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How does everyone forecast for big events like the Super Bowl?

M

Mike

New member
We’ve been trying to figure out how much dough and wings we’ll need on hand for the Super Bowl this Sunday. Usually, we’ll just use numbers from the past couple years to figure out a ball park of how much we’ll need. However, we’re in the Philly area and don’t have any idea how much busier it will be since the Eagles will be playing. We’ve had normal Super Bowl level sales numbers for the 2 Eagles playoff games this year; having a hard time trying to figure out how many cases of wings to order 🙂

Just curious how others forecast for special events.
 
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When our local college has played for a football or basketball national championship we have been busier than ever before. Our plan going into days like this is that labor will be the limit of our sales, not product. We fill every dough tray we have and likely will be making more dough before dayshift ends. We bring in enough product to fill our walk in floor to ceiling, fill our freezer to the limit and dry goods are stacked floor to ceiling. My suggestion is bring in as much product as you can possibly use without anything spoiling if you just have a normal Super Bowl Sunday. Keep in mind that if Philly wins, the celebration will not end Sunday night. Your Monday and even Tuesday are likely to be much bigger than normal if they win. If the Eagles lose and it’s not a busy Super Bowl Sunday, you might wind up throwing out some dough, but that’s not a significant expense compared to the added revenue if they win and you have enough product ready to triple last years Super Bowl. If I was in your shoes, I would be trying to bring in old employees, friends and family to help out in case they win. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 
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I cant even say what happened when the Cubs were in the World Series. It was all a blur. yes, prep everything you can, all hands on deck, and hope for the best.
 
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Not sure how long you have been open but we base most every event day on the prior year. We break it down by the hour. On the west coast we get busy at 1PM and have full staff at that point. I’m downgrading this year as we have been slower on Sundays this entire season.
 
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Thanks everyone! I’ll let you know how it goes…

This is our 40th year in business. My dad started the business, I’ve only been here for 13 years and don’t have any daily sales data from before 2006; so no data on the Eagles super bowl.

I’m going to expect 50% more than the average super bowl like bodegahwy says he’s experienced; I’ll plan for 75% more. We’ll make a ton of dough. I’m a little worried about the wings because we use fresh wings and I don’t want to run out or have a ton left over. I’ll probably just have to freeze some
 
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paul7979 said:
When our local college has played for a football or basketball national championship we have been busier than ever before. Our plan going into days like this is that labor will be the limit of our sales, not product. We fill every dough tray we have and likely will be making more dough before dayshift ends. We bring in enough product to fill our walk in floor to ceiling, fill our freezer to the limit and dry goods are stacked floor to ceiling. My suggestion is bring in as much product as you can possibly use without anything spoiling if you just have a normal Super Bowl Sunday. Keep in mind that if Philly wins, the celebration will not end Sunday night. Your Monday and even Tuesday are likely to be much bigger than normal if they win. If the Eagles lose and it’s not a busy Super Bowl Sunday, you might wind up throwing out some dough, but that’s not a significant expense compared to the added revenue if they win and you have enough product ready to triple last years Super Bowl. If I was in your shoes, I would be trying to bring in old employees, friends and family to help out in case they win. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
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Thanks Paul. I didn’t think about the days following a win being busier too. I’ve been surprised at how many extra employees are willing to come in. I told a bunch of them that if they come in they can leave at kick off, it always seems to die off when the game starts
 
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I’m not sure what time you close but I imagine that if Philly wins you might be quite busy afterward. We’re in a college town and open till 4AM and when our local team wins a championship our late night hours are the busiest hours we have ever had. Good luck, and as I asked above, let us know how it goes.
 
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We are busiest just before game time but get another rush f0r half-time. Pretty much over after that.
 
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Same here in the philly area as well. I’m gonna prep for almost double last years sales. Problem is all the orders are for 5:30-6pm pre orders.

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riverside90 said:
Same here in the philly area as well. I’m gonna prep for almost double last years sales. Problem is all the orders are for 5:30-6pm pre orders.

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Where about in the philly area? I wonder if we’re competing 😉
 
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Mike said:
We’ve been trying to figure out how much dough and wings we’ll need on hand for the Super Bowl this Sunday. Usually, we’ll just use numbers from the past couple years to figure out a ball park of how much we’ll need. However, we’re in the Philly area and don’t have any idea how much busier it will be since the Eagles will be playing. We’ve had normal Super Bowl level sales numbers for the 2 Eagles playoff games this year; having a hard time trying to figure out how many cases of wings to order 🙂

Just curious how others forecast for special events.
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So how did it go? Are you still doing dishes, or are you just passed out on your desk?
 
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Did about 20% more than expected. We had 80% of our total for the day done before half-time. Pretty smooth overall but our delivery times were in the 45 minute range during the first 1/4 of the game. Before and after that we were good.
 
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We did 10% more then last year. Expected more but better be over prepared.

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We were 8% down over last year. Actually this is the 3rd straight year decreasing sales on Super Bowl Sunday (overall sales are not decreasing). My guess is the protests might have something to do with it. Plus, we are about 45 mins south of Cleveland. So we don’t have a professional football team in the area 😉
 
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We were able to pull off a 27% increase over last year. That’s after being down somewhat every Sunday for the season. Hopefully football is back to normal next year. I did enjoy the 30% drop in wing prices last fall. [emoji3]

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