What Is Up With CF Food Service?

I've made it a point to eat at a different place at KI every time I've gone this season. Thus far it's been Wings, Juke Box Diner, LaRosa's (Festhaus) and Panda. I have to be honest in saying that I've been impressed with the food quality thus far, but again, I could just have a string of good luck this year.

I do agree that the food was beyond terrible last year. Most of the problems that I had with the food, mainly that the food was sitting out and stale, haven't been an issue this year. Unfortunately, I do come across incidents like the one Gonch mentioned every once in a while on either these forums or my own.

If something happens, you really need to stop by GR or give whatever park you're at a call and let them know about the situation. No one can deny that Cedar Fair is trying to make Kings Island a better place and you, the enthusiasts who know what type of quality to expect out of a park, can help them by helping to identify particular problems such as Juke Box Diner. Having rude employees is NOT acceptable, being served cold food is NOT acceptable, being served cold fries and told that they were 'supposed to be like that' is NOT acceptable. We know that and so do they.

So again, if anything like that comes up, go to GR and report it... same goes if you have a particularly good experience. Kings Island just renovated the room and it still has a "new GR smell" to it. :-)

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rollergator said:
If it were MY business, which it obviously isn't, I'd probably at least TRY to do better in terms of quality and service - but there's NO way you'd see me cutting price...the opposite is probably closer to the truth.

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Whoa! I had to double check to make sure I didn't post that. :)

^I was channeling. ;) :)

What I find interesting is that we keep hearing that the United States is increasingly a "service economy."

If that's the case, why is it that service in general is so lousy all over?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

It's all those dammed kids! :)

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RideMan said:
If that's the case, why is it that service in general is so lousy all over?

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Because people not cut out for service positions are being forced into them as they're increasingly the only entry-level jobs available.

That social moron who'd normally do just fine holed up in some warehouse moving boxes and moving them well now has to deal with people face to face.

You can't teach service. A person either has it or they don't. With the new 'service economy' there's more service jobs than people who 'have it' :)

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Lord Gonchar said:

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IntaminHater said:
Like I said this is a very common practices within the food industry, but again I doubt that CFs food service is great.

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Jeff mentioned the same thing when we talked about this on the upcoming podcast. So I decided to take a quick look at the Ohio laws and found this:

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(1) Food employees shall wash their hands as specified under paragraph (B) of rule 3717-1-02.2 of the Administrative Code.

(2) Except when washing fruits and vegetables as specified under paragraph (G) of this rule or as specified in paragraph (A)(3) of this rule, food employees may not contact exposed, ready-to-eat food with their bare hands and shall use suitable utensils such as deli tissue, spatulas, tongs, single-use gloves, or dispensing equipment.

(3) Food employees not serving a highly susceptible population, may contact exposed, ready-to-eat food with their bare hands provided the retail food establishment or food service operation has received prior approval from their licensor.

(4) Food employees shall minimize bare hand and arm contact with exposed food that is not in a ready-to-eat form.

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^ I have seen all of thoes rules broken at Knott's. I work at Knott's and I have seen drop food on the ground out of guest site pick it up and server it. Alot of the employees simply just do not care. Even the supervisors do not seem to care anymore. Its all about where the party is after work or the latest movies. There is much more but I will not go into anymore details.

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Lord Gonchar said:

You can't teach service. A person either has it or they don't. With the new 'service economy' there's more service jobs than people who 'have it'

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How very true. I've worked retail/CS on & off for a few years. I'm a morning person, which is unusual, so I loved having an early shift when I worked at Manchester Airport (MHT). Got feedback until the cows came home about how nice it was to see a smiling face so early.

Service is America is lousy because we as consumers allow it to be. We have grow accostomed to less and less so the industries provide less and less.

If we didn't like the fact that airlines are cramping in the seats and providing, literally, peanuts to eat then we would take a stand and not fly. But, we keep on flying.

Don't like that the McDonald's cashier was a jerk? Don't go to McDonald's anymore. But, we keep going.

Don't like that athletes are getting paid millions of dollars? Don't go to the games or watch on tv. But, most of the leagues are doing just fine.

I firmly believe that the consumer is the reason we have poor service. We have allowed it (perhaps even encouraged it) to happen.

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wahoo skipper said:
I firmly believe that the consumer is the reason we have poor service. We have allowed it (perhaps even encouraged it) to happen.

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I believe that's true to a degree too, but it's mostly because consumers look mostly at price. I think the average american would rather have so-so service and the lowest price possible than good service that comes at a higher price.

I call it the Wal-Marting of America.

Good customer service can be taught/learned. The problem is, most places won't take that extra day or two to send their new-hires to a training course. You have to pay them to be there and any dollar spent for training is a dollar that they are not getting labor out of.

The company I work for stresses customer service HUGELY and someone who cannot give good service gets the axe. We realize that those dollars spent will come back in the long run, despite the short-term 'loss.'

I don't believe it can be taught/learned. You need to be a 'people person' to deal with people.

Not everyone is a 'people person' and should be dealing with them as an occupation.

Gonch...you are correct about the Wal-Marting effect. But, the consumer is the reason Wal Mart is successful.

And I will admit, I sometimes go out of my way to get something from Target (and to a lesser extent Wal Mart) because of it being cheaper.

Where I think the problem lies is when companies charge a premium but provide Wal Mart service. At least you know you should expect mediocre or worse service after you get past the greeter.

Even if you're not a "people person", you can still be professional, reasonably pleasant and highly efficient.

One of the main reasons for the so-called "Wal-Marting" is that the majority of all these service jobs pay lousy wages - so where is a Wal-Mart employee to shop? They'd probably prefer to shop somewhere where they didn't feel "dirty" as a customer, but their checkbook says they're likely to shop wherever they get the lowest price.

The *internationalization* of the global economy leads me to believe that manfacturing jobs that paid decent wages to American workers *in the olde days* will continue to migrate to lower-cost areas of the world. Cheap power and cheap labor will continue to attract companies to locate there. One of the interesting side-effects of the cheap dollar and the US economic downturn is that European companies are starting to look at the US as a cheaper source of labor (and one conveniently located inside the largest consumer market)...

IMO...the suckiness of service is driven by the all-consuming desire to do everything "on the cheap"...from the biggest CEO's to the lowest-paid service workers.

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rollergator said:
Even if you're not a "people person", you can still be professional, reasonably pleasant and highly efficient.

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You'd think, but face it - we've all run into our share of people who can't be or aren't any of those.

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One of the main reasons for the so-called "Wal-Marting" is that the majority of all these service jobs pay lousy wages...

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Do people expect the lowest price because they receive lousy wages or do they receive lousy wages because their employers are forced to offer the lowest price possible?

Chicken or the egg?

Well, it's unfortunate that Wal-mart has become the scapegoat for all that's wrong in the retail and service industry. I have my own experiences, and I've heard of many others of people treated poorly in establishments with much higher prices and supposedly a much higher class of employee and clientele than the big W.

As gator put it, I've been made to feel "dirty" in some places that wanted much more of my money than Wal-mart, Funny thing is I see a lot of people I see shopping at my local Wal-mart who work for other places with higher prices. I guess the higher prices don't necessarily translate into better pay or benefits for those employees.

The idea of people willing to put up with poor customer service in the name of cheap price is not the original issue in this thread. Amusement park food prices are the exact opposite of what you pay at your local dented can food outlet. We're paying premium prices for lousy service.

Being able to slap a hotdog on a bun and shovel some fries into a paper cup in less than 15 minutes does NOT require "people skills." They're not salespeople who have to explain what features refrigerator A has that B doesn't, which LCD TV is better, or convince a customer to add some options to the car they're looking at. People in a food line know the difference between a hotdog and a hamburger, and once they're in line, they're sure they want to buy something; they don't need a sales pitch. Give it to them, take their money, give them their change and send them on their way.

From the business standpoint, employees are being paid who don't contribute to the company's bottom line. One person working and three standing around bring in far less money than 3 or 4 working. Customers are happier that they didn't have to wait as long, and the company rang up 3 more sales in the same amount of time.

^^ To Gonch: LOL, I wasn't going in either of those directions...I was thinking that people who are PAID "Wal-Mart wages" don't have the options that many (most?) of us do when it comes to where and how to spend...if they're shopping, it's for the lowest price out of necessity.

^RGB - stop messing with my ^arrows^. ;) :)

*** Edited 5/16/2008 4:53:21 PM UTC by rollergator***

I have a feeling Wal-Mart could offer their employees better wages, and benefits if they raised their prices of their products a little.

Considering the clout Wal-mart has now, they can raise their prices, and still maintain their status.

gator, learn to read and/or type faster. It took me a good half hour to compose that opus.

You assume you both started at the same time.