To whoever sorts out the matchday catering staff.
This isn't the first time I've contacted you with regards to the matchday catering facilities, specifically on the Kop, and unless things improve I suspect it won't be the last.
I am a former caterer myself, with almost 20 years of experience in the licensed trade, both as staff and management. This gives me an insight into the expected levels of customer service, and I have to say that at the food kiosk on the Kop, nearest to the South Stand, the levels are very low indeed.
As you can appreciate, £2.40 is a rather large amount to spend on one of Peter's allegedly "delicious" pies, especially as there is no way of predicting whether the pie you get will have been sweating away in its plastic bag for ages, or baked for so long that it's harder than a Chris Morgan tackle. It's also a lucky dip as to the temperature of said pies.
On the subject of hot drinks, costing a not cheap £1.40, is it not too much to ask that the man who orders the drinks orders the same number of lids? It is from the kiosk I go to. No lid for a drink the same temperature as molten lava, that has to be carried through a crowd that aren't always on the lookout for some grumpy bloke's Bovril is not really acceptable, is it? To be told by the catering staff "We've no lids, is that all right?" and then see the look of sheer amazement on their faces when you reply with "No lids? No, it's not all right. Can I have a lid please? What? They are all on John Street? Blimey," is wondrous to behold.
And now for the lamentable "Sauce Stations." A small shelf with two dirty bottles of mustard, two equally manky bottles of ketchup, no forks, two napkins for 4,000 people to share, a bin smaller than most people's pockets, and the whole area covered in spilt drinks isn't good enough. Would it be stretching the boundaries of expectation for a member of staff, in tandem with a cloth, check on the "Sauce Stations" for cleanliness, forks, napkins and the like more often than every time we play Arsenal at home?
And as for the staff, while I can appreciate the difficulty of employing and retaining staff, is it possible that you could train them how to smile, and also how to say "please" and "thank you". When I'm handing over nearly eight pounds I'd like a semblance of politeness.
This might seem to you like a load of moaning rubbish, but consider this. In this time of a "credit crunch" can you afford for one person to stop buying from your kiosks? Probably yes.
Will that one person moan, and tell his friends, and they tell theirs, and so on? Can you afford for that to happen?
Thank you for sparing time to read this, and I'd really like a reply. Cheers.
Obviously he ate it he was starving.
