Greetings,  

     I am an employee of the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown and will be opening a "vending shop" next to Starbucks just for everyone attending Gen-Con this year.  This will be available to everyone inside and outside the hotel.  Its been open the past few years (JKs Pizzaria if anyone rememebers) and its been moderately successful.  I just need help from you all to help me decide what kind of product to place in the store.  Usually its been pizzas, subs, and salads;chips, cookies, candy;various sodas (pepsi products) and i would like to add maybe different kinds of food, maybe get rid of existing items that will not be wanted, etc.  Any and all suggestions would be helpful and will effectively decide what will be available to you next week.  Thanks in advance! 

\m/ Old Gregg

Mountain Dew- Regular and Diet.

Made, are you the employee taking suggestions?

in fact

If so:

You need to order CASES of Bawls (pronouced "balls"), it's a caffienated soda that will sell like Hot Cakes.

Also, if possible get your hands on the Bawls root beer called G33k B33r.

madeofawesome:

Greetings,  

     I am an employee of the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown and will be opening a "vending shop" next to Starbucks just for everyone attending Gen-Con this year.  This will be available to everyone inside and outside the hotel.  Its been open the past few years (JKs Pizzaria if anyone rememebers) and its been moderately successful.  I just need help from you all to help me decide what kind of product to place in the store.  Usually its been pizzas, subs, and salads;chips, cookies, candy;various sodas (pepsi products) and i would like to add maybe different kinds of food, maybe get rid of existing items that will not be wanted, etc.  Any and all suggestions would be helpful and will effectively decide what will be available to you next week.  Thanks in advance! 

\m/ Old Greg  

Hello Greg!

Diet Soda. Coke, Pepsi, whatever. For the love of all that is good. Diet sodas are the hardest things to find ever at a convention. Also natural juices, not from concentrate or with added sugar.

Other than that, sandwitches, salads, and fruit would be optimal.

Hey madeofawesome, I'm glad to hear from you, and I wish more resturants would feel free to ask the gamers what they want. 

I think you can't go wrong with (and this has been mentioned before):

Bawls.  Seriously.  You WILL sell out of this.  Even if you have to personally go buy a few cases of this, I think the fact that you have Bawls would spread like wildfire through the Con and people would flock to the kiosk.

Jolt Cola.  Very popular with the gamers.

Mountain Dew.  Also very popular with the gamers.

Any caffineated gums/mints.  Sensing a trend here?

Pocky?:  That's a maybe, the favored treat of the anime crowd.  If you can get a good deal on it, I'd say, worth a shot.

What's funny is that I can't really have most of this, because I'm not supposed to have much caffeine.  Still, I'll probably sneak a Mountain Dew if you have them.

I also recommend super late hours, if not 24 hours.

Are you thinking of having hot food too, or just snacks and drinks?

If I recall correctly, they have had hot food like pizzas in the past. They were pretty decent, very decent when you consider the price. When I stayed at the Marriott I hit that place up a couple times for short lines and location to my room.

If you're referring to the starbucks in the Marriot Lobby then I know the place you are referring too. And I'd like to agree with Mari about late hours.

I work in an event called True Tavern, part of True Dungeon, on the second floor. We have runs starting as late as midnight I think, and people exiting out almost as late as 2am, and volunteers getting off that late.

So there will definitely be gamers in the marriot that late. And If you're open late, I'll be sure to spread the word to other volunteers that they can grab snacks/food quickly from you guys down stairs if they want to grab a bite to eat before calling it a night.

 We need Bawls, Ale-8-1, Indiana sourvineirs especially something about Hoosiers (not IU), and some ol' fashioned pizza.

Hmm......what do you guys think about nachos?  Like you get at the ballpark, with cheese.  Gamers love nachos, don't they?

 Nachos are good, Subs with much meat in them and also have veggiterrian items too and possbile vegan stuff as well as some Gluten free item.

Some are veggie lovers and the others cannot have wheat type of products allergies.

This maybe a hard one but if you pull it off - Chocolate bars - made in machinery that has never seen any nut whatso every (aka NUT FREE food )

I am not allergic but I know many are.  

marimacc,

     Thanks a lot for your suggestions.  Seriously they help a lot.  Being a gamer myself i was thrilled to be given the opp to run the "food outlet" this year as the previous years have been lacking in the general supply/demand formula.  Which is why im doing this!  You demand what you want, and ill supply it.  

-Yes there will be hot food items.  So far its just pizza but i was thinking something like burgers and hot dogs as well.  

 -Bawls has been confirmed to be a def.  However, being as how anything we dont sell we will be stuck with, we wont be carrying vast quantities of it this year.  Based on how well it sells this year, it will decide how much we carry next year. 

-The hours of opp havent been completely decided yet, but will probably 2pm or so to maybe 12am at the latest.  How well we do the first day will probably determine what hours we have the next few days.

any other suggestions or questions please let me know!  thanks again!

• Hoagies and subs
• Corn dogs
• French fries, onion rings (beer battered onion rings -- mmmm......), maybe even cheese curds
• Popcorn with assorted toppings
• Maybe an assortment of fruits and nuts. Trail mixes could be cool, too, as would different breakfast and snack bars

Natural snack options... that's a common trend these days and gamers like to pretend they're eating healthy, hehe.  The True North nut stuff comes to mind; they offer nuts, crackers, clusters and cruches.  Mrs. Mays also makes nut products like those.  Dried fruits, fruit chips, trail mixes, etc... things that we can easily carry in our bags or pockets to the next 4 hour slot of gaming and that won't be gone after 60 seconds.  Roasted and Salted Soy Beans are a current food I'm hooked on.  No sugar added products are something I find particularly appealing personally. 

Rbree:

Mountain Dew- Regular and Diet.

 

LOTS of MD in both varieties 

Definitely the Pizza's, Mt Dew, Subs and The burgers are a great idea. We have had the Pizza before and it was pretty good, good enough to get it several nights for dinner.

I second the idea fornuts etc...maybe a trail mix type snack.

I third the idea of at least healthy-appearing snacks like nuts and trail mix that you can eat and toss in your backpack. 

When you add together the number of people who want healthy food, plus those with diabetes and wheat allergies, you end up with a decent segment of the con population. 

I'd like a veggie option, maybe a mediterranean-type salad?  (Don't know what's possible, just throwing it out there.) 

Packages of snacks should do well as you can take them with you for the games.  Bulk foods like the burgers and pizza can help fill up a gamer in between the games.

I would watch out for a lot of finger foods though....dont' be getting your cheesy fingers all over my custom painted, autographed, one-of-a-kind mini or that super rare Red Lotus card.

And stock all the caffeine you can carry.