I have a Soda question and posted pics from Sundays event

I have found for every event I do, choices of soda vary. How many of you just did away with a bunch of flavors and stuck with 3-4? I am thinking Coke,Diet Pepsi,Sprite, (maybe orange crush) and water. Would it make or break a purchase if the vendor did not have your favorite soda? 
 
I added some pics from a skateboarding event I did Sunday. They had me right next to the DJ and my ears were ringing. I had a few drinks the night before so I paid the price lol. It was slow until 1 p.m. I was scared it was going to be slow the whole day, but it finally picked up. Glad I wore a hat or my face would have been burnt big time. The sun was beating that day.  
 
My lil niece chowing down on Doritos with her Tony Hawk shirt and vans lol  First customers of the day.

 

 

 

 
This is when the crowd started to get hungry
 

 
Time to call it a day

Business is really starting to pick up. I have a carwash location and a hospital location in the works.

I have Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, MT Dew, Dr Pepper, Sierra Mist and Water.   You need to have 1 Diet and one No Caffeine.   Always have a decent brand of water.  Dasani sells well as does Aqua Fina.

Kiyi


I have Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, MT Dew, Dr Pepper, Sierra Mist and Water.   You need to have 1 Diet and one No Caffeine.   Always have a decent brand of water.  Dasani sells well as does Aqua Fina.

Actually your right. Dr Pepper slipped my mind. It sold well. I sold Sierra mist this event because safeway had a killer deal on Pepsi products this month. I use Crystal Geyser as my water.

Haven't heard of Crystal Geyser, but it must be a good brand.   I would recommend selling bottles because I tend to sell more even though I raise the prices for bottles.   This is from my own limited experience.

You are right, it varies.  If you are the only vendor around you can go out there with just 3 or 4 sodas. I like the variety packs at Costco, the margins are great. But I also discovered that those little Frappucino things and the big iced teas sell for $2. What I've found is that everything sells. Juice is a great seller too. If you have more variety than the guy next to you that will win for you.

I sell about 10K of pop a month. I would say that 80 to 85% is Pepsi,Diet pepsi, Mountain Dew......After that its a local toss up. I think it would also depend on the age of the people at the event. If I was doing a event that had many Hispanics I would do more fruit flavored drinks. Powder drinks are also big IMHO I would go with 20 oz plastic btls, cans are old school ...............Bil                                                                                                                                                  

I plan on selling Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and Orange for my sodas.  Those are about the only ones that will sell in my area (not a lot of Pepsi drinkers).  I am going to carry Ozarka water because it is a well known Texas brand...plus I only pay about .13 per 12 oz bottle and sell them for $1.00

Nice setup Quick Dog....

I sell only Pepsi, MNT Dew <---- Big Seller Dr. Pepper, Boot Beer, Diet Coke, Monster, and these.... big Sellers.

Quickdog, your cart looks great, happy to see you business is picking up..The only thing missing is you wearing a Seattle Mariners cap.........................Bill

I quit selling sodas and only offer bottled water.  Easier to maintain and I don't end up with 2 or 3 cases left over tempting me to drink them all.

I am getting a new spot lined up in front of a grocery store for my Saturdays. I may quit selling all drinks and just focus on hot dogs. Still debating.

ArnieTX

ArnieTX


I quit selling sodas and only offer bottled water.  Easier to maintain and I don't end up with 2 or 3 cases left over tempting me to drink them all.

I am getting a new spot lined up in front of a grocery store for my Saturdays. I may quit selling all drinks and just focus on hot dogs. Still debating.

ArnieTX

I would seriously question dropping all drinks. A customer would prefer to make one stop where he could purchase food and a drink rather than having to go to another cart for his drink.
 
I also feel you made a big mistake by deleting soda drinks. They generate a lot of profit with very little labour.
 
I hope this doesn't sound rude but put your customers wants and needs before yours.
 
 
 
 

Thanks for your advice, not rude at all....and not to hijack Quickdogs thread. :) One thing I should have mentioned is that the grocery I'm setting up in front of  has a large bank of branded soda machines twenty feet away from me and I don't think I can compete with their prices.

Bottled water is still on my list for now though.

ArnieTX

Delta


Nice setup Quick Dog....

Thanks Delta

BillyB


Quickdog, your cart looks great, happy to see you business is picking up..The only thing missing is you wearing a Seattle Mariners cap.........................Bill

Thanks BillyB ,   SF Giants fan here  lol. I have to support the local team, plus I love going to the Giants park.  I sell the cans because they fit in my cooler better and sometimes I get them for .25 a can. I will be parked in front of a carwash on the weekends but they sell their own chips and sodas. It will be interesting to see if I make enough profit without the extra items. I better start working on coupons and flyers.
 
Thanks for the tips and info everyone.

quickdog


I have found for every event I do, choices of soda vary. How many of you just did away with a bunch of flavors and stuck with 3-4? I am thinking Coke,Diet Pepsi,Sprite, (maybe orange crush) and water. Would it make or break a purchase if the vendor did not have your favorite soda? 
 
I added some pics from a skateboarding event I did Sunday. They had me right next to the DJ and my ears were ringing. I had a few drinks the night before so I paid the price lol. It was slow until 1 p.m. I was scared it was going to be slow the whole day, but it finally picked up. Glad I wore a hat or my face would have been burnt big time. The sun was beating that day.  
 
My lil niece chowing down on Doritos with her Tony Hawk shirt and vans lol  First customers of the day.

 

 

 

 
This is when the crowd started to get hungry
 

 
Time to call it a day

Business is really starting to pick up. I have a carwash location and a hospital location in the works.

Very nice pics! I do not do bottles because of the extra space they take up in my cooler, if it were not for that I might carry them. Since I now have a soda account I may start to play around with bottles to see how much less I can carry based on the size. Also speaking with my soda rep I was told bottles do not last as long as cans (shelf life) Also if some of you did not know the diet sodas do not last as long as the regulars. Anyway, I understand not selling soda if you are in front of a location that sells them, I can see them having a problem with that. Other than that I would keep selling soda because it kinda goes hand and hand with a good dawg or sausage. My soda sells are growing, slowly and my cans go for a dollar although I have seen some carts with them for .75.  99% of the time when I check a machine or a gas station the are the same price if not more. I think minimum you should have a reg, diet, something without color (sprite, ginger ale, myst, etc) something fruity (orange, grape, etc) and water. In the end we all play around with options and you will need to do what you think works for you. With such a long shelf life its hard not to off load what ever you would buy unless you are buying by the truck load.

Play around and see what blows out the door and what is a lagger, Remember there is no set rule on what you MUST have, just a few options for your customers should be enough.
Everything I sell, sells very well except Pepsi One, that is the worse seller for me, it was my diet option on the Pepsi side rather than Diet pepsi. Going with Diet Pepsi next time.



 

As a diet soda drinker.. Diet Pepsi (although personally I love Diet Dr Pepper because Diet Dr Pepper tastes more like regular Dr Pepper And I LOVE Dr Pepper).  Diet Pepsi is the best tasting of the diet sodas.  We sell Diet Pepsi on the street (NC) and Diet Dew at the races (GA) will edge it out SLIGHTLY.  We sell very little soda on the street.  that may change as it warms up... but we won't be here to find out.  For our current location (Western NC), the folks here prefer Pepsi (not Coke), Mtn Dew and we offer root beer (not a big seller but just for different) along with a bottled water. We sell cans due to storage space.  Different state, different tastes. Watch to see what folks are drinking, ask customers what they would rather drink.  We have found, too many offerings just confuse folks in a hurry.  We "test" sold a case of all the major sodas here.  The ones we currently carry are what we sold.  The next state (NM) we move to will be different as will the state after that one (TX).  Here, chips suck.  Very few want them. We have added Cracker Jacks & M&M cookies with 2 varieties of chips (Doritos & BBQ).

MikeinRI


quickdog, Nice pics and nice setup. Good job.
   I sell cans of Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, A&W Root Beer, Lipton Iced Tea, plastic bottles of Tropicana 100% fruit juice, plastic bottles of Poland Spring water.
Parents were asking for juice for the kids so I started with the Tropicana. They come 24 to a case. 8 Strawberry Kiwi, 8 Strawberry Orange, and 8 Fruit Medley. They're pricey, around $.53 each but they sell well and the kids love em.
   I sell waaaaay more Coke and water than anything.
Which is ok with me. $.26 each for Coke and $.13 each for water. Nice. (I charge $1.00 for all drinks)  
You're right about carrying just a few choices for big events. Tough to carry too many. For example, on a regular day I take 30 waters. For the few events I've done so far, I took 75. Could never increase the amount for all 7 drinks I carry and manage to take all that. For events it's Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, water. If I approached a cart for a dog and they only had a few drink choices I'd be ok with that. (then again, all I drink is water. NEVER soda, so I'm easy)
Good luck

Thanks. I think I am going to follow your plan. It is simple and will make inventory easier.

lornaschinske


As a diet soda drinker.. Diet Pepsi (although personally I love Diet Dr Pepper because Diet Dr Pepper tastes more like regular Dr Pepper And I LOVE Dr Pepper).  Diet Pepsi is the best tasting of the diet sodas.  We sell Diet Pepsi on the street (NC) and Diet Dew at the races (GA) will edge it out SLIGHTLY.  We sell very little soda on the street.  that may change as it warms up... but we won't be here to find out.  For our current location (Western NC), the folks here prefer Pepsi (not Coke), Mtn Dew and we offer root beer (not a big seller but just for different) along with a bottled water. We sell cans due to storage space.  Different state, different tastes. Watch to see what folks are drinking, ask customers what they would rather drink.  We have found, too many offerings just confuse folks in a hurry.  We "test" sold a case of all the major sodas here.  The ones we currently carry are what we sold.  The next state (NM) we move to will be different as will the state after that one (TX).  Here, chips suck.  Very few want them. We have added Cracker Jacks & M&M cookies with 2 varieties of chips (Doritos & BBQ).

Ditto. I find Diet Pepsi the easiest to drink. Diet Minute Maid Orange tastes pretty good too.

Well-having a larger trailer I normally have more choices but I will say that all year long I end the list with something whimsical from a regional rather than national provider. Examples would be Polar brand White Birch or Cape Cod Cranberry or Polar (again) Pineapple. It perks up the list and makes our choices stand out. And the customers will either try one or at least be surprised...and oh yeah-the regional will have a lower per unit cost.