Make no bones about it, Aramarks Concession efforts at RFK yesterday for Opening Day were HORRIBLE!! Knowing a huge crowd was expected, Aramark dropped the ball, BIG TIME!! There is no excuse for running out of Hot Dog Buns, Beer or the basic needs. No one came yesterday expecting a 5 Course Meal at The Nationals Game, just the opportunity to eat a hot dog, drink a cold beer and not miss HALF THE GAME STANDING IN LINE. No longer can Aramark stand behind the excuse of the antiquated facilities of RFK STADIUM.
Aramark is A JOKE!!
Yet, Aramark is the largest stadium concessionaire in America, no one comes close. At RFK, their managers are inexperienced, their hired employees for the site--untrained. After reading Aramarks Spokesperson Dave Freireich's say "You're going to have lines at any stadium on Opening Day. By and large, I think they we did a good job (at RFK)." I had to wonder--Dave WHAT PLANET ARE YOU LIVING ON!!
Dave: As usual, I signed up for the Designated Driver Program at RFK yesterday. For signing up, I received a coupon for one free soda. Yet, when I took that coupon to your Aramark Concession Stand. NOT A SINGLE EMPLOYEE KNEW WHAT IT WAS!! In fact, one employee accused me of trying to cheat them out of free soda!! After 15 minutes, nearly one full inning missed, a 5th Aramark, supposed, supervisor finally told all your employees they were WRONG ONCE AGAIN!!
You better believe I went digging for some answers. Fans should NEVER BE TREATED LIKE THIS!! I know that Aramark IS NOT GUARANTEED ANYTHING for the new Nationals Park on South Capitol Street. As far as I am concerned, they can TAKE A HIKE!! Three Years at RFK, Three Strikes & YOU ARE OUT!!
There was a huge meeting after the game between Aramark and The Nationals. Not sure what was exchanged, but warnings are no longer enough. Aramark either delivers or gets kicked out the door. Aramark is an embarrassment.
Oh, and about Hard Times Cafe & Burrito Brothers. They were Aramark Sub-Contractors. The decison for not returning was HTC & Burrito Brothers not coming to an agreement with Aramark, NOT OUR WASHINGTON NATIONALS. If they did not return for Aramark charging them too much rent--that alone should kill Aramarks continuing to work with the Washington Baseball Franchise. Hard Times Cafe & Burrito Brothers were two of the most favorite vendors at RFK STADIUM.
Perception is now reality--Aramarks Nine Lives Are Up!!
10 comments:
Thanks Jeff, I missed 1 and 1/2 innings and stood in 2 lines. The first one told me that the pretzel wasn't ready. The second one said he couldn't ring up nachos on his terminal! The nachos were within enches of his terminal. I miss the kettle corn that they had in 2005 but I didn't like the kettle corn in 2006, different vendors. Biff
SBF - I am also a season ticket holder for the University of Maryland football games. At Byrd Stadium, the University offers local high schools the chance to run a concession stand for a (small) percentage of the take. What I get as a season ticket holder and concession customer is FRIENDLY, CHEERFUL, ENTHUSIASTIC, TOP-NOTCHED SERVICE! These high school kids are trying to make as many sales as they can so the marching band can participate in the Rose Bowl or something similar. I've been a season ticket holder for 3 years. I can't believe I've already had it by game 1.
And this news is a surprise? SBF, did you expect the Learner group to follow through on all the lip service from last year on this issue? Nope too busy on the PLAN and new park to worry about 2007
I havn't seen service this bad at a Nats game since Opening Day 2007. Yesterday I had to go to 3 different lines for hotdogs because every line either was out of dogs or out of buns... They couldn't think to COMBINE THE BUNS IN THE LINES WITH THE DOGS!!!!!!
The line that had both didn't have any beer left so I had to go to another line. I was so hungry I ate my dog while waiting in line for beer.
I am also saddened by the fact the is no longer Hard Times, which was the highlight of last years food additions.
Amem brother on the negative comments about Aramark. The worse game so far! After 3 years, they still can't get the number of hot dogs and buns correct. How can you run out of beer. I use to run an outdoor festival for 3 days with a wide variety of food vendors and they never ran short of food or beer! I'll be bring my own hoagie and beer from now on....
To add on to what 6th & D said, I'm pretty sure this is exactly what Synder does at FedEx field—and I belive it also saves him money. Now, granted, staffing 81 games is far greater than 8, but you reckon Stan would've thought of something.
Does DC United use Aramark? I mean, is RFK locked into a single vendor for all events?
DC United concessions are also done by Aramark. Everyone must also remember that RFK Stadium Concessions are also a deal with The DC Sports & Entertainment Commission. That is a locked in deal, set up by MLB with DCSEC during all the team/stadium wrangling.
SIGH...no black angus chili dogs....no fair!
Thanks, SBF. If you read my Opening Day account, you know that I not only missed the President's Race (and Teddy's Tom Cruise/Mission Impossible imitation - d'oh!) but I missed Uggla's moon-shot home run and Lord knows what else.
Aramark's contract should be terminated. No further evidence is needed, they are guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors as far as many fans are concerned. Their service is supposed to be so good as to be invisible. Instead, it is glaringly bad.
From now on, maybe I skip eating at the stadium altogether and just visit Hard Times in Clarendon after each game.
Oh, and drop me an email, SBF, willya?
Nats320,
As I know this is an old blog, I just read it and found it right on the money. I am an Aramark employee, I work in the Uniform division of Aramark. I was a volunteer for MLB's All-Star FanFest at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan in July 2005. Aramark runs the concessions there and after 5 days of spending my vacation doing something I truly Love, I could not take the most "Horrible" 5 days of the "Worst" Customer service and food I had ever experienced I thought I would dish off a VERY, and I mean VERY Professional letter to the "Bigshots" at Corporate. I thought maybe coming from someone inside the company, you know that shares a financial interest ie.."401K,Profit Sharing" maybe they would appreciate the concern and fix the problems. Oh and I brought it up to some Supervisors in the Concession office, who could not give a Shit! Well lets just say I now know how Shit runs downhill, as I was reprimanded for not going through my Chain of Command, I sent it through my personal email, I was told by my General Manager, that my job was now on the line for noting deficiencies. Wow nice, and the hits just kept coming until I left Detroit 2 years later, for Savannah, Georgia where I dont have to work for that COCK-SUCKING GENERAL MANAGER. I hope they lose the contract for the Nationals
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