Food Prices... Getting Too high?
Besides, I really don't need those calories... :)
Anyway, the parks will charge what they can for the food. When the food joints are costing too much to keep open because people aren't buying, the price will come down. I've seen it happen.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Food costs are configured on a set Cost of Goods (cogs) at a fixed percent. While I am sure some parks claim open warfare, alot are just keeping the budgets in line. Some products are fixed across the board, like Dippin Dots, fountain soda, J&J products (pretzels, churros, icees), and Gold Medal products (cotton candy floss sugar, funnel cake mixes). While the bigger companies have better buying power, it all evens out with marketing dollars and such.
We always remember this rule. People are on vacation, and they will come to the park. They do not have to pay extra for waterparks, attractions, or retail items. The definately do not have to pay for games. But they do have to eat. Its been my policy to give them the best quality item, at a fair price. If you are priced outrageous, or give a poor product, people will talk, and that hurts.
And food has come a long way in the past 10 years. Individual portions, prepackaging, and other methods make the foods safe and easy to handle, and it costs a bit more, but it is worth it.
At a lot of amusement parks you can bring your own food and eat out in the parking lot or like at CP you can eat in their picnic area. I have even brought food into SFGAm in the past and security didnt say a thing. Most of these parks arent bullying anyone into buying their food, you are paying for the convenience and if they can make an extra buck doing that and it comes off the ticket prices at the gate more power to them.
As long as there are other food options like going out to your car to eat and a few fast food restaurants in the general area I could really care less how much a park charges for food. I as a rule dont eat it because most of the food a park serves is crap and the few exceptions to that rule (custard at CP, Andre's fries at SFGAm, Funnel Cakes at SFGAm) are worth the extra few bucks to purchase.
JMHO,
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Bob Hansen
A proud CoasterBuzz Member
"So you think your'e really brave, gonna see the DEMONS cave.
You silly dude, your'e only food, for the DEMON"
Profit margins on some product in the large parks are downright obscene. Are the parks entitled to do that? Absolutely. It's the American way. But the value has to be there, or people won't buy. That is also the American way.
(Restaurant profits on certain items are downright obscene, too, when you get right down to it...)
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
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Coaster M and M
Ride On!
I take the stand that if I'm on "vacation", I'm willing to spend a little bit more. Although I was a bit shocked that two orders of cheese fries and two medium pepsi's cost me over $11. If I had a family of 3 or 4 children, I'd go broke feeding them.
But there ARE other options at the park. The sit downs are reasonably priced, especially if you compare their prices to the stands. The sitdowns serve "healthier" food.
But darn, I really DO love those artery clogging cheese fries!
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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead
This is where Holiday World is da bomb. FREE DRINKS, all day long, as much as you want. Another thing I love is how you are able to get your own or go to a food stand. And their food prices are similar to most parks, if not cheaper than the big parks.
I usually take my Camelback with me to the park and that saves on buying drinks but it didn't yesterday. CP wasn't allowing any bags to be taken into any lines. So I stashed it and only went back to it once or twice throughout the day. So they weaseled one drink out of me for the day.
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Bob Hansen
A proud CoasterBuzz Member
"So you think your'e really brave, gonna see the DEMONS cave.
You silly dude, your'e only food, for the DEMON"
As for "healthy" choices. It is very clear that they do NOT sell. Period. The healthy/vegitarian crowd is a very vocal minority, but do not constitute enough revenue to warrent parks (and for the most part all food service joints) putting the choices on all menus. But because of their vocal nature, most places will innevidably offer some choices in larger units that can handle the loss (or decrease in profit) that comes with such menu items. I can't think of many places that doesn't have some place with at least one offering healthy food items.
Another point brought up is the prepackaged foods. That to is becoming a necessity because it takes less time and skill to prepare. Which is needed in a labor starved market like an amusement park that employees teenaged/college-aged kids that are not executive chefs. And it is very true that these items cost a great deal more for the luxery of opening up a box of pre-cooked meat products that just have to be heated up to 165 F.
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Enjoy yourself. These are the good old days you're going to miss in the years ahead.
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Beer, my soon to be wife, coasters, and the FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Is this a great country or what!!
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stoogemanmoe
From the GP prospective, They are there to have fun, and get away from life. To them spending some loot between parking, gate fee, food, maybe a game or two. That's all part of 'getting away'. It's fine with me, they support parks I love to go to, while I can spend less money, and go there all the time.
I don't really think that comparing prices at a ballgame or movie to those at parks is fair... at a game or movie, they have you there for at most 3 hours. They need to get what they can get immediately. People stay at parks for 12 hours. They don't need to gouge you at every turn to make a good per person profit.
I don't know about others, but I generally have a fixed amount that I'm gonna spend when I go to a park for the day. If you're charging $5 for a Pepsi, I'll probably just get one at dinner. If you're charging $2, I'll be more likely to buy them impulsively throughout the day.
Fountain soft drinks are usually the highest markup in a park. For 15cents a cup, would you rather make that $4.85 profit once and have an aggravated, thirsty guest, or make that $1.85 profit 4 or 5 times over and have a patron who is comfortable and happy all day?
It's about making the most profit while letting people spend their money in as many places as possible. Yeah, you want them to go home broke, just not all on one candy apple!
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"When I was growing up, we were taught something called manners. You'd understand that if you weren't such an idiot." - Jack Handey
Agent Johnson said:
For those who are still concerned, just check the prices at a movie theatre, or worse, a stadium or concert.
Well, that puts everything slightly better into perspective!
Reminds me of when I saw Ice Age a few weeks back with a little cousin and her friend (never again, I tell you). I thought I'd get a small bag of lollies (what do you call 'em, sweets? candy?), it was one of those do it yourself jobs.
So anyway, I take it to the counter, and find myself paying $10 for lollies that would cost me $1 or $2 anywhere else.
Well, I showed them next time I went (different Cinema though), I sat throught the 2.5 hours of brilliance that was Episode II without anything (lol, pathetic, I know).
As for stadiums, well, I haven't been to a rugby game in about 2 years (absolutely shocking), though I remember the chips there being cheap and pretty good. Also the pies were Four n Twenty perfection, plus considerably cheap.
Mind you at the Sydney 2000 Games, a $1 can of coke was going for I think $3.50, isn't that what the Olymics are truely about? Ripping off this influx of tourists?
I see this hasn't really gotten anywhere terribly meaningful, just me making some links to personal experiences, and some waffle thrown in for good fortune.
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So what if the best coaster in Australia is a second hand Arrow?
http://www.totalthrills.com
I was very pleasantly suprised at the Midway Market at CP. You might think $9.95 is expensive for all you can eat, but the food was excellent, and they had a great variety of vegetarian things. The veggie lasagna was excellent, and they even had veggie pizza. The deserts were awesome, especially the berry pie (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and I think rhubarb). Our server kept brining more iced tea as soon as our glasses were 3/4 empty.
We'll be taking advantage of this place more often
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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead
No I don't think that $9.95 is expensive ;)
Just kidding, but really that isn't that bad concidering it would cost you that much for 2 hotdogs at $4 a dog and a bottle of pop at SFWoA.
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There is NoLimit when it comes to Roller Coasters.
NoLimitChic's Coaster Page
*** This post was edited by NoLimitChic on 5/24/2002. ***
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