Boxoffice-April.07.1958

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WANT TO HIT SALES JACKPOT?
Every Idea Is
a Winner in This Bulging Grab Bag
Of Concessions Merchandising Nuggets Mined
From the Rich Field of Actual Experience
TO HAVE A GOOD concessions
operation
it is important to pay higher wages for
better-trained employes who are qualified
to do a more effective job of selling; to provide
adequate help behind the stand to take
care of customers so that maximum volume
per patron is obtained; to motivate sales
employes with incentive contests and
prizes; and to pay more for well-designed,
point-of-purchase displays which will last
longer, look better and help sell more.
THEATRES THAT DO not keep pace with
progress are destined to lose concessions
sales, for equipment firms now offer a complete
line of eye-catching, well-designed
food service equipment that stimulates
maximum sales.
REPEAT SALES DEPEND upon fair treatment
of patrons, and overpricing is no
way to get them. Sales sights should be
kept on long-range planning and keeping
patrons satisfied with price and quality.
TEN YEARS AGO an eastern circuit added
20-cent drinks in its concessions stands.
These were in a 14-oz. cup. A year ago it
added a 24-oz. size for 30 cents in its own
imprinted cup. As a result, using a 7-oz.
cup for 10 cents, 14-oz. cup for 20 cents
and the 24-oz cup for 30 cents, the 20-cent
sales went up 50 per cent and the circuit
was ahead 10 per cent on total drink sales.
VARIETY LEADS TO more sales as well as
public favor. New, frozen or prepared foods
make it possible to offer more variety. They
also enable drive-in operators to give extra
quality, for in a sense they employ the service
of skilled chefs, dieticians, food and
drug chemists, etc., when they use these
prepared foods, which in most cases are
ready for final preparation even by unskilled
labor. Such foods, which are prepared
in portions, offer perfect control.
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The big, air-conditioned concessions stand with delicious
foods and fast service comes in for a big play
in advertising done by the Bowline Drive-In Theatre,
Decatur, Ala. Promotion such as this does much to
create new patrons and welcome old ones to return.
EXPERIENCED CONCESSIONAIRES say you
can change your food costs faster by em-
Continued on following page
COLOR IN A CONCESSIONS stand does
much to make patrons hungry and thirsty.
This is the belief of an exhibitor who obtains
the color with floating balloons,
snazzy display cards and heaps of merchandise.
He says that detailed attention
to display often makes a person buy four
or five more items than he really wanted.
He uses heaping baskets, flowers and clever
gimmicks on colorful cards to get across the
power of suggestion.
FLAKED OR CHIPPED ice should be used
with all drinks, whether carbonated or still,
is the recommendation of a syrup manufacturer.
An ounce of flaked ice replaces
an ounce of liquid and the ice keeps the
drink cool and helps keep the carbonation
in the cup until the purchaser reaches his
car or his seat. Ice has appetite appeal,
too. Crushed ice is better than cubed as
the latter is too bulky.
This powerful popcorn promotion at the concessions stand of the Granada Theatre, Kansas City, Kos , shows
what can happen when an alert manager makes use of available information. Charles W. Barnes jr.,
read the "Profits From Popcorn" column in the Aug. 3, /957, issue of BOXOFFICE-Modern Theatre, which
presented the nutritional values of popcorn and other foods as token from the U. 5 Department of Agriculture
Handbook. Then he went to work and produced this effective backbar display.
BOXOFFICE AprU 7, 1958 23