The Waterboy

After 20 years of selling nothing but Bud or Miller at Twins games, the summer outdoor atmosphere of Target Field has presented a couple of opportunities to vend a different product. On the warmest and sunniest of day games, nothing sells better than Ice Cold Water. Bottled Aquafina.

Beer just doesn’t sell well to fans sitting in the sun and 95 degree heat. Fans cannot actually continue drinking beer at a partying pace when it is that hot. Water outsells beer at those games.

I have passed on the beer ticket and sold H2O twice so far this year, and it has worked out better than selling beer. Besides, it is so easy to sell bottled water.

No ID’s needed.
No caps to remove.
No cutting people off if they have had too many.

I just break the seal on the cap and hand it out. I can sell to 7 year olds and 70 year olds. It’s almost as refreshing to sell, as it must be for fans to drink.

Vending is all about marketing. With beer, the chant from most vendors is, “Beer Here!” Simple and to the point. People want "beer", and “here” is where they get it.

With water, I have discovered a new phrase… I present this thought in fans’ minds that they “need” to drink water. The sun is heating them up, they are thirsty and slightly uncomfortable, and everyone knows that water is what you need to survive. I will walk down an aisle and almost make a plea for people to pay attention.

“Who NEEDS Water?? Who is thirsty??”

I add almost this desperate tone on the word “needs”. It puts this thought in fans minds, that I might be right and they may not survive 9 innings without the water I am selling. I never even mention Aquafina because it really isn’t important. I could be selling Minneapolis city water and it would make no difference, because... People NEED it.

I see hands go up, and it becomes infectious. People actually say to me when purchasing, “Yeah, we need water here”, sounding almost grateful for the opportunity to hand over $4 for a bottle.

Sure, I get grief from a lot of my regulars about selling water, but even they will buy one when they get too hot.

So don’t be surprised if you see me selling water at games on those hot days. After all, I am just trying to distribute the thirst quenching liquid that people need the most at that particular game. Some days it is beer, and some days it is water.

3-Game Homestand

This weekend has been odd at Target Field. Usually MLB likes to schedule more than 1 series for a team on the road or at home. Six or seven-game homestands are typical. Saves on travel expenses. This year we actually have six 9-game homestands. Those get long.

Spanning over a week, these can really disrupt a schedule. Most vendors have regular jobs, so it is usually 8 hours at that during the week & then come in to Target Field for another 3-5 hours. Then, you really don’t get a weekend to enjoy either. There is a game right in the middle of Sunday, and both Friday and Saturday evenings are shot.

Every once in a while, there is a 12+ game homestand where the Twins have 4 series with different teams before going on the road, but it is becoming more rare. We all were sitting around reminiscing (at the bar after a game, of course) about the longest homestand anyone can remember, and it was either a 14 or 15-game marathon back in the early 90’s at Metrodome. Over 2 weeks of games. There was a big party at the end of that one.

This weekend has been a breeze - a 3-game homestand.

Couldn’t happen at a better time. The Twins play 17 of 20 games on the road with this little series dotted right in the middle. During the best days of summer, too. A little bit of “freedom” to actually get to enjoy July and August.

Couldn’t happen to a better team, too. Seattle. Typically, the Mariners are not a great draw. Not like the Yankees, Red Sox, or any Central team. Seattle is probably in the bottom 3 or 4 teams in the AL for bringing in a good beer-drinking crowd.

At least some of the regular fans probably looked at the schedule and thought, “The Twins are out of town for 2 weeks except for these 3 games with Seattle… We better go.” Made for a surprisingly good little homestand this weekend.

Now for another 10 days off. I’ll take it.

Pitching Match-ups

Saturday, July 17, 2010 (Twins vs. White Sox)
Pavano vs. Buehrle
Time of game: 1 hour and 52 minutes
9 cases of beer sold

Monday, July 19, 2010 (Twins vs. Indians)
Baker vs. Laffey
Time of game: 3 hours and 54 minutes
10.25 cases of beer sold

So for the extra 2 hours and 2 minutes of work, I made an extra 30 bucks. $15 per hour is lousy money when it comes to climbing stairs. I think every beer vendor would prefer Saturday’s game over Monday’s even though we all made less money. We are about efficiency and not greed.

Sales per hour is key, or better yet… Sales per STEP.

As a beer vendor, I look at the pitching match-ups to see what I am in for that evening. This year, Pavano and Liriano have potential for a fast game. Baker and Slowey mean... settle in for a long evening. Blackburn has been OK at home, but he has "turtle potential".

Beer vendors like the strikout guys and despise contact pitchers. Santana was awesome, Radke just made me work harder.

Then it is always nice to see an Ace pitching for the other team. David Price and Josh Beckett are always better to see in the lineup than Wade Davis and Tim Wakefield.

Bring on a pitchers' dual and maximize my "beer per stair" ratio.

Warm Beer HERE!

There is nothing worse for a beer vendor than bottles that come out of the “cooler” at about 60 degrees. Unfortunately that is what happened tonight at Target Field.

Last I checked, beer was best served ICE COLD… especially on a hot summer night.

It was a perfect night for baseball… 83 degrees at game time, and the beer, as it was handed to me out of the fridge was only about 25 degrees cooler than the air temperature.

NOT very refreshing!

This makes a beer vendor’s job 10 times harder. Sure, we carry ice 90% of the time on the beer, but usually it is only necessary to carry a small layer to drop the beer a little closer to the freezing point.

Tonight we had to pile on the ice. 10-20 pounds extra per tray. Usually a fully loaded tray before ice is about 50-60 pounds, tonight is was closer to 70 lbs. But, this does lower the temp of the beer about 20 degrees in about 10 minutes.

Proper product rotation was also important tonight. Grab the coldest ones, move the other beers over and hopefully by the time it got to the customer, it had reached a “pleasant” temp of about 40 degrees.

Tolerable on a warm day, but not providing that “aaaah” feeling that most casual beer drinkers are looking for. That temp where my customer takes their first sip, and says, “Oh yeah, that hits the spot”, and cannot wait to order the next one.

I want to sell beer that is as refreshing as that Coke was to Mean Joe Greene in the 70’s commercial where he threw his shirt to the kid (“Hey kid… Catch!)

We all did our best tonight. Everyone from management to vendors to stand managers and preps were icing the beer as early as possible to get it to cool down by the time it got to the customer. …and we succeeded, sort of.

Tomorrow, the forecast is for 91 degrees with a 70 degree dewpoint. Let’s hope the beer starts out colder so it can be ultra-refreshing in the heat of the day.

The Beer Vendors' Prayer

“Please let me sell lots of Beer,
and please let it be a fast game.”

People would think that every beer vendor wants to have a long game so there is an extended opportunity for people to drink/buy more. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Believe it or not, most fans have decided how many beers they can have at the game even before they walk through the gate. It seems fans come in with a set amount of money that they are going to spend… and they are going to spend this amount whether the game is 90 minutes long or a 3 hour and 40 minute marathon.

There are games when a beerman feels like he has been with the same case long enough to develop a personal relationship with each individual bottle. (Don’t worry, I ice every case to keep it cold.)

All beer vendors want to sell as many beers as possible at every game, but there is something each wishes for…

“The Fast Game.”

The 3 hour + game is brutal. Fans are nursing beers in the 5th and 6th just waiting for “last call” so they can have 1 more and either:

A. still drive home, or
B. leave a few dollars in their wallet for the next day

The last 2 nights have had games hovering around a 2 hour pace for the first 7 innings. These are a blessing when you are on game 5 of a 9 game homestand.

MLB is talking about replay and other changes that may lengthen a game. I say “No WAY!”

Keep the games moving. Tomorrow that 3 hour and 20 minute game may seem like a marathon.

If anyone would like to disagree… go to your local fitness club, get on the stairmaster, set it for 180 minutes and call me when the screen reads, “goal achieved”.

Are we there yet?

6 games into a 9 game homestand, and I am just wiped out. I think all vendors are looking forward to Sunday Night. We all seem to need a break and some time away. 3 more games to go.

Reminds me of a time in the early 90's where we had a 15 game homestand. It was 15 games in 17 days. I cannot imagine doing that now. If I remember right, there was quite a party after the final game.

The "Walk Around"

It rained tonight… then it poured tonight and the grounds crew pulled the tarp out and sent us waiting for 90 minutes.

Funny thing happens in a rain delay. About 35,000 people head to the concourse with the same idea. The conversation goes something like this:

Fan #1: “Hey buddy, what do you want to do now that there is a delay?”

Fan #2: “Oh I don’t know, but we don’t want to stay here and get soaked.”

Fan #1: “Well why don’t we head up to the concourse and walk around…”

Two dreaded words spoken by too many people… “Walk Around”

This starts a scene that is vaguely similar to how many college students will fit in this Volkswagen? In a matter of minutes there are 25,000 fans in an area made to hold about 5,000. Some going left and some going right. (Halftime at a football game is exactly the same way.)

This “walk around” is completely unproductive and creates something more like cattle being herded into a stockyard for slaughter. There are many wide open spaces at Target Field, but eventually people are channeled through several narrow hallways in certain areas. And it can get ugly.

A Beerman can see it firsthand. Some people get in line for food, some get in line for the bathroom, some keep moving, and there are even a few that decide they must stop their group right in the middle of this zoo to have a conversation. Each one of these lines and mobs creates more congestion, which leads to less “walking around” and more “being stuck in one spot”.

My advice… Instead of a “walk around” on the next rain delay, find a nice beer vendor to stand next to and chat with until you need your next beer. At least you won’t be stuck in the crowd without that Bud Light.