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Mileoakman

Well-known member
Aug 11, 2003
1,047
The name gives it away
Isn't part of the problem with catering of this type, that the staff are almost semi-part time. Apart from the poor training most of them have had and the piss poor pay rate they get, it must be great to be in a job that says come in Saturday , next Tuesday evening and then sod off until the middle of next month!

The staff in the concourses that I have dealt with, (with a few honorable exceptions), give the impression that they have had no training, don't know how anything works and basically couldn't give a stuff.

In the Becks 1901 lounge where I usually reside it has got better since they ditched the restaurant meals and have given the space over to the drinkers. Now its just pies and snacks which is fine for 95% of us and long may it continue.

I really would like the club to have a serious think about running this service in-house in future because I resent giving substantial profits to an outside company who have no intrest other than themselves, when said profits could be used directly for the betterment of the club. Whoever does do it however, it would be nice if they could get the price lists and till prices to agree for once as I am pissed off being charged more than I'm supposed to be, (yes I have told them, more than once, but nothing changes).
 




The Large One

Who's Next?
Jul 7, 2003
52,343
97.2FM
The thing that is going to come of all this - hopefully - is that when the catering tender comes up, those who take part are going to see that this is one of the most lucrative catering contracts in English football. This puts the club in a strong position regarding rules, requirements and standards. So if supporters want Harvey's and Piglet's for instance (and numbers indicate they do), the club will insist on that kind of thing being part of the tender.

The firing of Azure also sends out a message that the club has no problem getting rid of under-performers in pretty short order.
 


GreersElbow

New member
Jan 5, 2012
4,870
A Northern Outpost
Isn't part of the problem with catering of this type, that the staff are almost semi-part time. Apart from the poor training most of them have had and the piss poor pay rate they get, it must be great to be in a job that says come in Saturday , next Tuesday evening and then sod off until the middle of next month!

The staff in the concourses that I have dealt with, (with a few honorable exceptions), give the impression that they have had no training, don't know how anything works and basically couldn't give a stuff.

In the Becks 1901 lounge where I usually reside it has got better since they ditched the restaurant meals and have given the space over to the drinkers. Now its just pies and snacks which is fine for 95% of us and long may it continue.

I really would like the club to have a serious think about running this service in-house in future because I resent giving substantial profits to an outside company who have no intrest other than themselves, when said profits could be used directly for the betterment of the club. Whoever does do it however, it would be nice if they could get the price lists and till prices to agree for once as I am pissed off being charged more than I'm supposed to be, (yes I have told them, more than once, but nothing changes).

Piss-poor? isn't it like £7.30 an hour?
 




The screamer

NSC's biggest geek
Apr 2, 2010
752
Portsmouth
I do, I have worked in venues all my adult life. I can tell you now that the way the catering has been organised is an absolute shambles. If there are supervisors on each kiosk they are the invisible men of the operation. The number of times they run out of beer is unacceptable, ale I can understand but lager basically never goes off. The pies are inconsistently cooked, the burgers a complete joke and the knowledge levels of the staff is unacceptable. Give me two matches of running one kiosk and I would have it running smoother than it does now, guaranteed. It all comes down to training and having effective systems in place, at the Amex it appears that neither of these things exist.

But people could say I'm the invisible man... I try to be but I'm not always visible as I'm in the cellar changing a barrel or getting chance from the office or stock from the basement... then if there's a problem I'm there ASAP
 








Pantani

Il Pirata
Dec 3, 2008
5,445
Newcastle
But people could say I'm the invisible man... I try to be but I'm not always visible as I'm in the cellar changing a barrel or getting chance from the office or stock from the basement... then if there's a problem I'm there ASAP

I'm sure you are, sounds like you are very good at your job. Knowing this type of work as you do, surely you can see that there are problems at the Amex that could easily be fixed. The whole system on the kiosks is inefficient as it currently stands. Part of the problem is the way they are laid out, but it is clear that service, even within these limitations, could be much slicker. You can tell the difference when you get one of the better staff at a till, that queue goes twice as fast as the one next to it.

One example that springs to mind, is the pie and pint only kiosk in the North Stand. The last two times I was there they had one person manning the till while the other person poured all the drinks and got all the pies. The till guy would just stand there until the drinks guy had finished, then move on to the next customer when he could be helping pour or collect the pies or take the next order.

Frequently there will be staff going to the wrong place in the main kiosks when collecting drinks. Which is obviously down to training but should not still be happening a year and a half down the line. The wrong pie is handed over frequently, again this should never happen, but it still does. The whole thing just smacks of a lack of organisation and leadership to me, and is unacceptable from a company as large as Azure who were making so much money from this contract.
 
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seagullondon

New member
Mar 15, 2011
4,442
Hopefully this means chips.

IF YOU'RE READING THIS BARBER, DO IT! :thumbsup:
 


Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
60,115
The Fatherland
At one point the mini pies were not Piglets, and were from some Scottish outfit - you posted about it yourself.

Fair point but this was for one game only. It was a Scottish company which provided a scotch pie. Piglets now do the scotch pies as well.
 




The screamer

NSC's biggest geek
Apr 2, 2010
752
Portsmouth
I'm sure you are, sounds like you are very good at your job. Knowing this type of work as you do, surely you can see that there are problems at the Amex that could easily be fixed. The whole system on the kiosks is inefficient as it currently stands. Part of the problem is the way they are laid out, but it is clear that service, even within these limitations, could be much slicker. You can tell the difference when you get one of the better staff at a till, that queue goes twice as fast as the one next to it.

One example that springs to mind, is the pie and pint only kiosk in the North Stand. The last two times I was there they had one person manning the till while the other person poured all the drinks and got all the pies. The till guy would just stand there until the drinks guy had finished, then move on to the next customer when he could be helping pour or collect the pies or take the next order.

Frequently there will be staff going to the wrong place in the main kiosks when collecting drinks. Which is obviously down to training but should not still be happening a year and a half down the line. The wrong pie is handed over frequently, again this should never happen, but it still does. The whole thing just smacks of a lack of organisation and leadership to me, and is unacceptable from a company as large as Azure who were making so much money from this contract.

I understand this fully, and as i said to someone else earlier on it seemed the attack was on the till staff, and yes some are utter crap at their job, but as you've just mentioned it isn't their fault and is down to poor management who now at the top on the ladder forget about the difficulties for the lower down staff and make the job very difficult for them especially with the lack of training and support given. The boy however on the pie and pint only kiosk needs shooting, if that happened on my bar he would be sorry, Lazy sod!
 


Silverhatch

Well-known member
Feb 23, 2009
4,419
Preston Park
The club drove such a hard bargain with Azure that they couldn't make the numbers work running the catering operation. As has been said on many other threads the club is run professionally and Azure probably signed up to minimum revenue guarantees to get the business but were probably staggered by the demand and couldn't afford to get the service levels right. Azure are probably happy to be out of it and the club are probably happy to be able to work with a new caterer and balance service provision with cash generation. Please just have one person serving Harveys and one taking money.
 






Washie

Well-known member
Jun 20, 2011
5,669
Eastbourne
I must admit, for the last game, i was a team leader. I was given no training in this role and no information. The cook i was given didn't even know how the oven worked (luckily i was a cashier beforehand and at least knew how to work it). To be honest, i'm glad they are gone, i was really close to quitting as it wasn't fair on us, and more importantly, it was really out of order on you guys.
 










Questions

Habitual User
Oct 18, 2006
24,978
Worthing
It was hilarious watching the young lad and lass trying to pour the Harvey's and Hophead and take the dosh before the Peterborough game recently in the WSU. As for asking for a half for the missus ? Don't even go there.
 


fleet

Well-known member
Jul 28, 2003
12,229
You can't charge premium prices and have staff who don't have a clue what they are doing and then hope it will be OK if you have a few people come around and ask if everything is fine. Good decision I think, although I did like Jo and Ashleigh - I wonder if they will still be around or not.
 


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