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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

GaryH said:
I honest believe Merlin don’t care anymore, they are going full on profits first, guests last
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I don't understand what you're driving at here ... you can only serve people sucky food once or twice because there won't be a third time. In an industry that relies on repeat visitation (Merlin more than most park chains due to the MAP model) - serving up bad food options doesn't provide profit, it eats away at it.

It's the same as the health and safety argument that was thrown at various parks a few decades ago - cut backs in maintenance to maximise profits ... Killing or maming people is generally not very good for business.
 
Vik said:
I avoided Thorpe Parks Aramark offering on Sunday and even though a burger and chips which no one ordered was dumped on our table, nobody felt they wanted to brave eating it.
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Even the local wildlife didn't want it
 
Hopefully something is in the works to improve this year's food offering. I'm all for a Merlin bashing but aside from going with Aramark in the first place, the parks have only been open a few weeks, even if they wanted to get rid of the company there's still contracts and legal obligations in place and they'll take time to cancel or change.

They can't be blind to the comments they're recieving so you'd like to think something will happen in the background.

I'm not sure what company took over the hotels but they're going down the pan at the same speed as the restaurants.
 
There is a new Merlin CEO, new Alton Towers Divisional Director and new Alton Hotels Director.

Crucially, all three have come from outside Merlin.

Let's give them a year to see what change can be enacted.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk
 
Rick said:
I don't understand what you're driving at here ... you can only serve people sucky food once or twice because there won't be a third time. In an industry that relies on repeat visitation (Merlin more than most park chains due to the MAP model) - serving up bad food options doesn't provide profit, it eats away at it.
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What I’m getting at is how the product has been so degraded over the years. It’s not just been this year which has seen poor reviews from people staying in the hotels, or going to the park, and it’s not just about the food either. And to then bring in Aramark at a time when standards we thought could they get any lower, to me, just shows Merlin really don’t care about the guest experience.

Agree that in the end it will bite them but, for the last few years they just haven’t seem bothered at all.
 
Rick said:
I don't understand what you're driving at here ... you can only serve people sucky food once or twice because there won't be a third time. In an industry that relies on repeat visitation (Merlin more than most park chains due to the MAP model) - serving up bad food options doesn't provide profit, it eats away at it.
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But thats the point of the don't care part, they aren't caring about the long term, only the short term issue.

Although I do think Merlin thought Aramark was a great solution to the staffing issues over the last few years, without fully considering the other issues of Aramark pushing prices up and quality down.
 
So a few pages ago we saw that mozzarella sticks at Alton Towers' Burger Kitchen are now £3.60. I noticed a few other prices at Chessington and Thorpe Park over the weekend for the exact same product:
  • Drop'N Chicken at Chessington were selling them for a more reasonable £2.20
  • Wilderness Kitchen at Thorpe Park were selling them for £4.50
Who is coming up with these prices!? I know the examples above are across 3 different parks but the products are identical and it would not surprise me if the prices for this same item differ at different outlets across the same park.

Experiencing some of the Aramark offerings down at Chessington and Thorpe does not give me much hope for improvements at Alton Towers, but hopefully new Alton Towers/Merlin senior management can drive up standards.
 
siralgenon said:
From what I've been told an external company are now running the hotels? (Obviously nothings changed visually) Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick. I'll find out.
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I've not seen that mentioned anywhere other than Aramark running the restaurants.

At one point Alton Towers did try to outsource housekeeping, but there was issues moving the existing staff contracts and it was reversed as mentioned here https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/2021-general-discussion.5604/page-166#post-338075
The original plan was https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/local-news/alton-towers-outsource-more-200-378282
 
Rob said:
So a few pages ago we saw that mozzarella sticks at Alton Towers' Burger Kitchen are now £3.60. I noticed a few other prices at Chessington and Thorpe Park over the weekend for the exact same product:
  • Drop'N Chicken at Chessington were selling them for a more reasonable £2.20
  • Wilderness Kitchen at Thorpe Park were selling them for £4.50
Who is coming up with these prices!? I know the examples above are across 3 different parks but the products are identical and it would not surprise me if the prices for this same item differ at different outlets across the same park.

Experiencing some of the Aramark offerings down at Chessington and Thorpe does not give me much hope for improvements at Alton Towers, but hopefully new Alton Towers/Merlin senior management can drive up standards.
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Isn't there some sort of law being broken there? Maybe not between parks as I guess they are different legal trading entities but within a park all prices should be the same for the same product shouldn't they? I'm sure it's illegal for say, Asda to sell a loaf of bread for £1 in my local superstore but in London, the same loaf being priced at £1.50. I know there are variances between superstores and the "Express/Metro" stores of the same brand but I guess that is because they are trading as two separate companies.
 
Steve74 said:
Isn't there some sort of law being broken there? Maybe not between parks as I guess they are different legal trading entities but within a park all prices should be the same for the same product shouldn't they? I'm sure it's illegal for say, Asda to sell a loaf of bread for £1 in my local superstore but in London, the same loaf being priced at £1.50. I know there are variances between superstores and the "Express/Metro" stores of the same brand but I guess that is because they are trading as two separate companies.
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I don't believe so, it's just shoddy rather than illegal.
 
Aramark do the food at the hotels but other than that they are operated internally. Alton Towers did at one point outsource the housekeeping services but I believe this got brought back inhouse shortly afterwards.
 
Steve74 said:
Isn't there some sort of law being broken there? Maybe not between parks as I guess they are different legal trading entities but within a park all prices should be the same for the same product shouldn't they? I'm sure it's illegal for say, Asda to sell a loaf of bread for £1 in my local superstore but in London, the same loaf being priced at £1.50. I know there are variances between superstores and the "Express/Metro" stores of the same brand but I guess that is because they are trading as two separate companies.
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Nothing illegal about it and those stores that have different pricing won't be seperate companies.
As long as there is no discrimination such as charging black people more, they can charge whatever the market will handle.
 
Steve74 said:
Isn't there some sort of law being broken there? Maybe not between parks as I guess they are different legal trading entities but within a park all prices should be the same for the same product shouldn't they? I'm sure it's illegal for say, Asda to sell a loaf of bread for £1 in my local superstore but in London, the same loaf being priced at £1.50. I know there are variances between superstores and the "Express/Metro" stores of the same brand but I guess that is because they are trading as two separate companies.
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No.
Different prices in different areas is quite common, even used to happen very regularly in pubs...
a couple of pennies cheaper in the vault, "standard" prices in the main bar, then a couple of pennies more in the snug, with the comfy chairs and roaring fire.
And you weren't allowed to move rooms with your beer after purchase!
I'm a proper old git aren't I!
 
There’s a new review review on Tripadvisor for the secret garden restaurant which isn’t just about the poor food but also the service. The customer ended up walking out refusing to pay. Towers are not even responding to the reviews anymore. I think we can expect all the restaurants and hotels to drop another Tripadvisor star this year unless they do something to address this.

Makes me so angry to see a place I have so many good memories from going downhill so quickly in the name of corporate greed.
 
GaryH said:
There’s a new review review on Tripadvisor for the secret garden restaurant which isn’t just about the poor food but also the service. The customer ended up walking out refusing to pay. Towers are not even responding to the reviews anymore. I think we can expect all the restaurants and hotels to drop another Tripadvisor star this year unless they do something to address this.

Makes me so angry to see a place I have so many good memories from going downhill so quickly in the name of corporate greed.
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They aren’t replying to social media questions/posts either, I believe it’s the same team as those that respond to reviews. They are probably short staffed.
 
I think what annoys me about this (although equally applies to other parks and to pre-Aramark) - typically you'd expect the "main item" (burger or whatever) on its own to seem expensive, turn it into a meal and it's £1 more totalling something reasonable (given that chips and drink are extremely high margin), but they typically add much more than this at theme parks.

I was at Towers on the 31st March and 1st April and I think I had a couple of goes at X Sector Chicken, and one visit to the non-Aramark (no MAP discount) food stalls opposite Rita. I had the chicken strips, I found the chips to be rather nice (thicker than you expect for fries, but not quite what you'd expect for chips), the strips looked like they were cheap but tasted okay although obviously were frozen - I much preferred what they served a few years back (still cheap and frozen but I think it had a bit more flavour to it)

Price - we've all seen the screenshots, I think the large meal was about a tenner after the 20% discount. Compared to the equivalent at BPB - 5 strip meal from FY4 chicken by the fountains - I think that was about £7 after the 10% discount. BPB version - standard fries, nice but preferred the X Sector chips - but the bit that actually matters, the chicken - infinitely nicer at BPB. You can tell it's made freshly that day - if you time it right you can just about see the chicken going into the flour/seasoning etc before it's into the pressure fryer when they've emptied the hot cabinet.

Overall (in my limited experience of only the chicken in X-Sector), quality is roughly the same as before ("okay" quality, nothing to write home about), prices are far too high for the quality.
 
Katy said:
I think what annoys me about this (although equally applies to other parks and to pre-Aramark) - typically you'd expect the "main item" (burger or whatever) on its own to seem expensive, turn it into a meal and it's £1 more totalling something reasonable (given that chips and drink are extremely high margin), but they typically add much more than this at theme parks.

I was at Towers on the 31st March and 1st April and I think I had a couple of goes at X Sector Chicken, and one visit to the non-Aramark (no MAP discount) food stalls opposite Rita. I had the chicken strips, I found the chips to be rather nice (thicker than you expect for fries, but not quite what you'd expect for chips), the strips looked like they were cheap but tasted okay although obviously were frozen - I much preferred what they served a few years back (still cheap and frozen but I think it had a bit more flavour to it)

Price - we've all seen the screenshots, I think the large meal was about a tenner after the 20% discount. Compared to the equivalent at BPB - 5 strip meal from FY4 chicken by the fountains - I think that was about £7 after the 10% discount. BPB version - standard fries, nice but preferred the X Sector chips - but the bit that actually matters, the chicken - infinitely nicer at BPB. You can tell it's made freshly that day - if you time it right you can just about see the chicken going into the flour/seasoning etc before it's into the pressure fryer when they've emptied the hot cabinet.

Overall (in my limited experience of only the chicken in X-Sector), quality is roughly the same as before ("okay" quality, nothing to write home about), prices are far too high for the quality.
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BPB are definitely superior when it comes to food. And new things appearing this year like rotisserie chicken at Loki's bar and the new burger offerings. They're getting it right
 
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