Food prices drop significantly at Cedar Point

Gonch, I am a little confused there. I think if you give the benefit of the doubt about the bump in attendance, you have to figure additional parking and game and merch spending. I think that helps offset the drop in food revenue.

Now that is a big if.

That's actually a good point and one I missed entirely.

Still don't think that price drop will drive attendance to those levels though. In the same way I don't think SF's hikes will keep people away.

I guess I belive people choose a trip and budget accordingly, not the other way around.

I would define reaosnable as the price I would pay for the same food /drink at a fastfood joint or gas station.

As for the onride photos, if they charged only $5 per photo, don't you think they would sell a ton more than they do now? It costs them hardly anything to print the photo. The photos are taken with the expensive equipment regardless of whether or not the customer choses to purchase it. I am curious to see if halfing the purchase price of the photo would more than double their sales of onride photos.

My point is if the prices were "reasonable", I would purchase the food/ride photos. As they stand, I will not purchase these items. And I'm curious to see how much of general park-goers feel the same way, and if that population is enough to offset the cost. Even if the numbers work out so that the park makes the same profit as they would with higher prices and fewer buyers, at least the people will be happier, feeling like they are getting a good value. That could lead to further spending. Just curious. I can only assume it's been considered, but it just seems logical to me.
*** This post was edited by Acoustic Viscosity 4/27/2006 8:35:03 PM ***

Im not buying the fact that the profit margin its not insane on some of the food products.

especially if they are able to drop the price of cotton candy buy 1100 percent.

Production costs also decrease with bulk production such as Cedarpoint.

A great move for CP, and it is something they should advertise more. "Hey we are dropping gate prices and food prices, making it more affordable and less of a economic burden on families while our competitors raise prices.

Maybe all these moves have been made in response to the LOCAL market? Is there a chance internal research shows that the local economy that CP draws upon may not have the expendible cash they have in years past? While most of the country has seen good job and wage growth the past few years, the same cannot be said for Ohio and those bastards up north! :-)

Anyhow...just another possibility to discuss...

$2.39 for 20 ounces of Pepsi makes $3.25 for 128 ounces of Unleaded look like a bargain :-)

I don't know if this is true or not but someone last year told me that Cedar Point doesn't even pay for bottled water, Pepsi threw it in for free when they signed their contract with CP.

I don't think they can only go one season with this, they need to give it a little bit of time to settle in, make the water coolers. The feeling of value can go a long way for people to speak positive about their trip. Instead of, the lines were long and the food was expensive, you hopefully will hear, Man MF was so great, you gotta get back there. My 3 cents.

I can tell you right now that when i visit cedar point this summer im going to be buying more food, instead of filling my self up on free waters. Last season i paid 6.50 for a burger at coasters.

i work in foods at cp, they are about same and a few went down. they still not at convieneint store cheap and never will be.. it is soo much more expense to run a amusement park with world class rides than a gas station. gas statiopns don't have to pay insurance on the rides or anything. i know it is hard to accept the prices but at same time they are hoping attendance goes up tomake up the loss in food revenue..so everybody..go ride some rides this summer

CPFan420, I have heard something similar about Cedar Point recieving signifigant amounts of free product from Pepsi.

From what I have heard is that for CP offering Pepsi products exclusively, they get all of their bottled water for free.

-Tambo

I agree that it's a great move.

Every time we go to CP there are always staple items we have to get. (My husband says it's not a trip to CP unless he stops at happy friar for his chili cheese fries drenched in malt vinegar >_<). It's nice to see them make a move of this sort for the crazy nuts like myself who always buy this kind of stuff at the park. Definately a bold move and I'm glad to see it happening.

Can't wait for our yearly trip out to cp. =) Far off as it may be...gotta hit SFGAM and get my coaster fix, and soon >_<

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they get all of their bottled water for free.

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Nobody truly gets anything for free.

It is highly unlikely that Pepsi would give away such a popular product. They may have discounted all products based upon quantity sales. This is a very common sales technique. This is how you can see Pepsi for $1.25 a 2 Litre on Monday, but $0.79 on Wednesday. Your local retailer (or more likely their giant corporate entity) has just made a deal to buy a massive quanity of product.

Don't let the idea of free fool you.

As stated in another forum, HW's Free Pepsi isn't really free, it is just built into your ticket price.

A word on soda, it costs the Coke/Pepsi Co approximatly 6 cents to make a 12 oz serving of coke, so a 20 oz costs about 10 cents, and lets say add 4 cents for the reusable containers to ship the stuff to the park. Now lets assume Pepsi doubles the cost to CF, so its now at 28 cents for CF. As you can see soda is a big money maker (it how the fast food places stay afloat since thier profit margins on food are rediculously low) and that is why Holiday World can give it away for free without costing the company too much in "real costs." Other places charge an arm and a leg for soda because people still buy it and its a quick and easy way to make loads of $$$.

Coasterfreaky, I'd agree with your statement about ride efficiency, but how quickly we forget...The year that Millennium Force opened they had the Joe Cool Pass. You had to wait to get a pass so you could skip the line later on. It didn't cost anything except a lot of your time from the lines I saw.

Since I haven't been back since 2000, my memory is hazy on whether or not they continued the program or renamed it.

Touchdown, you got your numbers off.

It does not cost Coke or Pepsi ANYTHING, we're talking less than a penny, to make their soft drinks. The actual liquid is less than a penny for them. W

When they sell it to parks, it ends up being 5-6 cents for a 20 oz.

Bottles are another story, they cost more for both PepsiCo a nd Cedar Point, probably about 40 cents or so a piece to purchase.

Soda is definately an interesting business tool. You can make alot of money off of it or you can make it free. It is cheap as hell. McDonalds would NOT be in business if they didn't sell soda. That is how they make all their money. It actually COSTS them money to make double cheeseburgers.

Thank GOD Cedar Point sells Pepsi products, I absolutely hate Coke more than any soft drink out there. It has the most bitter, god-awful taste of any cola you can buy.

I know this is getting old, but I did some research and have some data to ponder. More than 60% of the wholesale cost of soda is for maketing efforts. This is outside the handful of pennies it costs to make the wet brown fizzy liquid.

In 2003, a convenience store chain in the MN, MI, & WI sued Pepsi for price fixing. Pepsi sold their product based upon their retail price. If retail was under $1, the price of a case was $15.60 or $0.65 per 20oz bottle. Over $1.14 retail, the price was $19.20 or $0.80 per bottle. These prices were part of their CDA (comprehensive distriubution agreement).

The chain lost the suit. But the case shows us the way prices work. One could safely assume from this that CP pays somewhere inbetween based upon volume.

Krist Oil Co., Inc. v. Bernick's Pepsi-Cola of Duluth

I can almost assure you that CP pays exactly zero for soda.

Despite the free soda they most likely get and all the prices they lowered, they are still going to lose money. Most people that go to the park are from out of city, state, and country. All the gas prices are out of control right now. If they stay up to high then less will afford to come.

But I could be wrong.