I have run the concession stand for the past 2 years for our high school city sectional swim meets. I try to pick healthier foods, since it is the swimming world and most swimmers are fairly health conscious. The most popular items are hot pretzel w/ cheese, hot dogs, taco boats (chips, cheese, taco meat, lettuce, sour cream, jalapenos, etc) jumbo muffins (any time of day) (bannana nut, chocolate & blueberry) (Sam's Club muffins in their bakery freshly made in six packs). Banannas, YOGURTS!, bagged red and green grapes, Carrots & Dip and also Celery & PB are huge sellers. On a sweeter note, I also get parents to make baked goods like brownies, chocolate scotcheroos, and we cut them up and put them on a plate with a set of pinchers & small paper plates next to them and people help themselves....big seller because it is right in front of them "teasing" them. Fruit snacks, in small packs, are also a big seller. We sell them for .25 each because a lot of times kids only have a small amount of money and are looking for a snack that their last quarter will buy. Sour Punch Straws are, by far, our biggest "candy" seller. We sell them $1 each pack.

I'm always looking for new and fun ideas, too. Enjoyed reading the replies. I help run a concession stand at various times throughout the school year. I have been trying to find healthy ideas. One item that I have had great results with is apple slices with caramel. I sell out every time! I use the same containers as nachos and use one of the pampered chef apple slicers to cut the apples. The caramel goes into the little part of the nacho container and I slice the apple right before they buy it so it doesn't turn brown. I have seen people do the same thing with ranch dressing and carrots.

We sell hotdogs, frito pie, nachos, chili dog, cheesy dog. These only takes one crock pot of cheese and one crock pot of chili and of course, the hotdogs. You can interchange the sauces to come up with different things. We just added pretzels from sams that come with cinnamon sugar and salt. It gets warmed for 30 sec in the microwave. Sometimes people would order it with cheese. Next week we decided to add statefair corndogs from sam's. They are great fried, baked or microwaved. You can even serve them with cheese or chili if you like. We also sell all the major candies, sodas, chips, pickles and jerkies. For the little kids..otis spunkmeyer muffins, comes in a variety of flavors. Good Luck

We have a mostly Hispanic population, and we serve corn in a cup. We buy the gallons of canned corn at Sam's and warm it in a turkey roaster. We serve it in a 10 oz Styrofoam cup with mayonnaise or Mexican Crema(sour cream), Parmesan cheese, chili powder, and lemon juice...with a spoon. It is delicious and we go through 12 + gallons at any given event!

We manage a high school concessions stand at football/track meets. Salt potatoes, chili, ziti and donated burritos are very popular. Peanuts in the shell, in a small bag, left in the warmer are popular on a cold football night, pickles are popular - I love the pickle cicle idea - I can't believe it is so popular. don't know if upstat new yorkers will appreciate such a thing!! Having whole friut on hand is popular, too. Cold sliced pineapple, grapes and other bite size fruit cut up in a bag to go is popular during hot events. Hot cocoa is a must during football games and airheads and skittles are the most popular candy! Nationwide it seems!
kalay

I'm suprised no one has mentioned "Cup 'o Noodles". They are an "on demand" item (since you just add hot water) which means you're not throwing any leftovers out at the end of the day. Kids and adults alike LOVE them, especially on a cold day. They are cheap, less than 30 cents each at Wal-Mart and they're an easy sell at $2.00 each. Huge profit margin.

We also offer hot apple cider. We buy the instant powder mix at one of the local wholesale clubs (BJ's, Sams, etc...) and sell them for $1.00 each. Again just add hot water and no leftovers to throw away, and a significant profit margin.