OUR SMALL-TOWN MARCHING BAND

This all started when I was asked to help out at our local school’s music booster concession stand. My son was in middle school and high school marching band.  He played sousaphone for marching band and trombone for concert band and jazz band.

The band's music boosters needed help working the concession stand, which is also a fundraiser for our school.  The money  raised from concession sales helped pay for uniforms and equipment.

MOM AND SON

Our music booster club ran concessions for the basketball and volleyball games.

Each night, we needed 3-5 volunteers for a few hours each to work the concession stand, take the orders, prepare food, serve food and drinks, take money, and clean up afterward.  It was a great opportunity to teach my son responsibility and customer service while having fun at the same time!

I LOVED being part of this!  My younger son worked the concessions stand with me.   He also played the saxophone, basketball and golf in school.

TEAM EFFORT & COLLABORATION

The concession stands are busy each game.   It taught my youngest son and other young volunteers how to work, fill orders, do customer service, clean up, count money and be accountable and responsible.  Other moms, dads and siblings worked along side the teen volunteers.  The parents helped guide the teens, teaching them good core service skills.  The kids enjoyed being part of it!  They also enjoyed seeing their friends and family at the games.  I met new parents and classmates of my sons.  It helped me get to know some schoolmate families.  I even built long term friendships through this experience.

LESSONS LEARNED

I learned a lot with this process.  I learned that I could lean on parents for help and I could count on others to back me up.  I learned who was reliable.  I learned that  some people need a little more guidance than others.  My biggest lesson I learned is that it takes a village to make this successful..  We needed a parent or 2 to become the temporary owner of the concession stand and run it like a small business. 

REALITY OF RUNNING A CONCESSION STAND

Small business owners are always looking for workers or volunteers. They need to lead, schedule, purchase inventory, manage the events, ensure compliance for health and food safety, ensure money is being paid for purchases, making sure the person receiving the money know how to count back change.  

All this said, I found that we didn’t have a good method of keeping track of inventory, keeping track of our sales and so many times the lines were very long when people were trying to order their snacks and drinks during a break in the game.  Customers would get frustrated waiting too long in the line and missing the game or missing their kid or grandchild playing a big play in the game. 

At the end of the night, after cleaning up the concession stand, we would just visually look at the refrigerator or boxes of items to see what we were running low on so we could make our weekly trip to the local box discount store to buy more for the next game. We wrote out a shopping list.

Don’t get me wrong, we counted our money each night after the game.  We kept track of deposits on a spreadsheet.  But we really didn’t know, in detail, which items were best sellers, which items we made the most profit on, which items we needed to order to replace inventory. 

Because of this, I’ve decided to create an affordable, simple to use system to do this for us.  Because let’s face it, typically these concessions are fundraisers for our kids. I wanted a system where people can order from their seat, on their phone, and then pick up at the window once notified that their order was ready.  I didn't want people to miss important game time.

OUR COMPANY

Snack Shack App is employee owned and managed.

We have strong midwestern values that reflects in our service of caring for people and understanding we need to get the job done efficiently and quickly.

We reside in the Omaha, Nebraska area (on the Iowa side of the Missouri River.)

We understand the importance of raising money for our kids activities!

OUR GOAL

First and foremost, we want customers to not have to wait in line and miss the game.  We wanted a mobile app that allowed customers to order their concession stand food directly from their stadium seat.  Then receive a text once their order is ready for them to pick up at the 'pick up window'.  We also wanted reports of the daily sales so we can replenish the inventory before the next game.  

 We think you will love this!