State Fair Dumps Coupon System
- Thread starter FDWxMan
- Start date
Hypothetical preview of what this leads to is how it works at the Taste of Chicago festival.
9 tickets may cost $17. A beer may be 5 tickets. Tell me how much a beer costs without busting out your calculator.
I'm not exaggerating how intentionally messy they make the numbers so nobody knows how much they're paying for overpriced food and drink.
*also what you do at an overpriced ticket festival to avoid getting robbed is find the coolest looking vendor and slip him a $20 then drink one-ticket beers all day long.
9 tickets may cost $17. A beer may be 5 tickets. Tell me how much a beer costs without busting out your calculator.
I'm not exaggerating how intentionally messy they make the numbers so nobody knows how much they're paying for overpriced food and drink.
*also what you do at an overpriced ticket festival to avoid getting robbed is find the coolest looking vendor and slip him a $20 then drink one-ticket beers all day long.
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So how do we get WHO to do a story and pressure the RAG to quit strongly "suggesting" to all the RAGBRAI stops that they have to do tickets?
I think the cash-less was also an attempt to make sure the vendors reported all of their sales for sales tax and income tax purposes. Cash is easily siphoned off of a cash-based sales system whereas credit cards and tickets are not.
FR: Bill Northey, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture
TO: Iowa Reporters and Editors
RE: Ticket-based payment system at the Iowa State Fair
DA: Thursday, January 09, 2014
“The Fair Board made the right decision to not implement the ticket-based payment system for the 2014 State Fair. The Iowa Fair Board members and State Fair staff love the fair and take their responsibility to serve fairgoers very seriously. It is a good thing that the Iowa State Fair elicits such a strong response from Iowans and a very good thing that the Fair Board responded to those concerns in a timely manner.”
The press release from the State Fair follows here:
[h=1]NEWS RELEASE January 9, 2014[/h]For Immediate Release Contact: Lori Chappell
515/262-311, ext. 204
[h=3][/h][h=3][/h]Iowa State Fair Cashless System Update
Iowa State Fairgoers may continue to use their favorite form of payment for their purchases for this year’s Fair. The Iowa State Fair Board has decided today that they will not implement a mandatory cashless payment system at the 2014 Fair. Instead, they will continue to investigate future implementation of a more progressive system that will eliminate Fairgoers’ concerns of the inconvenience of paper tickets and long lines, improve the concessionaires’ reporting system and accommodate the Fair’s infrastructure.
The Fair Board strives to make sound business decisions in the best interest of the Fair and its Fairgoers. The Iowa State Fair’s operating budget is self-funding, and all Fair profits are reinvested in Fairgrounds infrastructure and fund a better Fair experience.
Passionate Fairgoers help make the Iowa State Fair the best in the nation, and the Fair Board strives to implement policies that improve the Fair’s financial integrity while simultaneously benefiting its loyal fans.
The Fair Board is excited to continue planning for the “Amazingly Amusing” 2014 Fair and once again offer Fairgoers an experience that is second to none.
“Nothing Compares” to the 2014 Iowa State Fair, August 7-17. The Fairgrounds are located at East 30th and East University Avenue, just 10 minutes east of downtown Des Moines. For more information, call 800/545-FAIR or visit www.iowastatefair.org.
TO: Iowa Reporters and Editors
RE: Ticket-based payment system at the Iowa State Fair
DA: Thursday, January 09, 2014
“The Fair Board made the right decision to not implement the ticket-based payment system for the 2014 State Fair. The Iowa Fair Board members and State Fair staff love the fair and take their responsibility to serve fairgoers very seriously. It is a good thing that the Iowa State Fair elicits such a strong response from Iowans and a very good thing that the Fair Board responded to those concerns in a timely manner.”
The press release from the State Fair follows here:
[h=1]NEWS RELEASE January 9, 2014[/h]For Immediate Release Contact: Lori Chappell
515/262-311, ext. 204
[h=3][/h][h=3][/h]Iowa State Fair Cashless System Update
Iowa State Fairgoers may continue to use their favorite form of payment for their purchases for this year’s Fair. The Iowa State Fair Board has decided today that they will not implement a mandatory cashless payment system at the 2014 Fair. Instead, they will continue to investigate future implementation of a more progressive system that will eliminate Fairgoers’ concerns of the inconvenience of paper tickets and long lines, improve the concessionaires’ reporting system and accommodate the Fair’s infrastructure.
The Fair Board strives to make sound business decisions in the best interest of the Fair and its Fairgoers. The Iowa State Fair’s operating budget is self-funding, and all Fair profits are reinvested in Fairgrounds infrastructure and fund a better Fair experience.
Passionate Fairgoers help make the Iowa State Fair the best in the nation, and the Fair Board strives to implement policies that improve the Fair’s financial integrity while simultaneously benefiting its loyal fans.
The Fair Board is excited to continue planning for the “Amazingly Amusing” 2014 Fair and once again offer Fairgoers an experience that is second to none.
“Nothing Compares” to the 2014 Iowa State Fair, August 7-17. The Fairgrounds are located at East 30th and East University Avenue, just 10 minutes east of downtown Des Moines. For more information, call 800/545-FAIR or visit www.iowastatefair.org.
Good idea to backtrack, but maybe they could have done a little research beforehand and could have avoided the backtrack to begin with.
Thus, it is only temporary. In a year or so, they will come up with some way to reintroduce it. For instance, they might have all the vendors in a particular area use a coupon system. Or try a coupon-only day. Or offer a coupon option that includes a significant discount over using cash (until it catches on).
If nothing else, the fair let the vendors know that they are concerned about inaccurate reporting. It wouldn't surprise me if there isn't an investigative report next year that films a stand, counts up the sales, and compares it to the reported revenue.
I had a friend that worked for the IRS at the state fair. She told me the IRS had tables (charts) that went back decades, that included things such as day of the week, item being sold, temperature and humidity, location on the fairgrounds, and that they pretty much knew exactly how much a vendor brought in on any given day. Any claimed amount that varied too much from the table drew immediate suspicion.
My favorite is the argument that the cashless system doesn't depress concession sales. For example, Colorado implemented this at their fair and pointed out that, by their calculations, sales of concessions were about the same as the year before . . . . even though there was plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest otherwise. The more likely explanation is that there was a lot of *cough* *cough* under-reporting going on in previous years and now that there can't be any under-reporting the sales came to be about the same as the under-reported amount.
