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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

I can see there being an increase in complaints with this extortionate pricing. If people are paying £13 for a burger and chips, their expectations are going to be quite high. When they receive the sort of food Burger Kitchen routinely churn out, I can imagine there will be some pretty angry customers.
 
I noticed today that Aramark have done some menu changes at Burger Kitchen (as posted a few pages back) and also Just Chicken. There are loads of new options and probably more choice then before, however the descriptions are quite vague on some things to actually know what you are getting. They have also had price rises, the second of the 2023 season.

One thing I spotted today was a bottle of water in Just chicken is £3.10, it’s £3.00 in most of the other Aramark places, and then it’s £2.70 in a towers run outlet!

Here’s a few pics of the Just Chicken menu:
0105FB95-335D-4B83-9060-D73D66146FEB.jpeg4D4F25AD-C3A4-4336-B78A-B226FD8990BA.jpeg2390DCD7-88E1-4337-AA4F-76DD1C364B1F.jpeg

Also the screens at Burger Kitchen hasn’t had the new photos like Chessie.
 
It’s only been open a month and prices have gone up???? Looking at the reviews of the towers hotels, theme park and outlets they have been mostly negative with focus on the price and quality. I’m really hoping Merlin rethink this dreadful decision to go with Aramark.

And the prison food photo….. any company which is willing to serve that to people regardless if they are prisoners is not up to providing food for others. Morally how can a company serve that slop to people, and I have no trust or faith in what they are supplying other establishments. It’s obviously profits first quality last.
 
Ate at Roller Coaster Restaurant today.
Menu very limited now. Food was pretty poor. Worse quality burger than you get from Maccies but substantially more expensive.

Seem to like mixing up peoples orders too. Right table, wrong seat number seemed to be theme of the day 😂 . Also toilets in there were an utter disgrace too. On the plus side the staff were very pleasant
 
Well you still got to eat at the park. We use to have breakfast at home, buy lunch in CBeebies then go for a meal on the way home.
Now we eat breakfast at home, bring our own lunch and now eat in the park before coming home.
I wish the towers street restaurant came back as they served lovely breakfast’s at the start of the day and dinner after the queues had closed.
 
The prison stuff is irrelevant in terms of quality of food at theme parks, they choose ingredients to maximise profit on the budget/price available. At the prisons they would be given only a few pounds/dollars per person per day so the only thing they can do to make more money is drop quality. At the theme parks they can drop quality and increase prices.

If you want to avoid companies that have contracts to supply prisons then there is quite a lot of companies you might need to boycott!

Also Aramark run the catering at a lot of stadiums in the USA which in theory could be comparable to the theme park operations, but I think they have more control creating their own branding.
 
Point I’m making is that if a company feels that serving that slop to human beings is acceptable be it in a prison or a theme park then they have no morals. You only have to search online for complaints about food quality not just in prisons but colleges and universities too.

So from the point of view of ethics to me yes it is acceptable to compare their food at different venues regardless of the setting as, to me, it reveals the real company values underneath.

Edit: I don’t have a problem with a company supplying a prison with food. I do have a problem when that company has been linked to prison riots and complaints of maggots in the food at prisons to whom they supply. I also have a problem eating from a company where university students report being ill from their food. Who is to say the meals are not prepared in the same factories?
 
I think people are missing the point here. It’s not the fact that Aramark cater for prisons that’s being berated, but rather the extremely poor quality of food being served there.

I have an American friend who’s uni switched catering to Aramark, and it did not go well at all


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rob666 said:
Morals and profits do not equate.
Normally one or the other, with any large company.
Click to expand...
But surely they can go hand in hand with each other? If you provide a good quality service, surely that will generate higher profits in the long run due to people wanting to return and new people hearing good things about your product?
 
When you go to theme parks you expect to be charged more than on a high street for food but when your seeing the burger kitchen and just chicken charging 2 to 3 times more than a McDonald's or a KFC charge, but also clearly of a much worse quality as well it's hard to accept it's nothing more than gouging customers for as much as they can get.
 
It’s not just the poor quality of the food though - look at the extremely poor wages they are offering their staff.
 
I'm afraid I have not known any theme park catering staff who have ever been paid much above minimum wage.
Many of the jobs are often only contracted for 20 hour weeks, so "overtime" is at standard rates for the first twenty extra hours.
Those shareholders deserve their profits more than the workers deserve a decent living wage.
Obvious really.
 
I’m visiting again mid June for my birthday and for the first time ever since visiting as an adult since 2009, we’ll be bringing our own food this time.

As a kid, we did a mix of McDonald’s and packed lunches as a family in the 90s, but since growing up I’ve always been keen on eating in restaurants on park. Couple of beers and a decent burger in Woodcutters was always my go to. I was actually always against bringing in sandwiches because I wanted the full theme park experience of a sit down lunch in a themed restaurant.

Now? The food is worse than a basic Spoons burger but is quadruple
the price. The entire F&B offering is a totally overpriced joke and I hope this Aramark contract fails miserably and huge losses are made.

My visit in June will involve us bringing a baguette, some cooked meat, cheeses, crisps and pork pies. And for around £6, my wife and I will get a lovely packed lunch overlooking the lake.

Shame really, but we are where we are with F&B on the park.
 
Sorry, we have had a posh picnic on express parking for a decade or two, not actually inside the gates.
My wife does love a hip flask of vodka to go with the souvenir soft drink cup though.
Not sure if a couple of beers would be pulled in a lawn picnic, but I don't actually know.
 
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