[News] Open letter from Paul Barber

[WATFORD zero]

Except, if you were any good at reading between the lines, he has.

Barber isn't going to come out and say "it's all down to Brexit" because a) it isn't ALL down to Brexit and b) that's quite a way to alienate a supporter base you're trying to placate with a common message.

However, he does state

In particular, Sodexo’s catering staff numbers are currently over 40% lower than we would like. Unfortunately, filling the gaps we have is proving to be very difficult indeed.

Where do you think those 40% came from and went to? And wasn't Brexit going to provide exactly these sorts of jobs for a British workforce absolutely chomping at the bit to take them?

Hospitality, food processing and logistics are seeing massive staff shortages precisely because their regular workers have left the UK. Ask people in the industry.

Of course, that is down to the perfect storm of a Covid pandemic AND Brexit. Neither on their own would cut an available workforce nearly in half, but it doesn't take a genius to work out that the two things together have. Barber is just far more clever in how he puts it over.

And, by the way Paul, thanks for the email but I'm a little surprised that our fans weren't a bit more prepared as the precise problem talked about in the email was called out in the pre-match brief email. Hence I arrived a good 15 - 20 mins earlier than I normally would and got everything I needed, refreshment wise, in my first visit.

tl.dr!

Really ? With your attention span together with your capacity for detail

 

[Guinness Boy]

tl.dr!

That's the problem with Brexiteers. Attention span of a gnat, especially if long-ish words are involved.

 

[papajaff]

I thought the catering staff done really well. Ok I couldn't get a half time pint which was no problem but money from 4 of us not going in the till. Would have been 5 but ticket exchanging put paid to that.

No covid checks going in WSL for either Everton or Watford, not even a search.

The only sad thing for me is that when I can not make a home game, my seat is going to be empty. Just seems to be a ballache transferring. Maybe I'm lazy but I don't want any recompense when I can't be there, just the seat filled.

 

[GT49er]

Really ? With your attention span together with your capacity for detail

That's the problem with Brexiteers. Attention span of a gnat, especially if long-ish words are involved.

No - strangely doctored predictive text - some clever bugger must have been offended sometime by someone dismissing their ramblings with just four letters and a full stop. It was one thing to alter 'Mike Dean' but .....................

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

What’s happened is Barber has told everyone to arrive hours before kick off but is unable to provide the food and drink fans need to use up the time. Personally I do all my drinking in the pubs and arrive as late as possible but I guess not everyone can do this or wants to.

 

[A1X]

Wow. I did not know that.

You do realise that the club pay a lot of money to Southern to provide an enhanced service to us on Match days? No, well now you do.

So every season ticket holder is also to blame when the trains are shit by your logic?

 

[WATFORD zero]

No - strangely doctored predictive text - some clever bugger must have been offended sometime by someone dismissing their ramblings with just four letters and a full stop. It was one thing to alter 'Mike Dean' but .....................

Maybe we should pick this up over on the Brexit thread where we can discuss job vacancies and worker shortages in detail, rather than derail a thread by posting things about Brexit on it

 

[Guinness Boy]

No - strangely doctored predictive text - some clever bugger must have been offended sometime by someone dismissing their ramblings with just four letters and a full stop. It was one thing to alter 'Mike Dean' but .....................

You'll have to run that past me again.

You've clearly edited your post, removed your quoting of mine and your attempt at a smiley face but left the comment as is. Are you saying NSC is deliberately altering your replies? I suggest you drop me a PM with exactly what you did so I can check for Gremlins.

Or maybe you realised that something you thought was funny made you look a bit silly?

 

[GT49er]

You'll have to run that past me again.

You've clearly edited your post, removed your quoting of mine and your attempt at a smiley face but left the comment as is. Are you saying NSC is deliberately altering your replies? I suggest you drop me a PM with exactly what you did so I can check for Gremlins.

Or maybe you realised that something you thought was funny made you look a bit silly?

Tried to PM you - but it didn't recognise you as a recipient so I'll explain here.

You're puzzled - I was puzzled. I tried to type 'TL.DR' but when saved it was de-capitalised. I tried again, but all that came out was Td.lr; not capitals - I tried fixing it by typing it in a different order - even tried spacing it vertically:
T
L
D
R - but it still came out as small case! I finally got it to accept tL.DR, as shown on my post (by typing it in reverse order but it still downsized the 't') - but even then I see it has reduced it all to small case again when you've quoted it! It was just like trying to type 'Mike Dean' if you actually wanted to type 'Mike Dean' in the days when it was autochanged.
I thought maybe at some point someone had got narked when their long post just got dismissed with 'TL.DR', and so fiddled with it so that TL.DR never came out as typed. Seems OK on subsequent posts though? I am able to post 'TL.DR' here - it just didn't work on that original post.
Weird.

 

[GT49er]

Maybe we should pick this up over on the Brexit thread where we can discuss job vacancies and worker shortages in detail, rather than derail a thread by posting things about Brexit on it

I'm not discussing Brexit, so do one.

 

[chrisg]

There are places outside the ground to eat. What is the obsession with eating at 3.45?
Just eat before the game from the fish and chip or burger van or elsewhere beforehand.

Oh and I never got the email - day ticket buyers maybe not included.

 

[WATFORD zero]

I'm not discussing Brexit, so do one.

I can't imagine why not

It appeared you wanted to within 15 mins of this thread being started, nine posts in

Disgraceful! He's completely and contemptuously dissed the majority on NSC. Not one single aknowledgement that Brexit is solely to blame, even though most on NSC all 'know', rightly or wrongly, that it is! Just how far can a CEO get out of touch with his customer base?

Barber out!

I'm just suggesting that if you have something to say about Brexit, you do it on the Brexit thread where it can be fully discussed and don't try to derail other threads

The offer is always open, on any aspect

 

[Bozza]

You'll have to run that past me again.

You've clearly edited your post, removed your quoting of mine and your attempt at a smiley face but left the comment as is. Are you saying NSC is deliberately altering your replies? I suggest you drop me a PM with exactly what you did so I can check for Gremlins.

Or maybe you realised that something you thought was funny made you look a bit silly?

BTW, a lesser-know bit of NSC functionality is that when someone edits their post you can click on this bit...

Last edited by GT49er;​

...which will take you to a page like this...

https://www.northstandchat.com/posthistory.php?do=compare&p=9987065​

...where you can select two versions of the post, ie the original and the most recent, and compare them to see what has changed.

 

[theboybilly]

Amazed it’s taken 10 years and a Pandemic to get this apology. The catering and stewarding at The Amex has been consistently shite since day dot.

I dont know where you sit but I've had a ST in two places in the North Stand and am now in my 4th season in the West Lower and I couldn't disagree with you more. I've always found the stewarding good, much better than at most away grounds(have you been to Southampton or Chelsea?) For me the catering has never thrown up any issues as far as getting served quickly (or at least in reasonable time at a busy event location)

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Anyone verbally abusing catering staff is a ******* idiot and they can **** off and support ****** as far as i'm concerned.

Obvious it's going to be difficult at the moment.

If supermarkets can't fill their shelves and Maccers can't provide milkshakes, there are clearly bigger forces at play, so why shout at a teenager. Nothing to do with them.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

I wonder if it would be possible to set up a queueing system like they have in airports that snake horizontally, not a vertical queue from the kiosk to the back.

Personally I think it would change overnight if people were allowed to get their alcohol drinks and go straight to their seats. That would mean people would not all stand blocking the back of the concourse having a drink and making the queues squash up. I know it is a UK Government requirement, but so is the standing at games which is being looked at…BTW can’t see our club ripping out seats or putting in rails in our shiny stadium so I think leave that as it is ( as it is in the NS and visiting areas)

 

[Knotty]

Amazed it’s taken 10 years and a Pandemic to get this apology. The catering and stewarding at The Amex has been consistently shite since day dot.

What a ridiculous, miserable and mean generalisation. ‘Kid’ appears to be entirely appropriate.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Amazed it’s taken 10 years and a Pandemic to get this apology. The catering and stewarding at The Amex has been consistently shite since day dot.

I’ve always found the WSU stewards very good especially at the turnstiles just up from Dick’s Bar.
I can’t comment on other stands.

 

[GT49er]

I can't imagine why not

It appeared you wanted to within 15 mins of this thread being started, nine posts in



I'm just suggesting that if you have something to say about Brexit, you do it on the Brexit thread where it can be fully discussed and don't try to derail other threads

The offer is always open, on any aspect

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

To be honest the club could do without any more fans turning up

And yet they've chosen to add more seats for this season - are you saying that they want these to remain empty?