BETWEEN THE LINES. The vast campus of Geisinger Health System in Danvile, PA, makes kiosks a good fit. Customers who don’t want to deal with the lines in larger cafeterias gravitate towards satellite serveries.

Kiosk-type operations, because of their low capital investment, minimal staffing, bare-bones equipment, abbreviated menu, and lock-down design, also can bring in respectable dollars from areas and traffic that wouldn't justify a full-service operation with extended hours of operation.

The Shadyside Kiosk was designed to take some of the traffic out of the main cafeteria, but also “to introduce a more upscale menu, expand the variety and give the program some totally different foods not available before,” says Gayle Musulin, UPMC's director of nutrition and food service. “There was an audience looking for those items, especially among the professional staff and visitors,” she says.

The catering kitchen produces the menu, choosing from a variety of fresh ingredients to create an extensive selection of such signature salads as Thai beef and chicken walnut. Also offered are specialty espresso, brewed and blended coffees, upscale bottled beverages and soups, sandwiches and pastries.

In Sycamore Community School District, Cincinnati, OH, a simple, single wooden cart that displays fresh fruit adjacent to the service line has increased whole fruit consumption by the school's students by an estimated 25 percent. Barbara Duncan, child nutrition director, said the decision to better merchandise fruit was made in response to the “total lack of interest” when fruit was placed on the serving line in stainless steel pans. The free-standing cart has three shelves and attractive black baskets that display as many as four varieties of apples, oranges, bananas, kiwi, watermelon, pears and tangerines.

At the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, Beaker's Coffee Cart was installed in 1999 in a newly constructed science and math building. Gayle Lamb, cash operations manager, says the servery, located in the connecting skyway between two buildings, has evolved into the social and information hub of the area. All classrooms and labs are behind closed doors and Beaker's is the only common open space. In its first five years, Beakers averaged $500 to $800 in daily sales. Now, with an expanded, creative menu — there are almost 30 items on the beverage menu alone — sales are twice that.

The sprawling campuses of many large medical facilities offer a particularly good opportunity for kiosk satellites, observes Bruce Thomas, associate vice president of guest services at Geisinger Health System, in Danville, PA, the largest rural healthcare system in the nation.

“Over the past 10 years, we've used kiosks extensively to follow our customers so we don't lose them when they move to new buildings. Some buildings are as much as seven miles away and another series of office buildings is 2-1/2 miles up the road.” Thomas has even gone so far as to purchase golf carts from a local golf club to run supplies across the campus to satellite serveries.

Thomas said the entry price to establish small serveries is low compared to the revenues that would be lost. A small green cart maxed out in sales in the first week. A kiosk in a family practice clinic offers little more than coffee and pastries and pulls in $65,000 to $75,000 in annual revenues.

Many kiosks installed in recent years were designed to capture customers who don't want to deal with the lines in larger cafeterias and aren't interested in an extensive menu. Some build on the ability of established national brands such as Starbucks, to generate revenue.

At Via Christi Regional Medical Center, in Wichita, KS, a Starbuck's coffee kiosk does both, according to Wanda Reinking, director of nutrition service. Located adjacent to a retail coffee shop that does $2.5 million in annual sales, the stationary 100-sq. ft. servery opened in July 2005. Its $8,000 monthly sales the first year climbed to $10,000 in 2006 and $12,000 in 2007.

Extended service hours

At the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, a Sodexo's Café a la Carte concept has operated in the university's most densely populated classroom building since the fall of 2002. It consists of two open-air coolers for beverages and the company's Smart Market items, plus a snack station and cashier stand. Staffed by one person and open six hours daily Monday through Friday, it does approximately $7,500 business monthly on 4,000 transactions, according to Rick Warpinski, director of the University Union.