Boston Red Sox fans have been there before. You’re sitting in your seat at Fenway Park, looking for a yellow-shirted person selling hot dogs or beer or pizza, and it feels like the snack you want hasn’t been in your section for the last three innings.
And that’s because they have a strategy.
A recent episode of NPR’s “Planet Money” podcast titled “Peanuts and Cracker Jack” followed a couple of Fenway Park concessions vendors around on a cold April night to check out the tricks of their trade. And as it turns out, there are a lot of them.
“Planet Money” hosts Robert Smith and Nick Fountain, who actually was a Fenway vendor himself, focused on vendor Jose Magrass, who has been the No. 1 seller a few years running. Vendors draft the items and sections they want to sell in based on seniority, and even though Magrass has the 20th pick, there’s a science behind his selection.
Magrass factors in the weather, of course — it’s hard to sell cold items in April, for example — but the section he chooses matters, too.
“Hot dogs out of home, pizza in the bleachers — because they’re sizing up their customers by how much they paid for their baseball tickets,” Fountain said, via Boston.com. “When I was working there, Diet Coke sold really well around home plate because, you know, that’s where the vain people sit. Coke, regular Coke, sold much better in the bleachers.”
The podcast is interesting and well worth 20 minutes of your time, so if you want to give it a listen, just check out the link below.
Click to hear “Peanuts and Cracker Jack” by NPR’s “Planet Money”>>
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
