Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Concession Yield Formulas

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Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 01-01-2002, 08:32 PM:

Concession Yield Formulas

We have trying to do some analysis lately with concessions. Does anyone have any good ways to figure out concession yields? I am trying to figure out how much oil we are using per bag of corn and how much salt and how much butter we are using per bag of popcorn. I know some of you have formulas you use to figure out the yields.

Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 01-01-2002, 09:43 PM:

Ian, I did some serious research on this when I was a DM, trying to get realistic figures and maximize yields. The pop-out ratios given by the popcorn growers are totally unrealistic.

Quoting myself from Jeff Knoll's old forum:

In a Cretor's 20 oz kettle, we found the true pop-out of a bag of corn rated at 70 was more like 22! The difference? Instead of using the tube measurement, we put the corn in the bags being used to serve the customers.

The tube measurement is not real world, but only a comparison.

Some other factors that were a surprise-

Every bag is labelled with a nominal capacity. Sometimes the capacity is based on the bag being opened to a rectangular shape. Ever see a rectangular bag of corn? They tend towards cylindrical. You might want to do some testing of your own. We found that one of the smaller bags held half again as much corn as it was labelled for.

Oil. The more oil you use, the lower the pop-out ratio. We found that 6 oz of oil was the best amount to cook the 20 oz of corn evenly and not shrink the yield. Using 8 oz substantially reduced the pop-out.

Factors like this can increase your popcorn costs, and too much oil can make customers shy away from your corn because of smaller, greasy kernels.

The only way to get a handle on popcorn yields is to do some tests using your equipment, your product, and your containers. You should be able to get some valid figures with as few as three or four batches of corn, and it doesn't take long at all.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 01-01-2002, 11:12 PM:

A few years ago, I did an analysis on three theaters in my area and came up with these numbers:

code:


                         3-plex    6-plex    20-plex    average
lbs corn : lbs oil        1.9:1     2.6:1     3.4:1      3.07:1
lbs corn : lbs butter     5.0:1     4.5:1     6.5:1      5.89:1

In my opinion, the three-plex had wet, nasty popcorn. The six-plex had tasty popcorn, but the customers liked to drown it in butter. The 20-plex had dry popcorn and charged extra for more than a couple of squirts of butter on the top.

IIRC, the target numbers were 3:1 for oil and 5:1 for butter.

I didn't analyze salt because these theaters didn't order it enough to get a good result. I would have had to analyze about 7 years of data to get a good number. Besides, it was common practice to use salt to soak up spilled coconut oil, for some reason.

Posted by Kyle Abel (Member # 819) on 01-02-2002, 04:01 AM:

Cretors recommends a 3:1 ratio for their kettles, and that's how my poppers are set, so I use the 3:1. I use a 15:1 ratio for my corn to butter topping. Although, in the past few years, I've noticed people using less and less butter. Maybe it's a regional thing...who knows? As for the salt, I use 1/8 cup for my 32 oz kettels, so I would say a 32:1 ratio for the salt.

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Kyle Abel
General Manager
Plano Movies 10