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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

rob666 said:
Virtually one whole side of Towers St could be converted into a single spoons, all the service stuff and exit shop on the other side.
Could have an "off peak closed" portion, like the top of the Velvet...bring it on.
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It would be good - trouble is Alton does not have much out of season trade compared to Blackpool, so the logistics & potential wastage on food could be an issue. That said, most stuff at 'Spoons comes in frozen and is nuked in a microwave. (Much like Aramark I guess!)

Sadly we have no chance of seeing this happen until the Aramark contract gets so much bad publicity that Merlin want to walk away. This does happen with outsourcing - a previous employer of mine outsourced their IT to two different companies on 7 year deals, with break-clauses on year 4. They invoked one of the break-clauses - and oddly it was the one with the company who were were performing better, we all expected my ex-employer to get the break clause invoked.
 
WillPS said:
Wetherspoons becoming unofficial catering supplier to BPB has markedly improved the food experience there.

(Although in fairness I never had a bad experience of breakfast at The Big Blue, back in the days it wasn't £17.95 each!)
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I assume you’re just talking about the Velvet Coaster or are they actually supplying BPB?
 
Just the Velvet.
The unsourced, unconfirmed rumour from the Beach was they were coaching in staff from thirty miles away.
Allegedly.
 
Kraken27 said:
That said, most stuff at 'Spoons comes in frozen and is nuked in a microwave. (Much like Aramark I guess!)
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Not quite true. If they can grill it or deep fry it then that’s how it’s cooked. But it’s the same at most big pub chains and Nando’s.
At Nando’s the chicken is grilled, chips deep fried and most of the rest microwaved, yet people are snobby about Wetherspoons who grill burgers and steaks and deep fry chips and onion rings, then microwave curry/rice.
 
Never understood the snobbery about a British company that offers unpretentious decent food at far lower prices than they need to, include virtually any drink, support local breweries, pay a significant portion of their profits to their staff in bonuses (admittedly they basic pay is minimum wage, but so are their rivals) and raise millions for Children's cancer charities, whilst doing an amazing job rescuing many old buildings.

The claim that TM sacked his staff during COVID was completely untrue.

Anyway, back to Towers. Last time I stayed at ATH, half a decade ago, the breakfast was pricey, but very nice. The evening meals at the secret garden however we're very disappointing.

Can't comment from recent first hand experience, but breakfast looks really grim now.

Was never a fan of McDonalds / Burger King, but The Burger Kitchen and Fried Chicken were entirely tasteless not to mention luke warm whenever I had them and I suspect that they only get trade due to the captive audience.

It's a shame as it should be possible to serve good food that people enjoy rather than endure whilst making a profit.

They don't seem to have ever tried it.

Not sure about half a dozen John Smith's followed by a ride on The Smiler though...
 
I hate all this self service stuff. To me it’s just an excuse to provide even worse service than before. Anyone who uses a self service checkout knows it can take twice as long than if you went to a manned checkout.

If I’m serving myself I want money off my bill!!!
 
It's all about the bottom line. I think Self Service is good as an option, but when you're in a theme park, the member of staff have the opportunity to sparkle some joy in a guest's day.

Not the case with screens.
 
Skyscraper said:
I hope there's still a staffed window to pay cash!
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I suspect there will have to be a staffed window for cash payment, as not all under 16's have bank debit cards / pre-paid cards like Go-Henry etc. I know this is a big problem McDonalds had with their drive for "Made for You", i.e. the self-order kiosks. At motorway service stations they could be ticking along just fine on the kiosks for orders, then a couple of school trip coach-loads turn up at the same time and they are, to put it politely, screwed.

Quite how Merlin claim there is any product excellence in their "resort" offerings is beyond me. I'd be looking to replace the entire product excellence team if I was in charge.
 
Benzin said:
Wetherspoons themselves published a magazine stating anything negative said about them or Tim Martin is categorically untrue eh?

Funny that really. No smoke without fire though and he has somewhat gone off the deep end in recent years.
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2 words, 'verifiable sources'. Has he? Or is that what you have read in news papers?

Anyway, I am guessing that if hypothetically speaking, they did get a spoons at Towers, it would be the airport pricing model, quite a bit more expensive. To the point I then question it's value.
 
I don't mind self-service as long as the software is decent and allows for customisation/requests. Burger Kitchen and Just Chicken are grab-and-go options so machines are fine in these.

Love the way they've thrown the walls up. Nothing to see here. Old counters behind this wall? No....

I know the Wetherspoons chat was a bit back. When we look at the range of food a 'Spoons can offer, that's really what Towers could do with. A pub-type venue with a big menu that covers a wide range of options. Towers is very limited for food options and it's even worse for non-meat eaters. Someone said quite rightly a few pages back, Towers is stuck in a 1990s food model.
 
AstroDan said:
It's all about the bottom line. I think Self Service is good as an option, but when you're in a theme park, the member of staff have the opportunity to sparkle some joy in a guest's day.

Not the case with screens.
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Not the case with the real world either.
Visited the Towers a lot over the years, no member of staff in a food place has had the opportunity to sparkle since the Swiss Cottage, sorry.
 
Regarding the self service - I totally accept that this was inevitable with or without Aramark, the world moves on and fair enough. Merlin had been working up plans to replace staff with screens in various roles for many years and shouting about it in investor presentations before they went private, and they aren’t alone since most businesses are at it now.

But as always it’s the way it’s done that makes the difference. The Just Chicken place has left a relatively small counter for collection which I imagine will be chaos on a busy day with people waiting for food, let alone anyone trying to pay cash or query a wrong order. School trip season will be interesting with many more guests wanting to pay cash.

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GaryH said:
I hate all this self service stuff. To me it’s just an excuse to provide even worse service than before. Anyone who uses a self service checkout knows it can take twice as long than if you went to a manned checkout.

If I’m serving myself I want money off my bill!!!
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I’ve no issue with self service. Pretty much all the food and beverage options at Efteling are self service and you can even order online. Most people agree it’s a wonderful theme park.

Also, these are fast food restaurants. Every KFC, Mc Donald’s, Burger King, Tim Hortons etc is self service. Why should it be different just because it’s a theme park?

Self service is fine; I prefer it to be honest.
 
GaryH said:
Mc Donald’s was waaaaaay quicker before self service came in. It’s a ruddy nightmare now
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I think that's a consequence of them changing from a just-in-time model (where everything other than custom orders would be sat wrapped and waiting on the hot counter) to cooking (or at least preparing) everything to order.

I accept that in many (but not all) branches the self service screens appeared at the same time they changed over, but AIUI the move was about improving product quality, increasing menu size and decreasing food waste rather than enabling self-service. Indeed, you can have self service even with a cabinet full of ready-to-go product - Itsu for example.
 
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