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Concession stand menu board: simple ways to show your menu.

A stand has a few minutes to serve a crowd. Here is how to make a menu fast to read, and when a screen is worth it.

By Jimmy Anderson, owner of Sweet Aloha Ice Cream and founder of Wow Menu Boards. Published Nov 2026.

Wow Menu Boards is made by Streamline SMB, LLC, Jimmy's software company.

Why concession menus need to be fast to read

A concession stand has a short window of time. At a ball game, the break between innings lasts a few minutes. At a fair, a line forms and then shrinks again. Customers do not read. They look for one thing, find a price, and step up. A slow menu makes a long line, and a long line makes people leave.

So a good concession menu is short. Think of eight to ten items, grouped in plain blocks like Drinks, Snacks and Sweets. Put the top sellers first. Our own rule of thumb at Sweet Aloha is a board that people can read in 3 to 5 seconds. That is a good target for a stand too. Test it: ask a friend to find the price of a hot dog, and count.

Printed vs screen

A printed sign

Many stands run on a printed menu board or a banner. It is easy to start, and it needs no power. That matters when the stand is a pop-up tent or a window with no outlet. It works well for a menu that stays the same all season. Check the board in the sun and the shade, since glare hides small print.

A screen

A screen fits a stand that has a steady plug and a roof. A school snack bar, a pool kitchen or a park building are good examples. A screen changes the menu fast, so a sold-out item can come off the board, and a new special can go on. It can also show a photo of the top item.

A simple way to choose: if the menu is the same every game and you have no outlet, print it. If the menu changes by day or by event and you have power, try a screen.

Scoop price grid from Sweet Aloha Ice Cream: Keiki and Adult scoops across 1, 2 and 3 scoops
Six prices in one grid. A stand board can be this simple. Open the picture to enlarge it.

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Seasonal events

Concession stands live on events. A fall football night is not a summer swim meet. A fair week is not a school play. The menu should change with them, and it should change without a long job.

Say your stand runs three seasons. In spring you sell lemonade and nachos. In fall you add hot cocoa and pretzels. At the winter show you sell only cocoa and cookies. With a printed sign, that is three reprints, or one crowded board. With a screen, you keep one look and swap the items. We do this at Sweet Aloha for holidays: the layout stays the same, and only the photos, the headline and one price line change.

Holiday calendars board from Sweet Aloha Ice Cream with two photos and a price line
Our holiday board: same layout, new photos, one headline, one price line. Open the picture to enlarge it.

Power and wifi checklist

Before you hang any screen, walk the space with this list. It takes ten minutes, and it can save a whole season of trouble.

  1. Power. Is there an outlet within reach of the TV? Does it stay on when the stand is closed? Give the player its own outlet so no one unplugs it.
  2. Internet. Does the Wi-Fi reach the TV? Test the signal on the wall where the TV will hang, not in the office.
  3. A built-in or stick player. A TV with Fire TV built in needs nothing else. Other TVs need a Fire TV Stick in the HDMI port.
  4. Hours. Do you want the screen dark when the stand is closed?
  5. A backup. Keep a printed menu in a drawer. If power fails, you still have a sign.

With our app, the menu is saved on the TV. If the Wi-Fi drops mid-game, the board keeps playing and catches up later. The screen can go black after hours on its own, so nobody needs a remote.

What we run, and where it fits

We run all 5 of our TVs at Sweet Aloha Ice Cream, a shop in Davie, Florida. That is one shop, not a stadium. Our setup is built for a counter with a steady plug and a line looking up. A stand with those same things fits well. A tent in a field does not, and we will say so.

These parts are live today: full-HD motion, exact on and off times, offline play and self-updates. Setup and changes are done by our team. A dashboard to edit it yourself is Coming soon. See all features, read about a similar setup in our food truck menu board article, or learn the basics in how to turn a TV into a menu board. Our Basic plan is $12 per screen, per month.

Keep reading

Run your shop's menu like we run ours.

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