and drink | $4.50 |
Running concessions this season?
Every volunteer's phone becomes a place to take cards, at $0 a month.
How many volunteers do we need?
Two can run a quiet night. Halftime is the problem, because most of your night's takings arrive in about fifteen minutes.
Staff for halftime and the rest of the night takes care of itself.
Volunteer shift template
| Shift | People | Jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-game, 60 minutes before | 2 volunteers | Set up, stock, float, phones charged and logged in |
| First half | 3 volunteers | Two serving, one on cards and restock |
| Halftime, the rush | 4 volunteers | Two lines running, two serving, both lines taking cards |
| Second half | 2 volunteers | One serving, one on cards |
| Close out | 2 volunteers | Count cash, pull the card report, pack down |
Do we need a cash register?
No. Volunteers can take cards on the phones they already carry.
CoreMobile turns an iPhone or Android into the card terminal. The customer taps a contactless card, Apple Pay or Google Pay on the phone screen, so there is no register to buy and no reader to charge or pair before the game.
It needs mobile data or Wi-Fi to process, and we recommend cellular data as a backup to venue Wi-Fi, which matters at an away field or an outdoor stand.
How do we run two lines at halftime?
This is where the phones earn their keep. Add each volunteer to the same account and every one of them can take cards at the same time.
Put one volunteer at the end of the counter with nothing to do but take payment. Food goes one way, payment goes the other, and the queue splits itself. You are not waiting on a single register.
How do we track sales at the end of the night?
Every sale across every phone rolls up into one dashboard, so closing out is one report rather than a stack of separate totals.
Count the cash, compare it to the float you wrote down before gates, and pull the card report. The treasurer gets one number for cash and one for cards.
What does it cost?
$0 a month, then interchange and card brand fees at cost, plus 0.50% + $0.10 per transaction. No setup fee, no hardware to buy and no contract.
Run a typical night through the fee calculator to see it on your own numbers.
Game-night checklist
Two days before
- Confirm volunteers and shifts
- Order or buy stock
- Check every volunteer is added to the payment account
Game day, before gates
- Charge phones and turn cellular data on
- Count the cash float and write it down
- Run one test sale so every volunteer has tapped through once
- Put the menu board where the line can read it before they reach you
During the game
- Open a second line at halftime
- Keep the card volunteers off the food, it slows both jobs
- Restock between quarters, not during the rush
After the final whistle
- Count cash and compare against the float
- Pull the card report for the night
- Hand the treasurer one number for cash and one for cards
- Note what sold out, that is next week's order
Common questions
Get set up before the next home game
See what it costs, or talk it through with us first.