Catering

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I don't want to sound all high and mighty although I probably will -but there is some reasonably basic maths/simulation/queue
theory to plug in different models to **estimate** the likely serving time. Even rough would surely be on improvement on last night.

If we had the right data - it would be trivial. For Christ's sake - we must be talking 10's of 000s £ lost across the season because of the
poor situation.

We're possibly talking about that level of lost sales PER GAME. In WSU alone, it would only equate to a thousand people unable to get served with an average potential spend of £10 per person. The figures are probably MUCH higher.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Arrived in the WSU South End at about 6.50. No queue at that time but had one person in front of me, It took the girl about three minutes to get them two bottles of coke. I then had the following conversation with my server.

Her: Yes? (in thick accent)
Me: Can I have two steak pies, a bottle of water and a pint of Harvey's please?
Her: What?
Me: Harvey's.. H-A-R-V-E-Y-S.
Her: What that?
Me: beer?
Her: Where?
Me: That one (*points*). The one they are pulling with the big handle.
Her: Oh, ok, that one. What else? (*stares blankly at till*)
Me: Two steak pies and a bottle of water please.
Her: Ok
(Girl wanders off to hot pies. Comes back with one. Puts it down. Wanders back to hot pies again. Gets another one. Puts it down. Rummages around fridge for water for thirty seconds. Finds one. Puts it down. Adds up and takes my money which includes the beer she hasn't retrieved yet).
Me: Here you are. Can I have my beer please?
Her: What?
Me: Beer.
Her: What?
Me: B-E-E-R. Like he's pouring with the long handle.
Her: Ah, yes.

By this time there were about eight people behind me.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Arrived in the WSU South End at about 6.50. No queue at that time but had one person in front of me, It took the girl about three minutes to get them two bottles of coke. I then had the following conversation with my server.

Her: Yes? (in thick accent)
Me: Can I have two steak pies, a bottle of water and a pint of Harvey's please?
Her: What?
Me: Harvey's.. H-A-R-V-E-Y-S.
Her: What that?
Me: beer?
Her: Where?
Me: That one (*points*). The one they are pulling with the big handle.
Her: Oh, ok, that one. What else? (*stares blankly at till*)
Me: Two steak pies and a bottle of water please.
Her: Ok
(Girl wanders off to hot pies. Comes back with one. Puts it down. Wanders back to hot pies again. Gets another one. Puts it down. Rummages around fridge for water for thirty seconds. Finds one. Puts it down. Adds up and takes my money which includes the beer she hasn't retrieved yet).
Me: Here you are. Can I have my beer please?
Her: What?
Me: Beer.
Her: What?
Me: B-E-E-R. Like he's pouring with the long handle.
Her: Ah, yes.

By this time there were about eight people behind me.

Funny now reading that but not funny at the time, painful.
I've given up trying to buy anything before matches, will probably buy a beer after the game now and again, but it's hard work trying to ask for more than one item.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Arrived in the WSU South End at about 6.50. No queue at that time but had one person in front of me, It took the girl about three minutes to get them two bottles of coke. I then had the following conversation with my server.

Her: Yes? (in thick accent)
Me: Can I have two steak pies, a bottle of water and a pint of Harvey's please?
Her: What?
Me: Harvey's.. H-A-R-V-E-Y-S.
Her: What that?
Me: beer?
Her: Where?
Me: That one (*points*). The one they are pulling with the big handle.
Her: Oh, ok, that one. What else? (*stares blankly at till*)
Me: Two steak pies and a bottle of water please.
Her: Ok
(Girl wanders off to hot pies. Comes back with one. Puts it down. Wanders back to hot pies again. Gets another one. Puts it down. Rummages around fridge for water for thirty seconds. Finds one. Puts it down. Adds up and takes my money which includes the beer she hasn't retrieved yet).
Me: Here you are. Can I have my beer please?
Her: What?
Me: Beer.
Her: What?
Me: B-E-E-R. Like he's pouring with the long handle.
Her: Ah, yes.

By this time there were about eight people behind me.

Looking forward to seeing PB try to put a positive spin on THAT one!

 

[BN9 BHA]

Looking forward to seeing PB put a positive spin on THAT one!

* spits out beer *

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

Funny now reading that but not funny at the time, painful.
I've given up trying to buy anything before matches, will probably buy a beer after the game now and again, but it's hard work trying to ask for more than one item.

Knocked off work early and in The Swan by 5pm.
Three pints in the beer garden.
After having to renew my season ticket coz it didn't work I managed to get two more pints after the full time whistle.
This is a new Low on beer consumption in my life

 

[BN9 BHA]

Knocked off work early and in The Swan by 5pm.
Three pints in the beer garden.
After having to renew my season ticket coz it didn't work I managed to get two more pints after the full time whistle.
This is a new Low on beer consumption in my life

How come Wrong un got to the Swan at 4? You're slacking Simmo

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

How come Wrong un got to the Swan at 4? You're slacking Simmo

He told me to meet up at five - what a dipstick!he could not talk English after the match

 

[BN9 BHA]

He told me to meet up at five - what a dipstick!he could not talk English after the match

What do you mean, after the match?

 

[The Birdman]

Knocked off work early and in The Swan by 5pm.
Three pints in the beer garden.
After having to renew my season ticket coz it didn't work I managed to get two more pints after the full time whistle.
This is a new Low on beer consumption in my life

TB Buys the pub that stop you drinking to much.

 

[Ernest]

Looking forward to seeing PB try to put a positive spin on THAT one!

[MENTION=24867]chaileyjem[/MENTION] typing as we wait

 

[BN9 BHA]

[MENTION=24867]chaileyjem[/MENTION] typing as we wait

 

[Stuart Munday]

The staff at the Swan could teach them lessons, obviously not expecting so many people as ran out of burgers but got through the queues really quickly and seemed very organised.

 

[Randsta]

It took 20 mins to get my pie @ Half time in the north stand!!

 

[warlingham seagull]

WSU north kiosk advertised kronenbourg but didn't have it. Middle kiosk didn't advertise it but did have it! Middle kiosk long queues as not all tills were open but staff seemed to know what they were doing

 

[BN9 BHA]

WSU north kiosk advertised kronenbourg but didn't have it. Middle kiosk didn't advertise it but did have it! Middle kiosk long queues as not all tills were open but staff seemed to know what they were doing

Don't think the north kiosk in WSU has ever sold Kronenbourg, but the middle one has.

 

[Billy the Fish]

I just don't get why it's not easy though. Why is selling a handful of items at dates and times you know weeks, if not months, in advance so difficult? I can only guess that it's short-sightedness in paying minimum wage which prohibits them employing proper "event" bar and catering staff?

I guess what I should've said was cost effective.

There's so many variables in this that it's impossible to make an informed comment without knowing the costs of experienced event staff vs agency staff and how much difference it makes to their bottom line.

4ish hours at the Amex on a Friday night must be at the bottom end of what you can earn as a caterer, I bet it's difficult to even get enough staff on a Friday night let alone experienced ones. Also the predicted travel chaos wouldn't have helped.
The saving grace for the Amex is uni students who can stroll over from the halls for a few hours and earn some easy pocket money, but they're not there at this time of year.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I guess what I should've said was cost effective.

There's so many variables in this that it's impossible to make an informed comment without knowing the costs of experienced event staff vs agency staff and how much difference it makes to their bottom line.

4ish hours at the Amex on a Friday night must be at the bottom end of what you can earn as a caterer, I bet it's difficult to even get enough staff on a Friday night let alone experienced ones. Also the predicted travel chaos wouldn't have helped.
The saving grace for the Amex is uni students who can stroll over from the halls for a few hours and earn some easy pocket money, but they're not there at this time of year.

Seems to me that the club and the caterers in tandem should set themselves a simple goal / 'mission statement' of being able to enable every person who wishes to spend some money on catering in the stadium to do so. Currently they must miss out on up to 90% of the potential spend. Nobody in WSU should EVER have to spend 40 minutes queueing for a pie and a pint before the game, as was reported yesterday. That's a massive corporate failure. That money is gone forever. If the club can't cater for 12K WSU catering punters before the game inside the stadium, then they should be catering for them outside the stadium by way of multiple outlets and a staggered arrival time. It truly, madly, deeply isn't that difficult. Sake!

 

[warlingham seagull]

Don't think the north kiosk in WSU has ever sold Kronenbourg, but the middle one has.

Quite. They put the wrong menus up

 

[Mr Putdown]

Arrived in the WSU South Her: Yes? (in thick accent)
Me: Can I have two steak pies, a bottle of water and a pint of Harvey's please?
Her: What?
Me: Harvey's.. H-A-R-V-E-Y-S.

Out of interest, when she said "what"?, why did you spell out the last item you ordered rather than the first?

Probably more to the point, what was Guiness Boy doing even ordering Harvey's?

Fish.