It is time for the business of the activity to evolve

[Jeff Ream]

15 hours ago, PamahoNow said:

Didn't BD, SVC and Cadets have 1 company taking over the Souvie business this year?  (I could be wrong here.)

And if I am right, their combined Booth was dwarfed by the one for the Bluecoats.

and to be honest, the merch was meh

[Jeff Ream]

2 hours ago, MikeRapp said:

What does this mean?

it means that if only one corps was at a show, the set up still included everything for all 4 corps.

[MikeRapp]

8 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

it means that if only one corps was at a show, the set up still included everything for all 4 corps.

Hm. And the other three were unmanned? That seems...odd. Law of unintended consequences.

[MikeRapp]

I wonder if that was the deal, that you can’t crash someone else’s show.

[E3D]

On 8/22/2019 at 10:34 AM, cybersnyder said:

Nike pays to get the NFL jersey contract, because butts in the stand want to wear the same thing and will pay $150 for a jersey. I'm not going to wear a SCV uniform or any other uniform ever. As far as bidding out food supplies, you could try that, but you're effectively 22 taco trucks and 24 smaller taco trucks that are only in operation for a few months out of the year. You will not get much better pricing than at Costco, but it's probably worth a shot. Purchasing would be centralized (and billing). I would not want to be responsible for paying the bill and collecting funds from the 46 corps to cover the bill. I think that part would kill any group purchases. 

that's a lot of TACO's not just on Taco Tuesday brah. 

[MikeRapp]

The food truck idea is not a bad idea. There are risks for the vendors but also rewards. If some money was put in escrow to fund it, it could work. I mean just look at the costs that every corps has to carry to feed its members—it’s incredible, really. 

[garfield]

10 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

and to be honest, the merch was meh

It really was!  I tried REALLY hard to buy something that I didn't already have and I couldn't.  

 

[garfield]

13 minutes ago, MikeRapp said:

The food truck idea is not a bad idea. There are risks for the vendors but also rewards. If some money was put in escrow to fund it, it could work. I mean just look at the costs that every corps has to carry to feed its members—it’s incredible, really. 

It's about $6/kid actually.  Problem is that a decent meal at a food truck is more than that and the staff can't control what each is eating.

I ran food trucks at our show for four years and it got better and better as we learned what foods would sell best and vendors learned about our crowds and HOW they eat, not just WHAT they eat.  If there was some standardization in meals that corps could count on, at least giving the cooks a night off is well worthwhile.  But it also means kids need money to spend.

 

Edited August 26, 2019 by garfield

[Jeff Ream]

2 hours ago, MikeRapp said:

Hm. And the other three were unmanned? That seems...odd. Law of unintended consequences.

it's one big tent, and had the merch from 4 corps in it. they have people there versed in every item for sale regardless of corps

[garfield]

I don't know who brought up the food/food truck idea but couldn't we just consider a national food contract with, say, Sysco Foods or a competitor to deliver food to the drum corps on particular days during camps, spring training, and the tour?  Also, just about every town has a fresh fruit distributor and/or a Sam's Club or Costco to get bulk fresh fruit and veggies.  I delivered pallets of the stuff to PC when they were in town years ago.  Even if it means a driver from the tour crew makes the run like they do now, only the availability and purchasing would be centrally coordinated and priced.  Most wholesale fruit companies have city-wide delivery and are set up perfectly to deliver bulk fresh.

It doesn't have to be complicated and one person's logistics software could handle it all (I'd bet Sysco already uses such) and all orders and deliveries could be coordinated through the DCI office.  

It does require the corps to fund a person to coordinate the effort in home office, but using a corps' food volunteers to do other tasks while DCI takes care of food is accretive to the corps' bottom line anyway.