A High School Concession Stand and Their Commercial Deep Fryer

I have just started working at the high school concessional stand and I have a few questions about our commercial deep fryer for you. What type of oil should I be using in the commercial deep fryer, how long does it last and how often do I need to change it?

There are two main food items that are typically used in commercial deep fryers—oil and shortening. The stable oils used in most fryers can last up to 100 hours, meaning that you don't have to change the oil each and every day after use, like you might with a home fryer. In fact, depending on how many batches you do each day in your commercial deep fryer, you may go through all the oil and actually have to add more to it.

Shortening comes in tubs or bricks and quickly melts down to a liquid for frying purposes. Using shortening in commercial deep fryers used to be very popular because once the shortening melts down, it can last from 200 to 300 hours—2-3x as long as oil. This means you get just as many batches out of it without it having to be changed as often. Shortening is not used as much now, however, because it is so high in fat and calories. Now, most restaurants opt for healthier fry oils like vegetable, canola, and the like. Which type you would use in your commercial fryer would depend on what you are frying and if you are trying to save fat and calories or not.

Typically, if you do 50 large batches of food, such as fries in a commercial deep fryer, you would be short four pounds of oil. This is because some of the oil from the fryer does absorb into the food, even if you drain it. Let's say you started your day with a fryer that holds 20 gallons. After fifty batches, 1/5th of your oil would be gone and need to be replaced.

VGS Golf & Country Club Supply has customers in Orlando, Florida, Washington DC, Knoxville, Tennessee, Louisville Kentucky, Birmingham, Alabama, Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois, Hartford, CT, Glendale, Arizona, Long Beach, California, Sante Fe, New Mexico and Salt Lake City, Utah.

Retail Sales Planogram

Having a background in food and beverage, I am trying to learn as much as I can about the golf operations side of the business. Can you talk about a retail sales planogram? I would like to know such things as: What is a retail planogram, can you use this in a golf shop and how often should it change?

A golf shop planogram will contain useful information such as where the most popular brands of a certain product will be placed as well as show you the quantity variations of a certain product. For example, if you have a staple best seller you may not want it front and center as you know people will go to find it. This will allow you to feature another brand that may have a better margin associated with it.

The planogram my staff develops will tell us what we should stock and which sizes/colors work best for our store; recommend merchandising tactics like how much space we should allocate to each product; offer insights into the type of customers that buy the products and their motivation for buying; and offer ideal store layouts based on this information. We come up with a seasonal planogram. This meaning we develop four in a year to change the look of our golf shop quarterly. Depending on the type of facility you are at you may need more or you may need less depending on your traffic and what type of traffic it is.

Using the information can really help a country club golf shop or retail golf shop to identify which are the best products to stock from each category and to improve the layouts and merchandising to its members and guests. This will result in mire sales, a better bottom line and most importantly happy members.

VGS Golf & Country Club Supply has customers in Vero Beach Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Scottsdale, Arizona, Denver, Colorado, Dallas, TX, Memphis, Tennessee, Rockville Maryland, Boston, MA, Birmingham, Alabama, San Diego, California, Park City, Utah, Des Moines, Iowa, Raleigh, North Carolina and Cleveland, Ohio.

13 Reasons To Purchase A Launch Monitor For You And Your Facility

With all of the technology and information available to the general golfing public about golf shafts, ball speed, launch conditions, implementing a launch monitor as a regular piece of your teaching equipment is a must. Here are thirteen reasons why

1. Track the improvement of your students golf swing by being able to establish a baseline skill assessment.
2. The gathered calculations by the launch monitor will validate if the equipment that the student is using in accordance with the student’s skill level by using stats such as the launch angle as well as the spin rate.
3. Your students can refine their short game distance control & consistency and master their 1/2 and 3/4 wedge shots by using the golf ball launch monitors.
4. Your students will be able to improve their distance control and consistency with their driver as well as their iron by properly gapping their clubs.
5. With the information you will be able to identify improvement areas along with your students. 6. Track the improvement of your students ball striking efficiency as well as the solidness of hit with virtually every club in your bag.
7. Give your on-course playing lessons the extra touch by using the portable launch monitor for on-course playing lessons and to better understand course management.
8. Relate to the club head at impact to actual ball flight to help your student better understand the instruction.
9. Use the ball flight monitor indoors or outdoors as well as in all weather conditions.
10. Use many launch monitors off of the natural turf or driving range mats.
11. Many units work on rechargeable batteries or AC power.
12. The units are accurate from 20 to 420 yards.
13. Many units can be used for right or left handed golf swings and no adjustments are needed as you change to a different club.

Again, implementing a launch monitor into your regular teaching will lend you and other teachers at your facility who use it credibility and a launch monitor will give you a fast return on your investment. This only means more money in your pocket in the long run.

VGS Golf & Country Club Supply have customers in Charlotte, North Carolina, El Paso, Texas, Boston, Massachusetts, Seattle, Washington, District of Columbia, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Denver, Colorado, Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee, Las Vegas, Nevada, Portland, Oregon, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Tucson, Arizona, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Atlanta, Georgia, Long Beach, California, Brookhaven, New York, Fresno, CA, New Orleans, Louisiana, Sacramento, California and Cleveland, Ohio.

Happy Holidays!

VGS Golf wishes you and your family a Happy Holidays!!!

We will return to posting next week to help you improve your country club, resort, driving range or golf course.

How Much Ice Does My Club Need To Make?

I am a PGA Professional that has been recently promoted to GM after the previous GM was let go. I am trying to learn as much of the F&B side as I can, since I have previously focused my career on the golf operations side of the country club equation. So my question to you is “How do I determine how much ice from my ice machines will I need for my facility?”

First of all, congratulations on your promotion! It sounds like you are trying to make the most of it and we will help in any way that we can!

This is a question asked by many and we will provide some figures that are averages for proper ice levels. The real trick is to do the research and to do the math as every restaurant, bar, country club and golf course has different needs at different times of the day. Once the math and research is done to determine how much ice you will need, please understand there are still other factors to consider on how much ice that your machine will produce. Such as, before your purchase of any ice machine, you need to determine where the ice machine will be placed in the facility. If the ice making machine will be installed near the kitchen area or any other area in which will be hotter than normal, the heat may drastically decrease the amount of ice that your ice machine will produce. This is something as a newcomer that you may not think would happen. Another consideration is that a slightly larger machine never really hurt anyone. Weigh this against the challenge that you and your staff will have when you run out of ice.

Here are the "guidelines" for ice needs for different parts of your operation from an ice maker

Restaurant ice needs are 1.5 lbs. per person
Bar or Lounge ice needs are 3 lbs. per person
Salad Bar ice needs are 30 lbs. per cubic foot
Lodging ice needs are 5 lbs per room
Catering ice needs are 1 lb per person

VGS Golf & Country Club Supply has customers in New York City, New York, Los Angeles, California, Chicago, Illinois, Phoenix, Arizona, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Orlando, Florida, San Diego, CA, Jacksonville, Florida, San Francisco, California, Miami, FL and Charlotte, North Carolina and Charleston, South Carolina.

Putter Racks - Are You Really Trying To Sell Putters?

As long as I have been in the industry and as many golf clubs, counrty clubs and resorts that I have been privledged enough to visit, I am amazed at how some try to "sell" putters without even a putter rack.

We have all walked in to a golf shop and have seen too many putters crammed in to a golf bag. I have the same set up in my garage with my old putters. The point being that I am not trying to sell the putters out of my garage. I am just trying to store them. This is the same impression that your members and clients have when they walk into your golf shop and see too many putters crammed into a big staff bag. Although this system is fine at home, you must do some thinking if you use a golf bag to display your putters for sale. Your customers want to touch and feel the product that they are going to purchase and being crammed into a golf bag does not invite them to touch the putter.

Your buying plan should include the thought of where and how the putters will be displayed in the golf shop. If you do not have the proper putter displays already in your possession, you need to ask “Are we purchasing too many putters?” The answer to this question is a whole other article though. HAHA. If you do not have the proper putter displays then there are many affordable options for you to purchase.

Of course you want to figure out your needs before you start to seriously begin to purchase a putter rack for your golf shop or home office. Putter racks come in various sizes however the most popular units hold eight, twelve or twenty-four putters on one unit. You will want your putter rack to match the décor that is already a part of your golf shop or home office. This is easy to accomplish with all of the putter display options available. Many of the manufactures have multiple options in choices of wood or the choice of stain to match the décor of your home office or golf shop.

If you manage a country club or resort golf shop, is not a wooden putter rack with your logo not a much better statement to sell putters than shoving putters into a golf bag? The putters will be able to been seen, picked up and handled by prospective buyers which will convert in to more sales out of your golf shop.

VGS Golf & Country Club Supply have customers in Charlotte, North Carolina, El Paso, Texas, Boston, Massachusetts, Washington, District of Columbia, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Seattle, Washington, Denver, Colorado, Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee, Las Vegas, Nevada, Portland, Oregon, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Tucson, Arizona, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Atlanta, Georgia, Long Beach, California, Brookhaven, New York, Fresno, California, New Orleans, Louisiana, Sacramento, California and Cleveland, Ohio.

Three Driving Range Musts Before You Open

Although there are many things to plan before opening a driving range, here are three things that you must think through and get right before you open the doors to your new driving range.

1. Set Realistic Initial Sales Projections - Projecting your sales potential and developing your first financial projections or budget is one of the more difficult things to do. However, you need to do them and do them thoroughly. Do not be shy or afraid to ask for help when it comes to attempting to project your sales potential. There are many free or low-cost tools for you to use such as the Small Business Administration or obtaining data from the National Golf Foundation.

2. Where are you going to price your driving range products and services – Many people make the mistake of being to careful here. What I mean by that is they set original prices to low and then have no opportunity to discount their product. Keep in mind that it is much easier to discount your price as opposed to raise prices. Even if you are discounted down to the price that you are looking to achieve, the customer still feels like they got a deal and has a warm and fuzzy feeling.

3. Choose the location for your driving range – The very first rule of any type of real estate is what? C’mon you know it, location, location, location. You must have a good location. What does this mean?

You need to have traffic passing by the property and people either working or living around it. For example, you could find a piece of land to rent or own close to a business park that may not have many houses around it. However you would have a lot of traffic passing by the property. In addition, your marketing materials could include promotions for a business person’s lunch including a bucket of golf balls.

The other option is to purchase or lease your land for your driving range close to a highly populated area. You would then prepare your projections based on the surrounding rooftops.

VGS Golf & Country Club Supply has customers throughout the US such as in Birmingham, Alabama, Los Angeles, California, Indianapolis, Indiana, Bakersfield, California, Phoenix, Arizona, Clearwater, Florida, Macon, Georgia, Charlotte, North Carolina, Washington DC, Richmond, Virginia, Boston, MA, Stuart, Florida, Louisville, Kentucky, Nashville, Tennessee, Las Vegas, Nevada, Jacksonville, Florida, Huntsville, Alabama, Nashville, Tennessee, Galveston, Texas, Miami, Florida, Orlando, Florida, Denver, Colorado, Long Beach, California, Cincinnati, Ohio, San Antonio, Texas, Kansas City, Missouri, New York, New York, Orange County, California and Chicago, Illinois.