Five Ways to Elevate Your Food Hall with GoTab

Modern food halls are vibrant, bustling environments—but they also present complex operational challenges. Coordinating multiple merchants, minimizing wait times, and managing revenue flows requires a robust food hall POS system built for multi‑vendor venues. GoTab offers a powerful solution designed specifically for multi‑merchant operations. Here are five ways GoTab can help you elevate your venue by enhancing the guest and operator experience.

1. Unified Ordering Across All Merchants

Challenge: Guests typically must order at each vendor stall, juggling trays, walking between lines, and settling separate bills—leading to friction and lost revenue.

GoTab Solution: Customers can place orders from any vendor using GoTab Pass RFID Cards, QR codes, or self-ordering kiosks, all under a single unified tab.

Case Study – Upside on Moore (Arlington, VA):
Upside on Moore—home to nine local eateries, a coffee bar, and two bars—needed a seamless ordering process for both walk‑ups and events. GoTab’s unified system enables guests to place orders from different vendors in one flow, reducing wait times and simplifying payment. Self‑service kiosks, QR ordering, and “shared tabs” make it easy for groups to order together from multiple concepts. Operators also benefited from streamlined order management through the GoTab Kitchen Display System (KDS) which includes order routing that respects each individual merchant’s autonomy.

2. Self‑Ordering Kiosks & QR Ordering for Speed & Convenience

Challenge: During peak times—like lunch or happy hour—long lines threaten sales and customer satisfaction.

GoTab Solution: Strategically placed self‑ordering kiosks and mobile QR code ordering allow guests to skip lines and order at their leisure. Operators can notify their guest that their order is available at the counter via SMS, or alternatively, they can run food and beverages to the table for maximum guest convenience.

Upside on Moore in Action:
GoTab's self-ordering kiosks, which run on standard Android or iOS hardware, are installed throughout the hall to handle high volumes via intuitive, customizable interfaces. QR code ordering complements kiosks, offering fast, line‑free ordering and table service from anywhere in the venue .

3. RFID‑Enabled “Pass” System for Seamless Multi‑Merchant Tabs

Challenge: Guests ordering across multiple food and drink stations often get frustrated by managing multiple bills. Operators struggle with reconciliation and commission tracking.

GoTab Solution: The RFID GoTab Pass (card or wristband) tracks purchases across all vendors, managing tab closeout, tipping, and automatic revenue splitting—even accounting for percentage‑rent or operator fees.

Case Study – The Market at Malcolm Yards (Minneapolis, MN):
This 19,000-square-foot food hall with 10 food concepts and a self‑pour beverage wall implemented GoTab Pass in mid‑2022. Guests use RFID smart cards to tap and order from any vendor, with charges aggregated on one tab—streamlining payments and boosting order sizes. Operators gain automated accounting and daily vendor payouts; landlords even automate percentage‑rent collection.

Case Study – The Golden Mill (Golden, CO):
A historic multi‑level venue featuring five food vendors and a 56‑tap self‑pour wall, the Golden Mill also adopted GoTab Pass alongside its PourMyBeer integration. Guests pick up an RFID card, buy or pour from any vendor, then drop the card at exit—end-of-night tabs close and receipts are texted. This eliminates checkout queues, improves order tracking, and increases vendor transparency. "The trust and transparency that automatic remittances creates...is invaluable,” says director Brett Russell.

4. Back‑of‑House Tools: Kitchen Display & Manager Dashboard

Challenge: Speed, accuracy, and staff coordination are critical in high‑volume environments.

GoTab Solution: GoTab includes a Kitchen Display System (KDS) with integrated printers and two-way SMS, plus a manager dashboard for analytics, staffing, and event coordination.

Upside on Moore & Golden Mill Results:
At Upside on Moore, vendor-specific KDS screens enable batching, route orders correctly, and reduce mistakes. Event teams use the app for coordination and real‑time performance insights. The Golden Mill benefits from unified reporting dashboards that reveal sales data, tip splits, kitchen performance, and vendor-level analytics—all in one place.

5. Increased Revenue, Guest Experience & Operational Efficiency

Challenge: Food hall operators need to boost sales, delight guests, and optimize labor.

GoTab Solution: By offering more channels for ordering and payment, combined with data-driven management tools, GoTab drives higher spending, faster service, and smarter labor deployment.

Vendor Outcomes Across Venues:

• Upside on Moore: Improved foot traffic conversion and “third‑place” retention due to streamlined ordering.
  
  
• Malcolm Yards: 60% of alcohol sales now come via self‑pour walls supported by GoTab integration, with zero tenant turnover and even a waitlist for space.
  
  
• Golden Mill: Guest check‑in time dropped by 50%, checkout queues disappeared, and automatic payouts foster vendor trust. Plus, gorgeous historic space combined with modern convenience wins repeat visits.

Why GoTab Is the Ideal Food Hall POS

• Built for multi‑merchant operations: GoTab maintains vendor autonomy while enabling centralized and segregated ordering and analytics across all merchants.
  
  
• Omni‑channel convenience: Guests can order via kiosks, QR codes, mobile apps, or RFID cards—flexibility drives satisfaction and spend.
  
  
• Modular scalability: Start small with QR and kiosk setups; expand RFID and KDS as volume and events grow.
  
  
• Data‑driven insights: Managers and operators access unified dashboards to optimize menus, labor, events, and revenue streams.
  
  
• Integrated payout and rent automation: Simplifies accounting, vendor onboarding, and commission/rent tracking with built-in tools.

Bringing It All Together

GoTab empowers food hall operators to deliver a frictionless guest experience and boost operational efficiency at scale. Through unified ordering, self‑service tools, RFID-enabled tabs, and robust back‑office systems:

1. Guests experience fast, convenient, unified ordering.
2. Vendors receive orders accurately via KDS, track sales transparently, and get paid promptly.
3. Operators optimize labor, events, rent structures, and performance monitoring.

Ready to elevate your food hall point-of-sale and multi-merchant operations?
Contact GoTab for a tailored demo and discover how to transform your venue into a truly next-gen food hall.

By integrating GoTab’s specialized toolset, you’ll unlock measurable gains in speed, spend, operations, and scaling—and follow in the footsteps of successful venues like Upside on Moore, The Market at Malcolm Yards, and The Golden Mill.

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