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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

ScottishChris said:
Chester Zoo has a pub in the middle of the Zoo' -it's called the Oakfield. It's food is pricey but really good, as are the drinks and atmosphere The amazing thing is, you really have to book in advance and be lucky to get a table. It should be the hospitality model for any attraction. If they could follow suit (The Old Chained Oak?!?) and build something like this over by the Galactica entrance it could be accessible in the park during opening hours, and remain accessible after hours for hotel guests etc. It could even remain open in to off season and - if modelled on the Oakfield - I am sure it would be popular.
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This is surely the dream. Even moreso if it’s located with a lake view. We’ve all felt the inexplicable alchemy that happens when you can see a body of water and feel a drink In your hand.
 
I had a mixed bag at the weekend for food. Friday night I went to RCR, which I have to say was nice, I had a BBQ chicken melt which I believe is new, it was warm and tasty, and certainly better than what I’ve had in there before. However the pricing is certainly odd, certainly drinks showed one price, then when you went to pay it gave you another price, then adding merlin pass discount you got some random money taken off it, not always 20%. My friend even asked staff to explain it which they couldn’t so they just gave him a full refund for his drink.

Saturday I didn’t eat on park at all, having a breakfast before hand, we then left the park in the Afternoon and ordered Cheadle kebab.

Sunday we did woodcutters, the menu surprisingly hasn’t really changed since Aramark took over, but the prices have risen, however my burger was fine and no real different to previously.


I do agree with others though, it will get to the point where people just won’t bother, I can’t believe how expensive the likes of burger kitchen and just chicken is now, and with a really basic menu of about four things there isn’t much choice either.
 
Is the food another thing that the APs are buggering up? With the 20% discount so ingrained in the perks, and the passes being so prevalent, it seems they have priced food to be discounted, just as they have done with the entrance ticket. That's all very well for passholders, but unlike the gate price vs prebook/voucher with the food there's no option for the non passholder.

The pricing with discount is probably roughly where I'd expect them to be, and should be. The AP discount prevents them pricing sensibly in the first place.
 
It’s a good theory. I’d suggest there’s probably a middle ground they’ve adopted in pitching the prices, so they take account of both pre and post-discount. Effectively what’s the most commercially attractive mix for them to generate the highest turnover.

Or perhaps they’ll just keep testing demand by increasing prices perpetually until nobody buys their food.
 
Benzin said:
Pure greed has been highly regarded up and down the country in the last few years.

Just have to go shopping to see that.
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Totally agree. The food prices are going up not by a few pence as in the past but by 20-50p at a time. But still not enough to warrant the huge rises at the Merlin parks.
 
ScottishChris said:
Using The Bank of England's inflation calculator, if you only counted for inflation the prices should be £16.60 and £9. The price rises are shocking.
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Restaurant prices in general have gone up significantly faster than headline inflation, wages have gone up, gas/electric has gone up a lot, ingredient costs have increased. For example I can remember my usual order of half chicken and two sides at Nando's being around £10.45 (a quick look online seems to show this being about right in 2021 too) and its now £14.45. The inflation calculator shows £11 in 2021 should be £13 now, so that has increased by £1 over the calculator.

The £21 pizza price at AT is a bit riduclous and as I've said before I think they are basing it on the fact Pizza Hut restaurants are now charging that for the weekend buffet bundle, but the Pizza Hut quality is better. But I would definitely expect it to be more than £16.60.

To add, I think part of the issue overall is that a lot of the casual restaurants if anything were too cheaper five years ago, groceries to some extent as well, compared to other countries our prices were low. So its not so much inflation pushing it up a lot now, its that they are coming from a low price.
But the theme park premiums are a different issue.
 
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jon81uk said:
Yes but the Pizza Hut Buffet was a similar price at the time too.
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The only way I feel you can compare Towers' buffet to Pizza Hut is just how low the quality of the product is at Towers in comparison. I don't even think Pizza Hut is very good, but it is lightyears ahead. When you read the reviews of people paying £80+ for a family and what they got for that, you do feel for them.

I would love it is someone from Towers just went to Sainsbury's every morning to buy their pizza and serve that instead of attempting to make their own.
 
Before we get in to the debunked, yet popular myth that the food price inflation we are all seeing across the country is just "profiteering" and "grredflation", that politicians want you to believe as it deflects blame away from them, no one I'm aware of has put up the price of pizza by 50% in the last 3 years.

Unless someone can enlighten me further (with facts, not social media or sensationalist tabloid sourced opinion), who else is selling pizza's, pasta, and soft drinks for 50% higher than they were 3 years ago?

We are all generally paying more for food because it's now more expensive to import, grow, produce, prepare, transport, and sell. Aramark whacking up Pizza Pasta prices as much as 50% is obscene. No one else I know is doing this. An increase of that scale is detached from the wider story of inflation.
 
Matt.GC said:
Before we get in to the debunked, yet popular myth that the food price inflation we are all seeing across the country is just "profiteering" and "grredflation", that politicians want you to believe as it deflects blame away from them, no one I'm aware of has put up the price of pizza by 50% in the last 3 years.

Unless someone can enlighten me further (with facts, not social media or sensationalist tabloid sourced opinion), who else is selling pizza's, pasta, and soft drinks for 50% higher than they were 3 years ago?

We are all generally paying more for food because it's now more expensive to import, grow, produce, prepare, transport, and sell. Aramark whacking up Pizza Pasta prices as much as 50% is obscene. No one else I know is doing this. An increase of that scale is detached from the wider story of inflation.
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I love Towers, but worry they are going down the route of getting people in on the cheap and the gouge every last penny from them. This can be seen in the ticket pricing and deals. I mean, the cost of food & drink, car parking, fast passes, merch... it's all gone a bit ridiculous.
 
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