Blue-collar streetfood

[Old Man Andrews]

I would totally understand the club needing to save money but to offer more business to an already awful existing one seems mental.

[Maneki Neko]

A hygiene rating of 1 is seriously awful and should be enough to end their contract on its own

The burger vans were bloody awful as well. This is a backward step.

this, inside and outsde the ground

cheapest possible ingredients, thrown together with no love or skill, boshed out with the highest possible margins and with no care for their customers at at all.
they know theres a captive market with no other options and they tke as much advantage of that as they possibly can.

its like the polar opposite of blue collar

[Royals and Racers]

https://ratings.food.gov.uk/business/en ... um-Reading

[Silver Fox]

It's a shame that Blue Collar, as a hot local indie, haven't had their contract renewed, but the provision of food outside the ground ranks pretty low o things I care about in my football experience so I can't get too rattled and certainly won't be signing any petitions

[Maneki Neko]

thanks for popping in

[Silver Fox]

Yeah, I used to like you Brendo!

[From Despair To Where?]

I wonder if this is a decision made with the fact that attendances are limited in mind. Its probably more difficult to sack off Compass.

Hopefully its a decision that will be revisited for next season.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

You can probably bin off Compass purely on their hygiene rating

[Nameless]

IT should be impossible for a professional catering company to get 1 star !
I briefly ran a food place a while back and despite not having any training or experience we got 5 stars because all you need to do is follow some fairly straightforward steps and have some basic evidence to present to the inspector.
One star basically means you just haven’t even tried to get it right.
Hard to see how the club can entrust their catering to such a bunch of cowboys, you would hope the contract included a clause requiring Compass to maintain the highest standards at all times.
I wonder whether
- Compass found that the contract they have for stadium and conference centre catering meant that they were also entitled to have the concession for the external catering and threatened the club with legal action for giving it to a third party
- Compass put in a really low bid to take over the external catering which lure collar just couldn’tmatch

I don’t buy food at games, but certainly felt the Blue Collar offering was a really positive addition to the offering. Hard to see Compass doing anything remotely interesting.

[Jagermesiter1871]

It's a shame that Blue Collar, as a hot local indie, haven't had their contract renewed, but the provision of food outside the ground ranks pretty low o things I care about in my football experience so I can't get too rattled and certainly won't be signing any petitions

I genuinely would sign a petition. It improved my matchday experience tenfold last year.

[From Despair To Where?]

You can probably bin off Compass purely on their hygiene rating

I mean more that being a large contractor, they have more scope to drag you through the courts and make it difficult if the contract didn't state explicitly that they had to maintain food hygiene standards (even though it should be a given). I could see them being dicks about it. Don't think I've bought anything other than beer inside the Madejski because you just know it will be overpriced grot.

[WestYorksRoyal]

If the petition gets enough traction, say £2k or so, I can see the club u-turning on this. I know the world of HNA? and some of the blogs on Twitter are not representative of everyone, but so far all sources I have seen have reacted pretty strongly against this decision.

[Hendo]

I think its something to keep an eye on in the next year or so when things start getting back to normal.

As others have said, if the outdoor area becomes the de-facto indoor concourse, I don't think there is too much the club can do as they have that existing contract with Compass for interior concourse concessions.

[Nameless]

I think its something to keep an eye on in the next year or so when things start getting back to normal.

As others have said, if the outdoor area becomes the de-facto indoor concourse, I don't think there is too much the club can do as they have that existing contract with Compass for interior concourse concessions.

Compass had been involved in the catering in the outside area by the East Stand before Blue Collar Food got involved. IIRC while Blue Collar only did football Compass operated there for London Irish games

[RoyalBlue]

You can probably bin off Compass purely on their hygiene rating

I mean more that being a large contractor, they have more scope to drag you through the courts and make it difficult if the contract didn't state explicitly that they had to maintain food hygiene standards (even though it should be a given). I could see them being dicks about it. Don't think I've bought anything other than beer inside the Madejski because you just know it will be overpriced grot.

Would they really want a potentially high-profile court case potentially focussing on their appalling food hygiene standards? They say there's no such thing as bad publicity but I'm not sure that would be the case in this particular instance.

[RoyalBlue]

It's a shame that Blue Collar, as a hot local indie, haven't had their contract renewed, but the provision of food outside the ground ranks pretty low o things I care about in my football experience so I can't get too rattled and certainly won't be signing any petitions

I genuinely would sign a petition. It improved my matchday experience tenfold last year.

The numbers are going up:
https://www.change.org/p/reading-fc-fans-reinstate-blue-collar-food-at-reading-fc?redirect=false

[Nameless]

You can probably bin off Compass purely on their hygiene rating

I mean more that being a large contractor, they have more scope to drag you through the courts and make it difficult if the contract didn't state explicitly that they had to maintain food hygiene standards (even though it should be a given). I could see them being dicks about it. Don't think I've bought anything other than beer inside the Madejski because you just know it will be overpriced grot.

Would they really want a potentially high-profile court case potentially focussing on their appalling food hygiene standards? They say there's no such thing as bad publicity but I'm not sure that would be the case in this particular instance.

Not sure there has been any suggestion of a court case. Them pointing out to the club that their contract legally suggests they are entitled to all food concessions on the club property is not the same as going to court...

[Silver Fox]

I think its something to keep an eye on in the next year or so when things start getting back to normal.

^This. I definitely feel that Blue Collar man's reaction to this suggests he's not massively gutted at missing out on the tiny bit of custom that will be available for the time being and maybe he'll be looking at sorting something out with the club in the future.

[From Despair To Where?]

I mean more that being a large contractor, they have more scope to drag you through the courts and make it difficult if the contract didn't state explicitly that they had to maintain food hygiene standards (even though it should be a given). I could see them being dicks about it. Don't think I've bought anything other than beer inside the Madejski because you just know it will be overpriced grot.

Would they really want a potentially high-profile court case potentially focussing on their appalling food hygiene standards? They say there's no such thing as bad publicity but I'm not sure that would be the case in this particular instance.

Not sure there has been any suggestion of a court case. Them pointing out to the club that their contract legally suggests they are entitled to all food concessions on the club property is not the same as going to court...

Yeah, I meant as a large contractor they are more likely to pull a Maxwell and say "So sue us" if the club try to do anything. Considering the crowds involved, the club may not think it worthwhile pushing it, especially if the contract is up for renewal.

Wouldn't surprise me if someone at the club had quiet word with Blue Collar to say "The numbers aren't worth it this season" because, if they're paying attention they will notice the overwhelmingly positive feedback.

[SWLR]

Signed,

Need those chips