Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

[Hid]

Can confirm £7.50 is not a good price for a pint in general, and certainly not for the drinks they serve in the Courtyard!

I'd also be stretched to call £4.50 good value for the pasty pictured. It looks pretty small for that price. And you can see them in the heat box in the background, confirming they are actually small.

Also, they continue to be... not a pie.

The pasty while £4.50 is reasonable you can always find a Greggs before entering the park at a much cheaper rate. In the parks your paying for convivence

 

[AT86]

£7.50 average price of a beer now in the UK

According to who?

 

[D4n]

£7.50 average price of a beer now in the UK, as for the pasty while £4.50 is reasonable you can always find a Greggs before entering the park at a much cheaper rate. In the parks your paying for convivence

What pubs are you visiting ???

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

£7.50 average price of a beer now in the UK

No, it's not. The average price of a pint in the UK is £5.17 (according to the Morning Advertiser).

EXCLUSIVE: Average UK draught pint price rises to £5.17

A pint of draught beer has risen by 9p since January, according to exclusive new research from The Morning Advertiser.

www.morningadvertiser.co.uk

According to the Office for National Statistics, it was £4.83 in January 2025.

RPI: Ave price - Draught lager, per pint - Office for National Statistics

Please stop posting what you believe to be true as verifiable fact, without quoting an appropriate source. This is the third time today that I've had to fact check your posts on different threads.

 

[spotweld]

I don't pay more than £2.50 a pint. Is this not normal?

 

[rob666]

£7.50 average price of a beer now in the UK, as for the pasty while £4.50 is reasonable you can always find a Greggs before entering the park at a much cheaper rate. In the parks your paying for convivence

Will you please stop spouting rubbish.
I have not yet paid £7:50 for a pint outside a theme park.
The average price of a pint round here is a fiver, purchased several times in the last few weeks. A decent, fresh pint of Ruddles in spoons is still £1:79.
Quality local "artisanal" pasties are three pounds each, and huge.

 

[Dave]

The pasty while £4.50 is reasonable you can always find a Greggs before entering the park at a much cheaper rate. In the parks your paying for convivence

So your suggestion is a 40min round trip to Uttoxeter for a pasty?

We all know there is a theme park price bump for F&B at all parks but at the moment Towers (and most of the rest of Merlin) are just being extremely silly under Aramark.

 

[Hid]

So your suggestion is a 40min round trip to Uttoxeter for a pasty?

We all know there is a theme park price bump for F&B at all parks but at the moment Towers (and most of the rest of Merlin) are just being extremely silly under Aramark.

Depends which way you come from like I know there is a service station on my route to Towers there is one

 

[Jb85]

According to who?

It is round my area to be fair. £13 large glass of house vino. Worlds gone mad

 

[Matt N]

Depends which way you come from like I know there is a service station on my route to Towers there is one

That could be the case if you’re only going for a day. That doesn’t work if you’re having a multi-day stay, though.

On the second day, no one is going to head from the hotel, drive all the way out to Uttoxeter or a motorway services and then drive back again (well, I guess someone might, but the number would be very small, I’d imagine).

If the park was in a more urban location like, say, Thorpe Park, that might be feasible on a second day, but Alton is just too remote.

 

[Dave]

Depends which way you come from like I know there is a service station on my route to Towers there is one

Because everyone wants to pick up Lunch at breakfast time on the way to the park. If that was your intent you would bring a packed lunch.

This is about people who want a warm lunch at the time they want to eat it, I think you know that you are just trying to defend an indefensible position.

 

[GaryH]

Will you please stop spouting rubbish.
I have not yet paid £7:50 for a pint outside a theme park.
The average price of a pint round here is a fiver

Your lucky Rob - down here in the South West a pint is way over a fiver. We went to place down at the Lizard (Corneal) a few weeks ago. Prices were (have a pic of the menu):

Draught

Draft Cider £7.50
Cornish Pilsner £7.50
Sharps pale ale £7.50
Doombar £8.00

Bottled

Rattler zero £7.00
Rattler original £7.50
Peroni zero £6.00
Peroni £6.00
Doombar £7.00


A glass of wine started at £12 while a G&T was between £10 and £15 depending on the gin.

It’s very very very rare down here to find a pint under £6.50. There is the odd Wetherspoons down here but not many.

Personally my biggest gripe is the lack of /minimal price difference between the alcoholic and non alcoholic versions. You would think from the perspective of health they would be considerably cheaper - unless of course the cost to add alcohol to a drink is very small.

 

[jon81uk]

Personally my biggest gripe is the lack of /minimal price difference between the alcoholic and non alcoholic versions. You would think from the perspective of health they would be considerably cheaper - unless of course the cost to add alcohol to a drink is very small.

Fewer people buy alcohol-free drinks so less economy of scale, a lot of people having non-alcoholic will just have Diet Coke etc. I don't see the beer producers dropping the price of NA beer down to similar prices to soft drinks.
Also the cost of the staff to pour the drink, the heating, lighting etc is the same no matter what it is made from. The overheads of running a pub aren't directly related to the type of drink (well cocktails take more effort to prepare).

 

[rob666]

Non alcoholic beer should be 20% cheaper as it has no booze tax, simple as that.
The alcohol extracted (if produced that way) is often resold as well, so income on top.
And I pity you Gary, all the nice places around here recently, our (decent quality) 2 beer rounds have been a few coopers around a tenner.
It's grin up north.

 

[Lewis232]

Blimey, as someone who lives in London this thread is an eye opener. A pint after work in Central London will usually be in the £7.70 / £7.80 sort of range. In my local it's a bit cheaper but not by much and definitely over £7. When I was last at Alton towers I did think £7.50 was quite reasonable to be honest! Only shame was they only had Stella or Budweiser and no decent beers or IPAs

 

[BarryZola]

In the West Mids it largely depends where you go. Wetherspoons is what? Under £3? A normal scruffy town centre pub probably between £3-£4. Then I was walking on the Clent Hills the other day and fancied a pint afterwards so popped in one of the pubs at the base of the hills. That cost me around £5.30! That's the most I've paid for a pint in ages (I don't actually go to the pub much though). But yeah, anything over around £4 and I'm not happy haha.

It mostly depends on the exact establishment really, although I recognize that there will be a generally higher cost in London and certain posher areas. I just wouldn't buy a pint in really expensive places, I'd rather go without.

 

[rob666]

I would happily pay more than a fiver for a pint in the Clent Hills.
Where my naughtiest ex client lived for a decade...lots of fun and mischief around Sunfield!
Being a bit naughty more than once in the Woodman, very tolerant staff indeed.
From what I have seen and read, prices everywhere have gone up around ten percent in a year locally.

 

[BarryZola]

I would happily pay more than a fiver for a pint in the Clent Hills.
Where my naughtiest ex client lived for a decade...lots of fun and mischief around Sunfield!
From what I have seen and read, prices everywhere have gone up around ten percent in a year locally.

Oh yes, I've walked past Sunfield a few times. Hidden away amongst the slopes.

 

[Hid]

How many of you use the Corner Coffee and Ground Command Costa at Towers find them to actually have some decent food.

Noticed that a lot of UK parks utilize Costa what is the reason for this

 

[Islander]

Noticed that a lot of UK parks utilize Costa what is the reason for this

A contract