The Menu (Monkeys make good sounding boards)

So last week the T5R Chuck Wagon went live and opened up for business. I will be honest I made more gross sales last week than I expected by about 10x. I knew we did good last week as we had a steady flow of customers from open to close every day. It was not uncommon for me to gross $3000-$4000 per week selling packaged meats and ran a pretty consistent 31% profit margin when just selling packaged meats and most weeks netted $1000-$1,100 not getting rich but earning a honest living. When I opened the trailer safe Saturday evening and counted out $17,000 and some change and crunched the numbers down to a 56% profit margin and $9,500 in net profit for a week I about stroked out! Sorry if I am coming off wrong here but I have never earned anywhere near that in a week in my entire life. I started out my adult life dirt floor poor and was raised dirt floor poor and have had to earn, fight, scrimp and save for everything I have and getting from there to here has not been anything resembling a easy path, but I got to where life was comfortable and can look myself in the eye in the mirror and go to bed at night knowing I didn't cheat, steal, lie or screw anyone over getting here. Anyway I was hoping to see a $500 increase in net profits from previous years and really was not expecting that much. Anyway I am more than a little excited, happy and proud of what we did last week

Two things on the same subject bothered me all week. My prices, I had probably 100 or more people tell me my menu prices are way to low for what I am offering (Yeah the second to the last thing I expected last week was to heat customers telling me they were paying too little) People started throwing tips into a coffee can on the sales table that was for straw wrappers and saying that makes it fair. Another probably 50 people told me the prices were insanely high and bought a drink and left. So I am working on getting the menu up on the T5R website (If you look at it I know I need to fix some things) but that is the menu I ran with last week minus the sweet tea, lemonade and sodas (.75 cents soda cans and .75 cents for a 16oz tea or lemonade) www.thunder5ranch.com

So what do the Monkeys think? Prices to low? Prices Fair and Right? or Prices to high? I have found in my time here that the Monkeys offer honest opinions on things and would appreciate those opinions on the menu and prices

The Pork and Poultry is all raised by me here on the farm, processed at a small (Yes legal and inspected) packing plant 10 miles from the farm. And everything is pasture bred, born, raised and finished. People keep telling me I should charge 2x more than I do for the pasture based meats alone, I disagree as it is cost considerably less to raise pasture livestock than it is to grain them in a barn or feedlot. I just can't do the volume on pasture that is done in confinements and feedlots. But that is neither here nor there and a whole different debate.

Some pics of the foods


And me exhausted on Friday evening and getting ready to tear the set up down and go home for some R&R. LOL friend and fellow vendor sneaked a picture of me pretty much asleep on my feet after market close time

 

Forgot to post a screenshot of the menu for folks that don't want to hit the link to the website

 

Seems a little low to me, but maybe I'm used to big city prices.....good for you doing your own business and makin' some good dinero!

 

LOL I set up a restaurant just under tents and with fans instead of brick and mortar with Air Conditioning and big overhead hehe and sorry no roach coach here I will leave that to the Snowflakes running infested hash wagons I have found Monkey opinions to be pretty much blunt and honest if not always sugar coated and kind.

But seriously I set up 12 tables with seating for 72 under the tents at the bigger market and 5 tables with seating for 30ish at the two smaller markets. Rigged up some ceiling fans that fit tight and secure in the tents and couple of ground fans. Keeps it fairly cool and discourages flies. Kitchen rolls off the back of the trailer in its own screened in tent with the to go ordering tent and drinks beside the kitchen tent. The trailer becomes the dishroom, freezer, refrigerator and dry storage for restocking cups and togo boxes. And the racks of plates and flatware. Aside from the generator problem Friday my 50 gallon potable water tank went dry but fortunately the Guy who owns the bar next to the market let me run 100 feet of hose to his spigot and refill the tank, going to have to find a solution to the running out of water problem at one of the other markets where there are not spigots or hydrants. Planning on hiring two wait staff for the dining tents, but wanted to see how things go the first Month before committing to more employees. Right now just me, Billy and Mrs. T5R running it.

 

Hell He'll at that price I could bring my whole family and save money.

And the food looks good also

 

If you have one of the joints at the County fair that sets up a big tent dining area beside the joint that would be most comparable to my set up.

 

If you get up this way stop in at the farm and we can eat and plink things with arrows and sling shots for entertainment Hehe and maybe even start some fires!

 

May take you up on that one day I plan to hunt that state after I hunt Colorado.

 

Glad to see your happy and profitable, a good business means good product you cannot have one without the other.

 

Oddly enough, when asked to provide what they feel is fair compensation for a product or service, people tend to overestimate unless it's an oddball item they can't readily make a comparison to something they are familiar with. It would be a great experiment. Of course, you'll get the small group of people that will take advantage. All you can do for them is smile and tell 'em to have a wonderful day. I'll bet you'd be even more surprised at the end of the day. Try it on a Sunday just to compare it to your previous few Sundays.

Oh, and those prices don't seem out of sorts for the setting it sounds like you're working in. Even out here in Big Sky country those prices seem fair. Things are on a trend to the more artsy fartsy though. You could bring in a millennial marketing consultant that'll really yuppify the place and bring in more of your 'favorite' clientele and they'll pay double! On second thought...maybe not.

Burger, chips & a beer at the outdoor functions out here is starting to approach the $8 range and that's not for the locally raised fair...we're talking a frozen patty on standard buns and domestic can of beer!

 

Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about all that profit. The government will make it a point to steal their portion of it, from you.

EDIT: My honest opinion on this is, the people will always let you know. If they are doing business with you, as they apparently are, they feel it is a value for the area where you are selling your products.

I resemble that statement!

Man, I really shouldn't have seen the pulled pork. NOW, I want to go back to the US. There are some things you just don't get as good, in SEA.

 

As someone who started out by working his main job(50-60hrs per week) all the side work he could get and throwing newspapers for the Rocky Mountain News and the Boulder Daily Camera to get his 1st business started let me say I understand all the work and hardships involved in running your own business. More importantly let me say how very happy and proud I am to be able to see your success! I mean that with every fibre of my being. This is one of the great American dreams, it's been my dream and I'm proud to see it's yours. I wish you much continued success Brother!

Now, as far as menu and prices go you're definitely on the low side for any larger populated area. If you threw out that kind of chin greasin' down here you'd have folks stacked up out the door and around the corner-esp with those prices. A pound of good pulled pork B Q down here will fetch $15.00 without sides other than sauce and bread. Your five dollar pulled pork meal will be at least $7.00 here.

BTW, do you overnight ship?

 

Internationally? Well, I figured I might as well jump on the bandwagon!

 

I looked at overnight shipping for the packaged meats at one point and by the time you buy the boxes and ice packs and figure the shipping cost , it ended up costing 2x more for the shipping than the product. When/if I get my beef jerky going again I might look at dry shipping it.......... LOL Asia I can't even imagine what overnight international shipping would cost!

 

First off, none of my advice is intended to overstep your policies or principles.

That being said:

A good hamburger in a decent restaurant costs $10.00 now, or more. A dinky little one is usually almost $5.00.

All of your sandwiches are top quality, well-prepared, and offered in generous portions. Most of them should be selling for
at least $9.50, less fries.

The plain hot dog should be $2.95. Or a foot-long for $3.59

Look at the burger prices in sit-down restaurants like Ruby Tuesday's, and Ouitback. Shoot for the same, less about a buck.

See: https://www.bostonmarket.com/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/restaurant/Tier 43.pdf

(It ain't the '50's anymore. The hamburger I could buy for $0.35 as a kid now costs $19.99.)

Don't forget that when you are crunching numbers, about $200.00 dollars a day should be counted as your pay for time served in the wagon. If you weren't doing the job, that's about what you would have to pay for quality help. (If you could find it.)

Pay yourself first, just like any other employee, and then count up the Company profits, afterward.

Pay and account the whole family the same way.

Chicken sandwiches should be priced right up alongside beef. It doesn't matter that chicken can cost $2.00 a pound in the store, and beef can cost $6.99 and up. That's irrelevant. The customer is buying a fixed-up meal, and is accustomed to paying a premium for the special low-fat meat.

Besides, it costs extra to pluck a chicken. If you even catch the damn thing.

If your ingredients are organic, make sure you have that fact prominently posted.

I've been in the food biz.

I found out early that every dime you lose to under-pricing costs you about a dollar in unpaid expenses. I also found out that you must be wiling to customize your prices according to the venue and wealth (and/or desperation) of your customers.

Prices at an air show should be higher than those at a county fair.

When other people are gouging the public shamelessly with $5.00 bottles of water, you should be gouging them mercifully with water that only costs $3.99 a bottle.

Likewise, never end you prices in zero cents. It should always be $0.49, $0.69, $0.99, etc. The public ignores the small change. And that can be the money that makes or breaks a food stand. Mix up the last number a bit to keep the prices from looking cloned.

You know, it's actually better to sell something for $4.99 than for $5.00. The fact that it costs a dollar less at the lower prices will increase sales.

You could probably use a sweet tooth item for the kids and sugar-lovers, too. Nut-free brownies are good. Gluten-free cookies can be good. Anything durable that you can make by the pan. At $1.50 each, every one is a whole new customer, and they'll boost drink sales too.

Ditto for a big bucket of chili. Check Wendy's prices.

Used to be, Wendy's charged 2X for a large chili, which had only 40% more chili than the small size. I think some market displeasure made them change that. (Translation: Lost profits)

If you don't have them already, you should have signs up that say "No Added MSG" and No Aspartame".

I'm, sure you have all the beverages covered.

People like to look around while they are waiting to be served--even if's it's only 30 seconds. You might want a few cutesy little signs around that say things like:

"Ain't nobody never died from eating my cookin', but there's some that'll swear they went to Heaven with the very first bite!"

Next sign:, hanging from the first by two hooks. "Of course, they come right back for another!"

(That's original, BTW so I hold the copyright. Use it freely and in good health if you wish.)

Anyhow, good luck with the food wagon. You've earned it.

 

I should get some video sometime, of them catching chickens here to prepare for us to eat. I assure you, I just sit in my chair (or lay in the hammock) and watch this go on. It's quite entertaining - especially because I am not the one doing it.

Oh, @Thunder5Ranch, if you go up on your prices, please wait until I get there and have at least one meal before you do! (I'm accustomed to paying lower prices, here in Cambodia!)