We have a popcorn machine and a hot dog rolling cooker thing. We also heat cheese and chili in crockpots for chili cheese dogs and chili cheese nachos, all of which are popular. The other popular things are the candy (m&m’s, KitKat, skittles, airhead extreme/ultimate/whatever, and those plastic containers of cotton candy. And of course soda and bottled water.

Snickers bars are the highest selling chocolate bar in the world. Can’t go wrong there!
I also realize you posted a month ago.

Anonymous wrote:I am in charge of stocking our HS concession stand. Any tips on what sells and what doesn't?

Junk sells

Try selling apples and see what happens

Typically pizza from local pizza and chicken something top sellers

This is OP reporting back. Best sellers:
Chocolate—Twix bars
Non chocolate—Airhead Extreme
Soda—Sparkling Ice
Hot food—all of it! Wow, people are hungry. The nachos have been a surprise hit.

And thank you PP for the finance advice.

Be smart about how you handle the money. Make sure;

1. Everyone on your board has access to see the bank statements on line. Not to do transactions, but to see everything. No secrets. Sunshine is always a big help to ensure things stay “clean”.

2. Bank at a local bank near your field so you can do a night deposit. With a big school you are going to have several thousand to deposit.

3. Have 3-4 people counting and agreeing on how much is being deposited at the end of the night. You have phone cameras - just record/photo. “Today’s total deposit is $xxxx everyone agree? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.” Then you know how much is night deposited and the bank statement will show that agreed amount.

4. Document everything. It can be informal, but document it. “Needed 100 $1.00 bills to start night. Dan Smith went to his bank and loaned us the 100 $1.00 bills. Repaid Dan Smith after halftime. Signed Dan Smith and Xyz.” That way no one gets concerned that saw Xyz pull $100 out of the till. Stuff happens and people are happy to help. Just write things out and you won’t have issues.

5. Not money - KNOW who has access to your sales area and how cleaning duties work. Concessions are sold at various things through the week. Do you share or not? Can you leave 4 cases of Gatorade in the booth or not?

We had a few standing concession building. Opening it up for the first event at the field in the Spring - whoever used it last in the Fall did not clean it out. Mice had a great time all winter. Thousands in equipment had to be thrown out. Take pictures on your phone when you are locking up to be able to prove things are clean and in good shape when you left.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People were pissed at ours when we said we had popcorn but it was SkinnyPop in bags instead of fresh. Like they were borderline rude!

I mean, I wouldn't be rude about it but hot fresh popcorn is the standard. Also way more lucrative.

Its $1.Get over it. People who are complaining instead of volunteering are the worst!

Smallish private school (120 a grade):

Nachos!

Hot dogs (more than the pizza!)

Coffee

Popcorn- we had a machine, but it's a pain because it was small and didn't make a lot and it's hard to clean

Warm cookies

Gatorade

Bubbly water and regular water

Sodas

Skittles/sour patch kids

Chips

agree with all of this - focus on the drinks, candies and chips. popcorn if you can swing it. I caution against walking tacos - only in that you need to look up your local food rules. because someone is cooking the ground beef, you many need a trained food safety person or you may not be allowed.

Anonymous wrote:If a lot of people have to tote around little kids, they will greatly appreciate toddler/little kid friendly foods like plain cheese pizza and french fries, juice boxes. Selling toddler sized portions is also greatly appreciated.

Are there really that many toddlers at HS games? I don’t see that at our HS at all

+1 to tubs of cotton candy, sour candy, cheese pizza and blue Powerade (red doesn’t sell as well)

Anonymous wrote:What size school? Private or public? Our large public used to have standing orders with a local pizza place and chick-fil-a, lots of skittles and sour candy sold well.

I volunteer a lot at our concession stands. This, plus hamburgers, cheeseburgers, nachos, hot dogs, microwave popcorn, ramen noodles, Reese’s peanut butter cups, M&M’s (plain and peanut), tubs of Cotten candy, famous Amos cookies, honey buns, sodas, water and red and blue Gatorade.

If a lot of people have to tote around little kids, they will greatly appreciate toddler/little kid friendly foods like plain cheese pizza and french fries, juice boxes. Selling toddler sized portions is also greatly appreciated.

This is OP. I would love to do the walking tacos but don’t think we can manage that. Parents have already signed up to work, all volunteers, but that might be too much. Nachos, maybe. Will look into it. Thanks on the candy tips too!