Food Service in Stadium

[Saint Puppy]

If you think Rutgers hands are tied in this situation you are absolutely wrong. Like any client relationship Rutgers can start pushing the envelope and tell them that they are unhappy with the quality. The fans have spoken and are speaking loudly of their displeasure. I'm sure this isn't the only tier of Sodexo food and Rutgers can surely upgrade. Contract is not forever and Sodexo will not want to go silently into the night. Agree that this went to the lowest bidder....,well because this is Rutgers after all.

 

[ruhudsonfan]

If you think Rutgers hands are tied in this situation you are absolutely wrong. Like any client relationship Rutgers can start pushing the envelope and tell them that they are unhappy with the quality. The fans have spoken and are speaking loudly of their displeasure. I'm sure this isn't the only tier of Sodexo food and Rutgers can surely upgrade. Contract is not forever and Sodexo will not want to go silently into the night. Agree that this went to the lowest bidder....,well because this is Rutgers after all.

Exactly

And I know the business far too well to believe that roving supervision, ensuring that pretzels are not served frozen, ice cream melted and gatorade warm is cost driven. It's a lack of attention to detail that is cultural at RU. And yes, as the client, RU should have members of the AD walking the stadium eating and trying food. And then smacking the Sodexo engagement manager around when things are sub par.

Service providers give you the product you demand. The AD has accepted crap since the time of the Flood. It will take one serious conversation to reverse what is going on there.

A simple, "we are willing to break the contract if you don't improve quality" will get a thorough response.

 

[srru86]

Perhaps I am biased after eating a Sodexho lunch nearly daily for 12 years but I am surprised they are not more on top of this. I presumed they would have looked at this as a opportunity to shine with the prospect maybe someday being in the running to take over the campus food service operation which would be a much bigger deal than 7 stadium outings a year.

 

[Knight Shift]

Citi Field food is better but we aren't getting any of those restaurants or chefs to open up shop here.

Do the guys who walk up and down the stands work for multiple companies? There's a guy at Citi who has a very distinctive pitch (really tall guy with bad teeth and Brooklyn accent who

Perhaps I am biased after eating a Sodexho lunch nearly daily for 12 years but I am surprised they are not more on top of this. I presumed they would have looked at this as a opportunity to shine with the prospect maybe someday being in the running to take over the campus food service operation which would be a much bigger deal than 7 stadium outings a year.

Have you seen the Urban Dictionary entry for Sodexho?:

sodexho
1. adj. Extremely bad tasting, nearly to the point of torture.

2. adj. A state of extreme illness caused by low-quality cafeteria food.
1. That pile of steaming sh*t I just ate tasted almost as bad a sodexho.

2. I feel really sodexho; I think I'm going to puke and have diarrhea at the same time.

 

[cicero grimes]

I don't see why we cannot do something like they do at West Point. They fence off an entire area immediately outside the stadium and have craft food and beer vendors available with better selections than you get in our Stadium. They set their security gates up outside this area so there is no issue about re-entry. I get it about the beer but there is no reason some local food vendors could not set up shop directly outside HP in a secured area and give the fans better food choices. I can honestly say other than a pretzel, I have never bought any food inside in all the years going to games. The choices suck.

 

[ruhudsonfan]

The entire operation is such a train wreck it would take a multi step approach to fix. That said, here is what you do to start.

Simple supervision and QC.

Hot food served hot. Cold food and drinks served cold. Things are tasted to make sure they are fresh (not left improperly stored from the previous game...pretzels and buns immediately come to mind).

Investment in a POS system that counts inventory and proper change and accepts cards and Apple/Google pay, u which speeds up the line.

you need to fix the basic quality and through put issue first. Then, and only then, can you move on to convincing real restaurant people to come in there and open a kiosk.

And Sodexho does suck. That is a known fact. But even the low cost provider can be compelled to serve hot chocolate hot...or make sure that lemonade is not the temperature of the contents of my bladder before I drink it, or a pretzel isnt stale from sitting unwrapped for a week...or a month.

 

[srru86]

Have you seen the Urban Dictionary entry for Sodexho?

That's funny. I wasn't saying I really liked their food quality. Though there are worse providers out there.

I think I was most surprised that some of the simple stuff outlined above, I thought an outfit with adult supervision would have remedied.

And it is not like U. Dining Services ran a flawless operation when they had the gig. It was very Junior Varsity. Like the labor day weekend opening season game where they ran out of BOTTLED WATER! Sure it was hot but they couldn't predict that? Was the water going to go bad if they ordered a few extra pallets?

And you can't deny that the variety of items available is broader under the new purveyors and their subcontractors.

 

[Knight Shift]

That's funny. I wasn't saying I really liked their food quality. Though there are worse providers out there.

I think I was most surprised that some of the simple stuff outlined above, I thought an outfit with adult supervision would have remedied.

And it is not like U. Dining Services ran a flawless operation when they had the gig. It was very Junior Varsity. Like the labor day weekend opening season game where they ran out of BOTTLED WATER! Sure it was hot but they couldn't predict that? Was the water going to go bad if they ordered a few extra pallets?

And you can't deny that the variety of items available is broader under the new purveyors and their subcontractors.

I don't remember what the food was like at WHS.
As far as dining services, I got an apartment after freshman year. I do remember we had a fire call in Davidson Dining Hall and the hood extinguishers activated. I saw the food workers covering up the food as we checked the system, and not sure if they put that food back out, but it looked like they were ready to do that--extra salt?

 

[ruhudsonfan]

I'm not suggesting that installing a stadium wide POS system is an inexpensive undertaking, but when you have kids (in some cases, literally children) trying to make change on their Iphone calculator, while simultaneously trying to service 55,000 people, we're not exactly talking about Chipotle quality through put. One way to remedy this is with more roving vendors

 

[RU4Real]

I'm not suggesting that installing a stadium wide POS system is an inexpensive undertaking,

I could make a convincing argument that the resulting efficiency would pay for the POS system.

There are undoubtedly a LOT of people who, on gameday, would be willing to buy some food, but lack the dedication and commitment required to do so under the current system.

 

[ruhudsonfan]

I could make a convincing argument that the resulting efficiency would pay for the POS system.

There are undoubtedly a LOT of people who, on gameday, would be willing to buy some food, but lack the dedication and commitment required to do so under the current system.

I think it easily would, over time. But back of the napkin math, I'd guess it would take about $350k to do all the main concession outlets on the lower level...hardware, software and user licenses. And that would be with legit fast casual set-up.

You can cut that number to 1/4 if you used a cloud based IPad type set-up

 

[RU4Real]

I think it easily would, over time. But back of the napkin math, I'd guess it would take about $350k to do all the main concession outlets on the lower level...hardware, software and user licenses. And that would be with legit fast casual set-up.

You can cut that number to 1/4 if you used a cloud based IPad type set-up

"cloud" = "service provider". I don't know offhand what POS service providers are out there. Even if you did a 100% on prem solution the infrastructure costs wouldn't be that significant because the network, etc. is already in place. 350k sounds reasonable. They'd get that back in a season.

 

[fischy5000]

Do the guys who walk up and down the stands work for multiple companies? There's a guy at Citi who has a very distinctive pitch (really tall guy with bad teeth and Brooklyn accent who

There were a few kids in my section at the spring game who recognized the guy selling food in the aisles as the one who helped them at citi field (and the guy confirmed) although it wasnt a real tall guy that you described.

 

[Knight Shift]

There were a few kids in my section at the spring game who recognized the guy selling food in the aisles as the one who helped them at citi field (and the guy confirmed) although it wasnt a real tall guy that you described.

Ha- I did not mean to post that. But that tall guy was distinctive, had a booming voice, "BIG BOYYY HEEEEYAH!" It drove my oldest son nuts when we were at a Mets game, and when we saw him at a Rutgers game, he almost fell down the stairs in laughter when I told him BIG BOY HEEYAH was following him.