Sandwich prices

I search other threads and did not find exactly what I was looking for.
 
I am doing a festival this weekend and I need to price my sandwiches. I did this festival last year and charged $6 per sandwich but I was generous last year and served 12" sandwiches, I made a nice profit and sold out.
 
I want to sell 6" sandwiches this year and need to price accordingly. The sandwiches will be meatball marinara, cheese steak, italian sausage w/peppers and onions and a brisket sandwich.
 
Any input would be appreciated. I have been to plenty of festivals where a 6" Italian sausage sandwich sold for $5 but just wanted to check with you pros since I have to factor in current economy.

We charge the same prices for events that we charge for street. Next month we up our prices by $1 and add a bag of chips with each sandwich. We haven't raised our prices in over a year. Our overhead/living expenses tend to be low.
 
6" sub (white or whole wheat) 3+ oz meat plus all toppings (multiple meat sandwiches have more oz of meat):
Steak $6 (this is NOT a "philly cheesesteak", this is a sliced smoked beef brisket. We have swiss, cheddar and provolone that customers can add to the sandwich if they want... many don't add cheese)
Smoked pork loin $6
Italian (Genoa salami, pepperoni, Black Forest ham & provolone) $6
Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu (grilled chicken breast,  Black Forest ham & Swiss) $6
Smoked turkey breast & Black Forest ham $6
Smoked beef brisket BBQ $6
Spicy grilled chicken, Black Forest ham, Pastrami or Smoked Turkey $5
 
Served On a 4.5" Kaiser roll:
Pulled Pork BBQ $5
Chicken & Apple Sausage (split & grilled) $5 (will stay same price)
Smoked Kielbasa (split & grilled) $4.50 (will go up to $5)

lornaschinske,
 
Thanks for the input on the sandwiches. I think I will do either $5 or $6, I will have to see what competition is out this year, it is a small festival.
 
I I have broccoli pasta salad and baked mac & cheese as sides, served in 6oz portions. I sold sides for $1 last year but that was for pre-made coleslaw and potato salad that cost me $3 per bucket. This years sides are homemade so I am thinking $2. Any thoughts?
 

reese77, I would charge the same price for the 6" as you did for the 12" last year. We just did a small food truck event and sold Rubens, pastrami & Swiss, and ham & cheese for $6.00. We threw in a pickle and a small bag of chips. We use two slices of cheese; around 2.5oz of meat on artisan bread (Masda Bakery).All of our sandwiches are grilled in the sandwich press. Depending on the fees or the event we may go up to $7.00 per sandwich.

Thanks Jody. You convinced me to charge $6. I will buy pickles and throw one in with each sandwich and the customers also have a choice of toppings including cheese. I don't want to give chips since I will have sides for sale.
 
Do you make your own pastrami? I am experimenting with brisket in order to make some pastrami. I cannot find cheap wholesale pastrami anywhere.

reese77


Thanks Jody. You convinced me to charge $6. I will buy pickles and throw one in with each sandwich and the customers also have a choice of toppings including cheese. I don't want to give chips since I will have sides for sale.

Do you make your own pastrami? I am experimenting with brisket in order to make some pastrami. I cannot find cheap wholesale pastrami anywhere.

I don't know how you go from $6 for a 12" sub to $6 for a 6" sub. The reason why you did so well is because you gave the food away at a great price. I think a good value this year would be $5 for a 6" sub, you will still be undercutting everyone else. Give them a good value and sell out again..............The sides look about right.....Your prices were way to low last yr, but don't scare away last yrs customers with crazy price increases.....................Good Luck..................pnwc

PNWCHEF,
 
Thanks for the input. Last year was my first festival ever and I agree, I gave away food last year and could have charged the same for less. The only reason I bring it up is because I had two customers say the prices were too high last year during the festival. They still both purchased meals but they made me unsure since it was my first festival. I was so busy last year that I never had a chance to check out the competitions prices but that is the first thing I will do this year and I am sure $5-6 dollars will be lower than them.

Hi Reese, I go through this almost daily, prices to high yadda, yadda, yadda. The two people saying your prices were to high, were dead wrong and would have complained if you had $1 subs. I always set up my menu and pricing with a "Perception of value" to the customer. It doesn't matter what I think, it matters that they get a meal/sandwich that they think is fair, and is a value. Your menu is a quality menu, it offers a great selection of different sandwiches that would, in most cases, sell for a much higher price in a Fair/ Festival. I go to a fair that there are a lot of vendors, they sell a Italian sausage and peppers for $8, I don't complain, it's a quality sandwich. I think you can back up your prices with the quality you offer. Just make sure the perception of value is there for your customer......................pnwc

PNWCHEF


Hi Reese, I go through this almost daily, prices to high yadda, yadda, yadda. The two people saying your prices were to high, were dead wrong and would have complained if you had $1 subs. I always set up my menu and pricing with a "Perception of value" to the customer. It doesn't matter what I think, it matters that they get a meal/sandwich that they think is fair, and is a value. Your menu is a quality menu, it offers a great selection of different sandwiches that would, in most cases, sell for a much higher price in a Fair/ Festival. I go to a fair that there are a lot of vendors, they sell a Italian sausage and peppers for $8, I don't complain, it's a quality sandwich. I think you can back up your prices with the quality you offer. Just make sure the perception of value is there for your customer......................pnwc

Great advice, thanks.

I sell 6" $6.00 & 12" $11.00 all day long. If festival rates are high, I go up like everyone else. And this is a depressed poverty area. Best of Luck.

Reese,
 
 I sell I/S subs for $6, Meatballs for $6 and pulled pork sandwiches for $6 as well. All my subs are 6" and never bat an eye at my prices. I think I might be a tad under priced for festivals but my prices are the same regardles. Street or festival.

Right now I am buying the corned beef and pastrami from a local supplier. Would love to cook my own but Decided to go with provisional meats for HD reasons.
 
At festivals you need to be priced higher to cover the fees. $6.00 + side + drink = a decent sale.

Food at festivals is expensive. I would never go looking for fair food expecting to pay less than $5-6. I made the same mistake as you with my first festival, I priced the food to low. I will not be making that mistake again.

Thanks everyone for the input. I will do $6 for the 6" subs, $2 for 6oz sides and $1 soda and water. I will give a dill pickle slice with each sandwich.
 
I will post how it went on 10/9 after the festival.

Gee whiz guys my prices are way to low, both daily and at events LOL I need to raise them!
 
Can someone post or send me in an email (if you don't want to post it online I understand) the cost on the average 6 inch subs? If your sending it in an email tell me the brand your using etc. I don't sell them but I have a chance to pick up some equipment that would allow me to do so. And I could install it and still do the BBQ in my step van build. I'd appreciate any input any one would like to offer here or email Jack@DrofBBVQ.com. Please put Roadfood in the subject line so I don't miss it.
 
Thanks
Jack

What type of subs do you want to do? Types of meats, cheeses? Just one sand or several?
French dip?   Nothing better than nice mr beef on a good roll with some horseradish and good au jus from the pan drippings.
 
Type of roll...local, frozen food service, amaroso?
Damn meat prices fluctuate so much, hard to nail down a price.
Choice inside round was down to $1.99 a month ago, then up almost a buck. yesterday $2.52....same with cheese.
$2.98 for provolone, $3.87 for swiss!.....American, $3+
 
I just switched turkey, was buying Foster Farms oil browned, good product for slicing, it's several muscles in one roast, price has been creeping, now $3.49.
I tried a frozen, single muscle skin on brt roast from costco last week, good stuff. $2.60 lb, slices nice, does not crumble... roast one off fresh every couple of days.
I'm using amaroso rolls for all my sands, $29 for 48, 9" rolls...
I get killed on freight, shipping coast to coast.
Buck told me when he was buying them, he paid close to half that price.
 

Wow Chef I guess the prices on everything is going the way the price on Pork Shoulders is going. It makes me crazy that I'm now paying $1.53 a Lb for shoulders and 9 months ago they were between $.98 and $1.03 a Lb, then as you well know you have 45% shrinkage which almost doubles the cost. 
 
Maybe I should get my head wrapped around better buns than I'm using in general. I hate paying a lot of $$$$ for buns but we have a sub shop here in town that has opened several locations in Springfield and a couple in other nearby cities that bakes his own bread. He gets rave reviews for his bread. But so far he does not do events.
 
So is bread a great part of a sub? I assume from your post so, so how much value is it worth compared to the other parts of the sandwich 30% 40% 50%? I'll probably ask more questions on this topic as they occur to me thanks for your help as always.
Jack

Butts are "on sale" right now at $1.58....
I think the bread is 50% of the sand. You could have all the best meats and cheeses, then put it on some ****ty white bread and ruin the whole thing. I get lots of compliments on the quality of the rolls.
I went with the Amaroso  roll for the cheese steaks, and was not going to carry a different bread for the other sands.
Have you ever tried one? If not, you need to get a hold of some and experiment.
There are also some other decent frozen rolls from Us Foods, Sysco, etc.
The rolls are lightly toasted in the oven, The exterior is slightly crusty, the interior pillowy soft. The key is that there is not a ton of bread inside. It makes for a nice vehicle for all the ingredients, and holds up well to wet sandwiches, such as dips, pulled pork, etc.
The worst thing to me is to get a "bread sandwich" where there is more bread than meats, like you would get at Subway or the like.
Good quality bread, meats and cheeses, quality mayo, quality pickles. Just the right amount of condiments, don't want a dry sandwich, but you also don't want everything dripping out the bottom.
I wish I could sell an Italian, have tried a couple of times, but people here don't know what mortadella or capacola is, none would want "Italian Dressing" on their sub, just mayo & mustard. Salami and provolone is about all they would know about.
Also using a decent portion of meat is important, a sub with 3 oz of meat is not a meal, it's a bread sandwich.

ChefBuba, I used to serve an Italian Sub at one of my accounts, it went over real well. I tried the same Italian Sub in a account one mile away and they didn't know what the heck I was talking about. If they would try it, like you make it, they wold love it. I remember the first time my wife tried an Italian sub , we were living in Hawaii. I bought all the cured meats, cheese and crusty bread, toppings and oil and vin. She told me she didn't eat that kind of food, turned up her nose and walked away. I made the sandwich, she said that looks pretty good, maybe I'll have one small bite, she finished the whole sandwich after trying it.
 We use two different sub rolls, Amoroso rolls and we bake a white Hoagie roll for some sandwiches. Like Chefbuba said, the Amoroso is a good roll for French dips, Philly cheese, Meatball subs, sausage and pepper subs, Chix Parm Mozzarella melt, and so on. The other sub is a basic white roll, fresh baked and used for cold subs like out Grilled ham and cheese melt, Turkey Club sub, and so on............IMHO, the bread makes the sandwich, I grew up on the East Coast, the quality of the bread was real important.
  Jack, Dr of BBQ, Grasshopper, you will learn from the Masters like ChefBuba and myself, and if you want to learn how to scoop Ice cream, we will call in the Master Scooper Canadian, for advice..........Now go out there and BBQ something....................pnwc

PNWCHEF


ChefBuba, I used to serve an Italian Sub at one of my accounts, it went over real well. I tried the same Italian Sub in a account one mile away and they didn't know what the heck I was talking about. If they would try it, like you make it, they wold love it. I remember the first time my wife tried an Italian sub , we were living in Hawaii. I bought all the cured meats, cheese and crusty bread, toppings and oil and vin. She told me she didn't eat that kind of food, turned up her nose and walked away. I made the sandwich, she said that looks pretty good, maybe I'll have one small bite, she finished the whole sandwich after trying it.
We use two different sub rolls, Amoroso rolls and we bake a white Hoagie roll for some sandwiches. Like Chefbuba said, the Amoroso is a good roll for French dips, Philly cheese, Meatball subs, sausage and pepper subs, Chix Parm Mozzarella melt, and so on. The other sub is a basic white roll, fresh baked and used for cold subs like out Grilled ham and cheese melt, Turkey Club sub, and so on............IMHO, the bread makes the sandwich, I grew up on the East Coast, the quality of the bread was real important.
Jack, Dr of BBQ, Grasshopper, you will learn from the Masters like ChefBuba and myself, and if you want to learn how to scoop Ice cream, we will call in the Master Scooper Canadian, for advice..........Now go out there and BBQ something....................pnwc

Easy big boy

The festival went OK, not as great as last year as far as attendance but I actually made more money this year....weird
 
I will be sure to not serve meatball sandwiches again, I think I sold 4 total...
 

 
 

Reese77,
Please forgive me for chiming in on a slightly different topic to your thread. But I did a Rat Rod Festival today and sold 7 cases plus of hot dogs and about 60, plus lbs of pulled pork in 7 hours. All that with only two employees. And I charged $4.00 each for the dogs. But I gave everyone that walked by for the first two hours a small sample of my dogs. I had a line at 11:00 am and it never let up until about 3:00 pm. And it was still busy until we ran out of product. So your right the money is there if you promote the food. It was a great day. By the way these events are happening all over the country so if you can get into one do so. What a great group and nary a problem, at a show with 1500 show cars. Lots of tats and green and pink hair but neat people.
Jack

chefbuba

Also using a decent portion of meat is important, a sub with 3 oz of meat is not a meal, it's a bread sandwich.

We can barely get our 6" subs closed and we use 3.6 to 3.8 oz meat (our multi meat subs have more meat).

I could see the MB sub not selling, your other your menu has all the top sellers. Your not having a problem with people walking away, your menu is just to good. I love Meatball subs, but it would be my 3rd or 4th choice on your menu..............happy all went well.....................pnwc