Creativity, Technology, and Flexibility Among Keys to Expense Management Today
Two of the biggest ticket line item expenses for parks and attractions are labor and cost of goods. Pandemic-era hiring and supply-chain challenges have led to wage inflation and higher prices for merchandise, materials, and supplies. That’s why it’s especially important to control costs and develop strategies as we cope with and emerge from COVID-19.
“Operating expenses continue to rise every day, eroding profit margins,” said Doug Hemphill, director of culinary services for Six Flags Entertainment. He was joined by Tina Griffith, director of food services for Traders Village, and Jeremy Hoyum, senior vice president of park performance for Urban Air Adventure Parks, at the education session, “Creative Expense Management Strategies in a Strained Market.”
Hoyum said parks and attractions must find the middle ground of creating the best possible experience with the reality of where we are now. “Don’t go on autopilot,” he stressed. “Make micro-adjustments to get where you need to be.” For example, Hoyum said that Urban Air is lucky on some days if one or two employees show up in their kitchens. Customers, however, are arriving in droves. One solution is to simplify food menus and focus on the highest volume items. “You want to maximize output with less people,” he said.
To help grab and retain employees, Griffith said she tries to make the work experience more fun. “We can’t treat our employees as a commodity,” she noted. “We need to treat them as people we really need.”
Increasing wages is one solution, but it may not be as important as we believe. Instead, Griffith focuses on low-cost/no-cost strategies, such as allowing even part-time employees to accrue vacation time. She also hands out popsicles to team members on hot, humid days and hot chocolate when it is cold. “It’s the little things that are going to have the biggest impact for you,” Griffith said.
Griffith said she is more tolerant of employee behavior now, as well. “I am a lot more flexible than I used to be,” she added. “I think we are also training our customers to be more flexible.”
Six Flags’ Hemphill focused on the many ways that evolving technology and automation can help food and beverage do more with less employees. These included self-service and contactless food ordering, both at kiosks and via mobile apps. The park chain is seeing higher per-capita spending when guests order their own food, he said. Other innovations he discused included QR codes in place of menus, ghost kitchens, pop-up restaurants in under-utilized areas of the parks, the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips in self-service drink dispensers, and food lockers. Hemphill also reviewed kitchen automation solutions, such as pizza assembly robots.
Hoyum believes that one of the good things that came out of the pandemic was that industry members were forced to look at the things that were sometimes taken for granted. As the pandemic wanes, that can pay dividends for the future. “I think through these systems and technologies, we are going to see that we can exponentially grow our capabilities,” he said.