CLONE THIS IDEA
Concession Queen: Julie Rose

By Wendy Paris
Published: March/April 1996

Julie Rose always wanted to break into theater, but she never dreamed she'd do it with Toll House cookie bars. Rose, an aspiring musician and producer who worked part-time for a New York City caterer, had no interest in entrepreneurship. Then one day in 1986, the house manager at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in lincoln Center called the catering company and asked if they would like to run the theater's concession stand. When her employer turned the job down, Rose decided she might like to run the concession herself. After presenting her ideas to the house manager, she won the bid for the stand. The next thing she knew, she was in business and off to the theater.

Improving the sales performance in lincoln Center's 290seat theater wouldn't be too hard, thought Rose: "They were pulling in $10 to $15 a night pushing stale candy and soda." The real challenge would be covering costs and making a decent profit in the slivers of time before performances and during intermission. Rose had a total window of about 45 minutes to sell out her goods. Her strategy: provide an elegant presentation of sweets and savory baked goods. Before setting up shop, Rose called a baker friend for recipes and spent about $500 on eyecatching serving platters. Soon she was busy baking all day and selling all night. Within the first month, Rose was grossing $400 to $600 a week. Today her company, Sweet Concessions, serves gooey cookie bars, chocolate brownies, gourmet coffees, foccacia and other delicacies at seven theaters throughout Manhattan. Rose orders food two or three times a week to preserve freshness and minimize waste. She has stopped baking the confections herself.

Her staff now consists of four full-time and about 20 part-time employees. Counter staff are paid between $5 and $8 an hour for each five-hour shift; managers get up to $20 an hour. Employees set up, sell and then put away and clean the concession at the end of the evening. Rose pays theaters from 10 to 30 percent of her gross sales, but smaller theaters often consider the stand a service and won't take a cut at all. Her only other expenses are food costs and promotional materials, such as table cards, leaving her with net profits above 10 percent.

Rose says that upscale concession stands can work in other venues: bookstores, office buildings, retail stores, roller rinks, movie theaters. To get started, says Rose, "Go visit and see what they're doing now. Talk to em. ployees. Count the number of customers. learn everything you can." Then, she continues, find out who is in charge of concessions and call that person. Say, 'I can do better.' Just be really aggressive." Rose ought to know: Her sales last year topped $500,000.