Im negotiating with a client right now that wants me to do a smoothie bar for 1500 employees. She says the previous Smoothie caterer charged her 1350.00 (before & tax & grat) to do this last year. My question to the professionals here is does anyone believe that they could serve 1500 smoothies for $1350.00US? Now I dont know what size smoothie he served but having seen him do other events, I believe he usually does a 12oz drink & he was supposed to have served for a 6 hour period. That means he charged her .90 a drink. Is there a smoothie out there that someone could make a profit on by selling a 12oz for .90? I know my smoothie would run me about .95 for a 12oz drink (not including cup & ice) I dont believe the client is trying to lie to me (she might be fudging the numbers a little fishing for a better price) but I wouldnt put it past the other company to have fleeced her. They could have said they would be prepared to serve 1500 while only serving 500 or even just serving little bitty cups, who knows. Oh yeah, she also said he only had 1 bar (and I would guess knowing him, 1 person working that bar) I dont see how he could have served 1500 people out of 1 bar without just having a huge line all day long.
I've catered cappuccino bars & frozen cappuccinos bars for large groups before, Ive done festivals where I've served 1500 people before, I've had plenty of gigs with large groups of people. I just dont see how they could have managed this with 1 bar & only charging 1350.00. Am I totally wrong here?
Mitch
Bella Caffe Fine Coffee & Espresso Catering
Memphis, TN
Replies