Maybe it happened at the movies. Or a concert. Or an amusement park. Or a sporting event.
Wherever it was, just about everyone has had the experience of walking up to the concessions stand, taking a look at the menu board and thinking:
You’ve got to be kidding me with these prices.
Whether it’s $10 nachos, a $12 hot dog or an $18 beer, these venues can charge more – sometimes far more – than you would pay at a grocery store or a restaurant down the road.
It’s capitalism in action. They can set higher prices because their customers are a captive audience.
If you’re attending a Bills game, waiting to catch a flight or visiting Six Flags Darien Lake it’s often not practical – or permissible – to get food somewhere else.
That’s obvious. What we wanted to try to find out is this: Which venues charge the highest – and lowest – prices to their confined customers? A team of Buffalo News reporters fanned out to a host of cultural, entertainment and travel-oriented venues to document their prices for food and drinks.
Some trends became clear.
• Artpark, the popular concert venue in Lewiston, had the lowest prices for concessions across the board. You can get a hot dog for $4 at Artpark, for example, while no other venue charged less than $6 and Highmark Stadium charged $12 for a footlong.
• Beer had the widest range in prices, though a lot depended on size and brand. A 12-ounce Sam Adams at the AMC Maple Ridge 8 cost $9, for example, while a 19-ounce craft beer at KeyBank Center went for $18.
• The combo deals offered by some venues can help bring down the cost – or push it to the upper limit. Applegreen, the operator of Thruway rest areas, was selling a roller hot dog and a 20-ounce pop for $5.99 at the Indian Castle travel plaza. However, Darien Lake’s combo of a slice of pepperoni pizza and two garlic bread sticks came in at $18.
• Darien Lake consistently was at or near the top for cost. Take Dippin’ Dots. At the Erie County Fair, Sahlen Field and AMC, the smallest serving cost between $6 and $6.50, while at the Buffalo Zoo it’s $9 and Darien Lake it’s $9.50. And nachos cost $4 at Artpark, $10 at Darien Lake and $12 at Highmark.
• Anchor Bar has locations at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport and Darien Lake. Not surprisingly, some food items we compared cost more than similar menu items at the original Anchor Bar in Buffalo. A Buffalo chicken salad, for example, cost $17 at the Main Street restaurant, $18.50 at the Darien Lake restaurant and $18.70 at the airport site.
‘It was a bit excessive’
Customers interviewed at the venues say they expect concessions to cost more at these kinds of venues, but the prices still can offer sticker shock.
Jessica Lyons, who was waiting at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport one day last month to catch a flight back to Philadelphia, had ordered a personal cheese pizza from Bocce Club Pizza there.
“I paid 15 dollars for it, and I had immediate regret,” Lyons said, laughing. “Just looking at it, that’s more of like a school cheese pizza, if you will. I would expect, maybe, better quality.”
She said she only stopped to grab something because she knew she could expense it to her employer.
“If I wasn’t traveling on my company’s dime, I wouldn’t be eating in the airport, period,” Lyons said. “Because I know the price I’m going to spend is not worth what I’m going to get back.”
A trip to the Buffalo Zoo on a recent August weekday cost $183 for a family of five. After spending $100 on admission, Silver Creek resident Christian Restivo spent another $83 on lunch for his family.
Kim and Chris Fredrich traveled just over an hour from their home in Canada to attend the Erie County Fair last month. They could have spent $44 on a slice of pizza and bottle of water for lunch for each family member. But the fair, unlike some other venues, allows guests to bring their own snacks.
“We usually eat dinner here and bring lunch,” Chris Fredrich said, motioning to jam-packed bags in his wheeled crate.
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Vendors defend pricing
Concessionaires say they are in a low-margin business and their prices reflect the costs of operating at these venues, where customers demand good food served quickly.
Delaware North has the concessions contracts for Highmark Stadium, KeyBank Center and the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, among numerous other venues around the globe.
“Unlike grocery stores, concessions pricing must account for venue-specific costs such as rent paid by the concessionaire,” Jamie Obletz, president of Delaware North Sportservice, said in response to emailed questions. “The pricing also reflects the convenience, speed and quality expected in a live entertainment setting, where guests are served in minutes.”
Obletz said prices are set in consultation with the venue owner. Delaware North does hear concerns about concession prices, but it ranks below product quality and speed of service among issues that generate customer feedback.
Delaware North and the Sabres are introducing a discounted value menu at KeyBank Center for full season ticket holders, who already receive a 25% discount on food, drinks and souvenirs at the team store. “These initiatives are designed to meet fan expectations while maintaining operational integrity,” Obletz said.
At Artpark, which is a nonprofit organization, food vendors pay the venue a nominal fee to sell their food on-site and then keep the money they make from food sales.
“The food is really just more of a service for the patron experience, not as a moneymaker for our park,” said Dave Wedekindt, Artpark president. “The beverage sales are an important piece of the business.”
Artpark handles its own beverage sales, offering nearly two dozen alcoholic options starting at $10 for wine. Artpark purposely keeps its pricing below the industry standard.
“We’re aware of our park’s position in the summer concert space that we are more of a value option,” Wedekindt said. “We’ve been very sensitive to that, certainly going back to the early years with much of (our events) being free or very low cost.”
‘But then they
get hungry’
So if consumers know they are overpaying for their hot dog at a football stadium or their beer at the big game, why do they do it?
“They might not like it. They might not admit it. They’ll actually say, ‘I’m not going to do that again,’” said Charles Lindsey, a marketing professor at the University at Buffalo School of Management. “But then they get hungry.”
The longer someone is part of a captive audience, the more likely they are to break down and buy something, Lindsey said, especially if they haven’t eaten beforehand.
That’s understandable when it comes to food and water. But what about beer?
“It’s an incontrovertible fact of life that when consumers − not all consumers, but a significant percentage − are locked into a venue and they can’t just drive 10 minutes and buy something more reasonably priced, they will break down and pay an extra $5 or $10 even though they don’t like it,” Lindsey said.
Psychological factors, like nostalgia and the desire to create new, happy memories, also come into play. For example, a consumer with fond childhood memories of attending a game with their parents may want to go all out and give their own child the full experience, Lindsey said.
And then there are all the typical marketing tricks to get consumers to buy more and pay more. There’s upselling (“A large is only $2 more!”), special pricing on limited-time commemorative items, such as a special popcorn bucket or refillable cup; and bundling, where items are bundled together into combo deals.
During a yacht rock show at Artpark this summer, concertgoer Brook Becker paid $8 for a can of Michelob Ultra beer.
Would she bring her own cooler stuffed with beer if she could? Yes, but …
“When you go to an event, you’re ready to spend some money,” she said. “And I think a few places take advantage of that, sure. But, whatever. I mean, you’re going out. It’s a fun night out. It’s the summer. You know you’re gonna spend money, so just be OK with it.”
News staff reporters Tim O’Shei and Natalie Hausmann contributed to this report.
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