Food and drink during games

[beew]

I just read this on the Woking forum from their catering manager and I think it gives an excellent insight into the problems all clubs are facing in serving fans food and drinks. Maybe our caterers can take some of their suggestions on board. It does though give us an insight into the rising costs of beer and the recruitment issues that I'm sure we're facing.

Evening all,

Bit of an update. Thank you for all the additional feedback, I'm going to try and clear up as many questions as possible, and focus on some idea's we're going to try and see if it helps.

On the subject of pre-pouring, this is something we 100% have to do, and something I have discussed with Paula (my lovely Assistant), and re-iterated must happen. It is something we have done in the past, however, fell on the way-side Saturday. Unfortunately, I didn't pick up on it, as I was in the Fraser Toms making the food for hospitality and the Seymours Stand (COVID-hit chef). But enough excuses, so here we go:
1. Cardinals Bar - as of tomorrow, the 3 lanes will be further refined. 'Tills 1 & 2', will become 'Draft Beer only lanes' - this will allow us to pre-pour effectively, with the general assumption anyone in that lane, wants a beer! Please head to these lanes for any draft beer options. 'Till 3' will be for anything else and will still take cash payments. We've taken this decision after the speed of service increase in the Fan Zone, which has only draft beer options. By doing this, we can have two people just continually pouring, while 2 take payments. The last lane will be 'made to order' drinks - so the wait will be longer, but will not impact those who only want a quick pint (90% of the fans).
2. More beer points of sale - we have a bar opening in the Seymours Stand imminently - we're taking delivery of the mobile bar (temp measure prior to a longer-term install), prior to the Wrexham game, and this will be a Madri only. Similar to the Fan Zone bar, but with Madri (seeing all the comments made me change tact as it was going to be Carling!) We have the option to borrow additional bars for the huge games, however, are limited by space and the pitch being visible at various points across the ground. We're working on it, so watch this space.
3. A 'second Fan Zone' - once the bar is installed, another area will be opened up outside the Seymours Stand, externally. The concourse will also have internal bar worktops (to lean on your beers with), and eventually a TV. We need to screen the pitch (due to a Thatcher-era law prohibiting beer in view of the pitch anywhere), and will be hoping to do this before the Wrexham game. With the food menu in the SCS now replicating the Red Fan Zone container, we're hoping with the addition of beer, we can migrate some of the traffic from the current Fan Zone up here, reducing the queue times and spreading fans across all the outlets.
4. Staff training - as some have pointed out, we use a number of agency staff on match-days, however, 80% of the team are our own. Last Saturday was a real 'short-straw' kind of day. I spent weeks trying to recruit over the summer, and out of 187 applications, 9 actually responded to calls/emails, and 6 turned up for an agreed interview - just to give you a flavor of the current recruitment scene! We'll continue to work on this as we progress, but I hope naturally they'll pick things up
5. Seymours 'Keep-cups' - these are a great initiative, however as pointed out, there were no return points. We're working on a more suitable long-term solution, however, from tomorrow, the Fan Zone will have 3 designated black lidded bins labeled 'Seymour's return cups', next to a general waste bin. They'll be clearly labeled, so hopefully, people will pop them back in there and their rubbish in the other. The Cardinals Bar will have signage kindly asking people to pop their cups back to the bar as they leave. We opted against a deposit system as these cups were very kindly donated by Seymours, and we had no desire to monetise the fan base further (it also means you don't have to queue up again to get your quid back!) We'll be doing a similar set up in the 2nd Fan Zone when it mobilises
6. Brewery change and beer prices - in short, our Heineken contract was not fit for purpose. I won't divulge all the detail, however, a 13% price increase last season and further increases to come, with no further investment on their end, made it unviable. HUK upped their prices three times last season, and we did not raise our prices at all. With our new contract, Carling is the same price as Fosters, while Madri and other lines have only risen about 6% on average compared to similar alternatives. We're also stocking more local brewery products - Garden Cider, Hogsback, Hepworth, so while you may pay a little more, you are supporting the local community and getting an organic product
Lastly, it's my hope if the chef's back tomorrow, I can work the Cardinals Bar myself with Paula to see these changes in effect, and set the standard moving forward. I didn't want to write a dissertation, so I'll sign off here. Some of you have sent me direct emails with some great ideas and feedback, so I'll get in touch with you directly ASAP. As i say, emails always on, feedback (critical or otherwise), is always acted on, so don't be shy!

See you all tomorrow!

[pgbee]

Not the Fraser Toms?

[John Hunt]

Crowd control to Frazer Toms.

I lost track of the rest of the email when i got to that point.

[hoppy]

The SA are saying the standard of food/drinks at the Tea Hut has improved recently.
I stopped using the Tea Hut a little while ago when they stopped serving tea (?!?!).
If other fans agree with the SA I’m more than happy to resume buying my cuppa/ grub from them again.

[Tuesds]

The SA are saying the standard of food/drinks at the Tea Hut has improved recently.
I stopped using the Tea Hut a little while ago when they stopped serving tea (?!?!).
If other fans agree with the SA I’m more than happy to resume buying my cuppa/ grub from them again.

I’d given up on recent visits due to the half-time queueing time of at least 20 minutes just to get a hot drink. The SA email says that the speed of service has improved along with the range, so likewise I’ll give it a go on my next visit.

[hoofer2]

Don't know what the fanfare is all about. The quality of food is worse - just served a little quicker.

Hotdog was awful for £7.50 - really cheap meat, did not look appetising and barely any onion.

Changing caterers every 2 minutes is not working.

[beew]

They should look at the set up at Borehamwood. Good sized portion of chips and a coffee for £5. All served from a snack wagon half the size of the space afforded to the caterers in Legends..

[CrawleyBee]

Don't know what the fanfare is all about. The quality of food is worse - just served a little quicker.

Hotdog was awful for £7.50 - really cheap meat, did not look appetising and barely any onion.

Changing caterers every 2 minutes is not working.

£7.50 for a hot dog ?? People pay that??

[Reckless]

Why on earth does someone fork out £7.50 for a Hot Dog? With respect to whoever did, you were mugged off. This theme of catering at the THL is neverending and now getting very boring. For Nickys sake, boycott it for a few weeks.

[hoofer2]

Why on earth does someone fork out £7.50 for a Hot Dog? With respect to whoever did, you were mugged off. This theme of catering at the THL is neverending and now getting very boring. For Nickys sake, boycott it for a few weeks.

Needs must on this one -had no time to eat before game and the pies were still not up to temperature to be served. Cumberland sausage usually trumps an over cooked burger...

For me a tea hut is for tea...or in our case a no-tea hut more often than not this season.

[chesbee]

10% off food prices if you show your membership card.

[Beeboardwarrior]

The quality and pricing of the offering is obviously going to have an effect on demand. The biggest issue for me is punters who would happily pay what the club are charging for what is being sold, but can't, due to a lack of staff and or organisation. Legends is a huge bar with plenty of pumps and tills, but supporters have to bunch around the few available staff in a big disorganised queue, hoping they will get served before the second half kicks off.

If the club are selling beer at £6 a pint at a conservative 70% gross profit and pay staff £12 an hour for a 4 hour shift, bar-staff would need to sell a whopping 12 pints for the club to recover staffing costs. I have worked at football stadiums where I have sold more than 12 pints a minute, easy! Regular employed staff who know what they are doing make things a lot easier, but the key is organisation, carefully estimated pre-pouring a bottle only tills really speed things up.

Any business needs to keep staffing costs under control, but I can't help feel that this is one area where the club consistently throw money away.

[john dockers shorts]

Call me old fashioned but I eat before I go to football. Never understand why people waste their money just out of habit to buy a burger etc at 3:45pm. Charge £10 a burger I say!

[pgbee]

Call me old fashioned but I eat before I go to football. Never understand why people waste their money just out of habit to buy a burger etc at 3:45pm. Charge £10 a burger I say!

Access to unsupervised junk food is possibly the reason...

[king45bee]

This may have come up before https://twitter.com/theawayfans/status/ ... v34HA&s=19 wonder how practical for Hive ?

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