Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

[Ash]

People much older than yourself, but not likely to be found on this forum, have less of a tolerance for coasters and rides than you. They're after a wholesome day out, a whole package, not all of it spent inside queues.

@rob666 will happily regale you with tales of lapping Corkscrew, whilst his mother had tea in the Swiss Cottage.

Many other parks also have full restaurants within the park, especially on the continent where mealtimes are sacred and extended affairs.

A true family theme park caters for (and entertains) everyone, the whole family, not just people who want to go on rides.

They cater for people who like to go on rides!?

 

[Ben Anderson]

It's not rocket science! Five Guys/Shake Shack/Honest Burger, etc, etc can all manage a decent burger for £10-12 (with high street rents). Just deliver a decent burger and fries for £15 and enjoy the 200% margin. Instead of the 500% margin of £0 you get from me.

I can understand that theme park food will always be overpriced, it's a great way of making extra £ with your captive market. Everyone expects theme park food to be overpriced.

The issue we have is 'expectation' if you're paying burger kitchen prices. You want branded presentation on the chip/burger boxes and a decent standard. Then in what was Woodcutters should be a step up. Slightly nicer roll, slightly better quailty beef and a step up in presentation.

Doughnut burgers are niche and should have been tried out in one of those caravan things near Oblivion (like others mentioned) or just offer 1 as a special and see how it goes. Having just a whole list of doughnut burgers is a bit heavy going. How hard is it to serve beef in a roll. Is there a bread roll shortage I don't know about, maybe I need to bulk buy some bread rolls in the supermarket if it's going to end up like the toilet rolls during Covid.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

How hard is it to serve beef in a roll. Is there a bread roll shortage I don't know about, maybe I need to bulk buy some bread rolls in the supermarket

For starters, in Staffordshire, they're called baps or cobs.

 

[Dave]

For starters, in Staffordshire, they're called baps or cobs.

No no no no no, If this triggers a 5 page debate I hope you are banned

 

[Ben Anderson]

For starters, in Staffordshire, they're called baps or cobs.

You're bringing up a bit of a sore point here. I have already had this argument in Greggs when I first moved to the Midlands when asking for a 'bacon roll' in and getting a funny look. She proceeded to ask, 'You mean a Cob'? I was slightly baffled. I had never heard of this phase before. I have been too scared ever after to deal with this whole roll, bap, cob, or whatever word you want to use today in the Midlands. I just get a baguette now; we all seem to speak the same language on that one. (I feel this story is for the dull men's club page on FB).

Apparently, everyone likes calling each other 'duck' as well, but I won't get into that one... I thought we had some funny ways back in Essex. Maybe I'm wrong and these AT doughnut burgers are more appropriate for the tastes of folk in the Midlands.

 

[Matt.GC]

Not only that but if we insist on dealing with people rather than machines there might be more jobs available for people. Our local Tesco probably only has 5 manned checkouts now and 30 odd self service machines and one poor person running between them all like a headless chicken when something needs approval/goes wrong.

Personally I find it ludicrous that if I pay £500+ to stay in Alton hotel I have to check in myself. Maybe if businesses offered a discount for people using self service devices then fair enough!

I completely agree with your sentiment of the last 2 posts. But I'm afraid this isn't the reality, and I say that as someone who has paid a mortgage and raised 3 kids from a job that has changed beyond almost all recognition since I started it (used to run a shop, now a box ticking agony aunt).

Decades of, frankly, world leading innovation from UK retail (IBM started selling Tesco designed software to US retailers in 1986 as part of a deal between them), tertiary industries are never going back, and are actually going the opposite way.

The reason most retailers use crappy NCR self-service terminals (they are terrible) is because they are an American import. Efficiency through innovation turned into cost cutting shortly afterwards, and it has been built into business models for 2 decades. Even if Tesco, as the third biggest retailer on the planet, rolled back and went back to the good ol' days tomorrow, they would be insolvent within a few years. When they introduced these contraptions all those years ago, they actually employed people to show customers how to use them.

I find them as irritating and impersonable as you do, I prefer a business like Towers to work for my money rather than make me tap away at a screen. But like posting pouting selfies on social media as if anyone actually cares, times have changed and you can now open staffed tills and people will still queue at self-service just to avoid talking to anyone. I see this almost every single day.

Their implementation at Towers in food outlets and hotels (although I accept went from 0-60 very quickly), is, if anything, way behind the times. Self-service Vs staffed is a debate of yesteryear, and companies like Tesco will simply just make you wait if you don't use them. The Self-service formula itself is now seen as old fashioned, and frictionless checkout (walk in and walk out without a checkout process at all) is not only a thing now, but will be all the rage in a few years time.

 

[rob666]

@rob666 will happily regale you with tales of lapping Corkscrew, whilst his mother had tea in the Swiss Cottage.

...on a regular basis.

And not just there either, the railway carriage did a very nice cream tea after lunch service, it moved at least once, and they even did informal bookings, they took names and invited you to come back later.

There was another decent sit down place as well in "Merrie England", and the large self service cafe on Towers Street.

All missing, and missed.

 

[Bowser]

The Self-service formula itself is now seen as old fashioned, and frictionless checkout (walk in and walk out without a checkout process at all) is not only a thing now, but will be all the rage in a few years time.

Legoland already introduced this a year or so ago!

 

[Benzin]

...people will still queue at self-service just to avoid talking to anyone.

I see nothing wrong with this.


I use the self scanning app on my Asda trips. Much easier and far more efficient for me. Especially when shopping trips are more often than not bloody awful because of people.

 

[Mick]

I see nothing wrong with this.


I use the self scanning app on my Asda trips. Much easier and far more efficient for me. Especially when shopping trips are more often than not bloody awful because of people.

Agreed, I use self service wherever available due to ease and efficiency - whether that’s at the supermarket, or in places like Nando’s/Wetherspoons.

However it would seem that the changes to Towers made by Aramark are neither easy to use or efficient, and badly need reviewing.

 

[Rob]

The problem with what Aramark have done at Towers is they've replaced a perfectly good ordering system at Woodcutters (mobile ordering) with a clunkier system that relies on tablet devices and added touch screen ordering to coffee shops which causes longer waits for your order.

It just doesn't make any sense. There will be an additional cost involved with the new tablets and system they have for the ordering at Woodcutters. Maybe this is less than the cost of their mobile ordering software provider, who knows. But I'd be surprised, seeing as it also includes hardware.

Then as Dave has already pointed out, you definitely lose that impact buy from not being able to see what else is on offer at the coffee shops. I usually can't have many sweet treats due to my nut allergy, but they did used to sell some of the pre-packed Costa biscuits which I can have. I'd sometimes pick one of those up when paying for me coffee or tea. No idea whether they will have them or not (I would guess not, seems a strange thing to order on a touch screen) but even if they did, I am far less likely to come across them and therefore buy them.

I'm not sure either change does anything to improve guest satisfaction or even guest spend. But then we've learnt over the years that Alton Towers make stupid decisions that have an adverse effect on guest spend, and then make more cuts because of it!

 

[jon81uk]

I am curious about the market for these style restaurants in a park.

like people are coming to a theme park to ride rides, on a non scarefest / after dark day the park is closing at between 4 and 6, typically the restuants also close at park close so they are expecting people to spend 1 hour or more sitting down in a restaurant rather than ride rides. rollercoaster resturant gets an exception due to its location allowing for hotel guests, but the oak in chains and pizza pasta always confuse me as why do people come to a park, then spend like 1/10th of the time sat in a resturant.

I understand the need for a break, but to me a full sit down meal seems way too long.

Disney, with the exception of a few parks or attractions (e.g the pub in epcot) mostly have quick service resturants, which to me makes more sense as it is quick and easy to get food. even with the added resturants though it makes sense for them as they are open untill like 11, after the typical dinner time and the whole day is very tiring where you need just an hour to relax.

Rita's Chicken & Ribs as a fast-casual bar/restaurant opened in 2007, so thats 18 years of people wanting a plated meal in that location of the park. Seems like there is a market for it.

The Self-service formula itself is now seen as old fashioned, and frictionless checkout (walk in and walk out without a checkout process at all) is not only a thing now, but will be all the rage in a few years time.

I'm not convinced the camera-tracking walk in/out system will go much further, Tesco had one trial store GetGo and has now installed regular self-checkouts there alongside the camera system. Amazon Fresh is continuing but I'm not sure its doing that amazingly.

If anything I can see some stores going back the other way more like Arkwrights in Open All Hours with more products behind the counter to avoid the theft issues.

 

[Leigh]

I'm not convinced the camera-tracking walk in/out system will go much further, Tesco had one trial store GetGo and has now installed regular self-checkouts there alongside the camera system. Amazon Fresh is continuing but I'm not sure its doing that amazingly.

Even that isn’t working well for Amazon. They’ve closed a bunch of smaller stores in the US and are ditching “just walk out” in favour of smart shopping trolleys in the larger ones (partly due to the fact that some 7/10 of orders required human review according to various tech articles)

 

[Alsty]

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but the tablet system at Not Woodcutters was rolled out at the Smokehouse at Chessington at the end of last year. Maybe it was a pilot or maybe they just got it first.



We ordered drinks at the bar, and when we sat down we noticed the tablets on every table. Others were ordering on the tablet and not queuing at the counter. We later ordered more drinks using the tablet, and like at AT had to ask member of staff who did something secretive to apply the annual pass discount.

It seems a little odd to me as I would assume a self-serve counter would be cheaper for Aramark to run than tablets with food bought to your table

 

[Blackrock]

No no no no no, If this triggers a 5 page debate I hope you are banned

Being from Stoke there should obviously be an oatcake stand in every area

 

[Smiley]

Well I call them baps and my wife calls them... Oh wait, wrong forum The brioche bun always gets my vote, but completely agree that is can't be sooo difficult just to serve a standard burger bun. I really don't want a donut burger.

I've queued more than once for a table at Woodcutters, so there is obviously demand. And I'm happy to pay a "park premium", IF I'm getting a good product and good service. The problem is I'm NOT. (I'm also unlikely to leave a tip if I have to order it myself). As far as I'm concerned Merlin/Aramak are leaving a lot of money on the table...

(As for Amazon stores, my local one works perfectly AND presumably has close to 0% theft. Self-scan must be rife with theft/shrinkage in most supermarkets!)

 

[jon81uk]

(As for Amazon stores, my local one works perfectly AND presumably has close to 0% theft. Self-scan must be rife with theft/shrinkage in most supermarkets!)

I’ve walked out with items from Amazon store and then when they sent the receipt a few hours later those items weren’t charged for. So while not theft as I wanted to pay, there is definitely stockloss.

I don’t see any of the other supermarkets going that way and more things like spirits and high value stuff is getting locked away.

But for fast food I think self order screens are here to stay, but I agree with others that removing visible cake counters seems a mistake. I noticed recently that Subway have added touchscreen ordering, so the only advantage of going there ( asking for extra of some salad items) is now redundant.

 

[Smiley]

Supermarkets are already employing "camera tech" on high-value aisles.

 

[GaryH]

I always found the food in woodcutters to be one of the better places in the park to eat, until the introduced ordering by phone and Aramark taking over.

The southern fries chicken wrap with chips was always decent and well priced. I would never be inclined to order the donut burger especially at £19!

 

[tech]

Ask anyone in Merlin marketing the last time they "enjoyed" a theme park as a normal punter. I guarantee - none of them!

You seem to be forgetting though.

Merlin are second ONLY to Disney!! (in terms of guest numbers)

Or, to put it another way,

Merlin are second ONLY to Disney!! Disney!! Like, they're the best in the world, that makes us the second best!!1

/sarcasm