Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

[Mick]

Stuff like the themed doughnuts, coach house confectionary etc I don’t mind being a bit over-priced as there’s still an audience that will want the unique themed items.

But the price of the most basic food, such as the burger kitchen and hotdogs etc is a scandalous disgrace, there’s nothing that’s remotely value for money.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I'm happy to be corrected, but it's my understanding that Aramark set the pricing for all of the food in the outlets they control, don't they? The park will likely take a commission, based on their contract terms, but it could also just be a straight forward rental of site agreement.

£39.50 for chicken tenders though, ouch.

 

[Mick]

Rollover hotdog that is identical, and a 500ml bottle of drink is £7.80 at my local football stadium. That's an equally captive-audience profit-driven enterprise as a theme park so in my mind it just shows AT/Merlin are shamelessly price gouging. For comparison, Liverpool FC sell a 9" hot dog and fries for £8.50 too.

A lot of people focus on the ride experience when they do interviews and so on with the park executives and rightly so. But I do feel that more focus should be on this aspect of things, they had last year to "practice" with a new supplier and should be building on it this year.

I saw £7.50 for a nemesis-themed doughnut on facebook for example too. £7.50. for. a. doughnut.

I guess the difference with somewhere like Liverpool is that fans have the choice of purchasing something before/after to avoid paying the inflated prices, there’s a whole host of chippys/burger vans and the like around the ground which are more reasonably priced.

Towers/ Aramark know it’s either pay whatever they charge, bring your own or go hungry and it feels horribly exploitative.

 

[dave___]

I'm happy to be corrected, but it's my understanding that Aramark set the pricing for all of the food in the outlets they control, don't they? The park will likely take a commission, based on their contract terms, but it could also just be a straight forward rental of site agreement.

£39.50 for chicken tenders though, ouch.

I wonder how much of that is baking in an extra 20% on the headline price to avoid any loss of income from annual passholders.

And of course they get an extra 20% bonus profit from anyone who is buying without an annual pass.

 

[Craig]

We won't ever have an idea of the commercial terms of the Aramark deal. But regardless of who controls what price wise, guests see it all as Alton Towers, not as Aramark. It's a really poor show and regardless of who controls pricing and who gets what, it reflects poorly on the park as a whole and is at real risk of affecting wider guest spend.

If people are forced to spend a fortune to eat their lunch, they're going to have less to spend on merchandise and potentially put right off future visits. I get they want to make money, but too much greed on the F+B front will eventually hurt them elsewhere.

 

[dave___]

We won't ever have an idea of the commercial terms of the Aramark deal. But regardless of who controls what price wise, guests see it all as Alton Towers, not as Aramark. It's a really poor show and regardless of who controls pricing and who gets what, it reflects poorly on the park as a whole and is at real risk of affecting wider guest spend.

If people are forced to spend a fortune to eat their lunch, they're going to have less to spend on merchandise and potentially put right off future visits. I get they want to make money, but too much greed on the F+B front will eventually hurt them elsewhere.

We've bought express parking next week and I'll absolutely be filling the car up with stuff for at least one meal. Never done that before but the food price has pushed me to pay £10 for parking instead of £40 for a meal so they are losing £30 from me.

As for memorabilia prices that's for another thread but £100 for a Nemesis hoody......

 

[BarryZola]

I would also like to add that they've completely lost me as a food buyer in the past several years. I used to treat myself to a burger or chicken meal some years back and accepted that I was paying over the odds because it was inside a leisure venue and prices would naturally be a bit higher. But they've not had a penny from me for a few years. These are just mug prices nowadays. I can afford to pay them, but I won't. Because the feeling of being totally mugged off would ruin what should be a good day of escapism. They've way crossed the line of acceptable price rises for me.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

We won't ever have an idea of the commercial terms of the Aramark deal. But regardless of who controls what price wise, guests see it all as Alton Towers, not as Aramark. It's a really poor show and regardless of who controls pricing and who gets what, it reflects poorly on the park as a whole and is at real risk of affecting wider guest spend.

If people are forced to spend a fortune to eat their lunch, they're going to have less to spend on merchandise and potentially put right off future visits. I get they want to make money, but too much greed on the F+B front will eventually hurt them elsewhere.

I suppose the point I was trying to make is that it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Alton Towers have no say or sway in what Aramark are charging for F&B options.

 

[Craig]

I suppose the point I was trying to make is that it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Alton Towers have no say or sway in what Aramark are charging for F&B options.

Oh yeah, I get what you mean but I would be absolutely amazed if Merlin handed a contract to Aramark that said the equivalent of "charge what you want, we don't care how high it goes". There'll almost certainly be caveats in there that allow and require involvement from them.

It's Alton's name on the door at the end of the day and the staff are dressed no differently than directly employee staff - the public perception as a result is they're all exactly the same company. There's no "F+B Guest Services" so it's Alton who (rightly) should take the flack if people are finding pricing and/or food quality hard to stomach. To be completely hands off from things such as pricing as a result would be almost impossible in my view.

Edit: Also 100% agree @BarryZola, I'm actively eating less on resort these days. Eating something off resort before arriving on a Friday for a weekend, we just hung fire for some food on the way back yesterday instead of having something before leaving. More profit but far fewer customers in the long term means fewer outlets and an ever more dwindling amount of choice at the resort. The whole plan a while back appeared to be better options = higher guest spend, but instead we're getting the same or lower quality but considerably higher prices resulting in people just not bothering.

 

[rob666]

Hot dogs in a flask for all then.
When did the big name franchises go?
I lasted about another season after that, then used express parking and posh picnics.
Is eastern express up to standard this year?

 

[Craig]

Eastern Express is sadly very expensive too. You're look at £12 for a mixed wrap I think it was when we looked? It's nice enough, but the price isn't. I can only say anecdotally, but I'm sure the portion sizes have shrunk as well over the years.

 

[Burner]

What I will say about Just Chicken yesterday, the chip portions in a large meal were actually large.

So round of applause for that at least.

 

[Alix]

Oh yeah, I get what you mean but I would be absolutely amazed if Merlin handed a contract to Aramark that said the equivalent of "charge what you want, we don't care how high it goes". There'll almost certainly be caveats in there that allow and require involvement from them.

It's Alton's name on the door at the end of the day and the staff are dressed no differently than directly employee staff - the public perception as a result is they're all exactly the same company. There's no "F+B Guest Services" so it's Alton who (rightly) should take the flack if people are finding pricing and/or food quality hard to stomach. To be completely hands off from things such as pricing as a result would be almost impossible in my view.

Edit: Also 100% agree @BarryZola, I'm actively eating less on resort these days. Eating something off resort before arriving on a Friday for a weekend, we just hung fire for some food on the way back yesterday instead of having something before leaving. More profit but far fewer customers in the long term means fewer outlets and an ever more dwindling amount of choice at the resort. The whole plan a while back appeared to be better options = higher guest spend, but instead we're getting the same or lower quality but considerably higher prices resulting in people just not bothering.

But they don’t take the rap. When I enquired with Towers re vegan options the answer was “I can’t tell you as it’s Aramark and nothing to do with Towers”. Possibly a poorly trained customer services person, but then even staff on the food outlets weren’t particularly knowledgeable about what they were selling. So I can see a similar defence bearing taken by Towers when people complain about the food prices too

 

[Craig]

But they don’t take the rap. When I enquired with Towers re vegan options the answer was “I can’t tell you as it’s Aramark and nothing to do with Towers”. Possibly a poorly trained customer services person, but then even staff on the food outlets weren’t particularly knowledgeable about what they were selling. So I can see a similar defence bearing taken by Towers when people complain about the food prices too

Oh wholly agree on that front, hence the "should" - since I know it's not always occurring at the customer facing end. I seem to remember them doing the old teflon shoulders excuse with the first hygiene ratings at Chessington too. It's lazy and shouldn't be happening when they're selling food on their resort with their branding - especially when there's no reasonable way of bringing it up with Aramark save for catching a manager when on park. I agree that it likely comes from a lack of training and knowledge of dealing with a third party operator, easier to play the blame game than actually take ownership.

But save for a few branded card terminals and allergen guides, the Aramark name is an unknown at the resorts. It's the Merlin brands that are being damaged, and sooner or later they're going to need to actively address it rather than hiding behind the third party excuse.

 

[Katy]

Just like the Eastern Express "No we aren't part of Merlin or Alton Towers so you can't have a discount" line (while wearing AT branded uniform and ID card), to the average customer it's all Alton Towers/Merlin. I mean at least Eastern Express have their logo everywhere so it's a little more forgivable with them.

I'd expect the park to just blame Aramark and do nothing about it until there is sufficient negative press for them to have no choice but to sort it out.

 

[Ryan]

I ate this weekend at Pizza and Pasta, Rollercoaster Restaurant, the new FV chicken place, Woodcutters, and the Stargazing Pod breakfast.

It was all disgusting. Pizza and pasta is the first time at Alton Towers where I've felt truly robbed. £50 for my family and we managed a couple of slices each, and I dared half a scoop of cheese-pasta-mush and couldn't actually swallow after the first forkful. The woodcutters chicken can only be described as chicken roll that's been smushed back together to make a chicken piece, and not a single thing from Rollercoaster Restaurant was warm.

This is my first proper experience of Alton Towers food since Woodcutters was quite new and half decent. I'll be taking my own food, or popping into Alton on longer visits, from now on.

 

[AT86]

I ate this weekend at Pizza and Pasta, Rollercoaster Restaurant, the new FV chicken place, Woodcutters, and the Stargazing Pod breakfast.

Your bank account and stomach have my sympathies.

 

[Poisson]

Woodcutters was decent at the weekend, I'll give them that.

 

[Quantum]

I don't know how they get away with charging these silly prices, It makes me miss the days of KFC and McDonald's. There has to be a point where it gets too much for families and we must be getting close to that now

 

[Ryan]

I must have been very unlucky at Woodcutters then, the chicken that came with the flatbread was almost certainly reformed chicken - it was just rank.

It's such a shame for the park really, because most visits to Alton Towers for me nowadays include some saving up to make sure we can have a proper stay away. so the money is there for them to take from me. I don't actually want to eat my own food or go off park, I want to relax and eat where I like and know it'll be a half decent experience.

And it isn't just about revenue from the food that they might miss out on, but the lack of decent food options is making me question staying on resort for a short break at all. I'd rather day trip and eat like a human being with a picnic and tea in a local pub.

But I don't think they seem to be treating food quality as a part of guest experience, at all.