To not understand why Harvester STILL have restrictions 'for Covid' ?

[gvdv]

We're going out for a family birthday this weekend to our local Harvester. Whilst I appreciate it may not be everyone's choice, for those of us going it suits us well, everyone likes something on the menu and we feel it's reasonably good value.

However in just speaking to a colleague who went last week, she informs me that the restrictions introduced during Covid are inexplicably still in place, and you have to have someone serving your salad at the (serve yourself) salad bar...!

I mean what is the point of this? We have zero restrictions now elsewhere aside from in a medical setting. I just don't get it. I'm quite particular about how I arrange my salad, as I'm sure are others, and having someone dish it up for you just isn't the same!

Williamshatnershorses · 18/05/2022 08:29
Because they are a private business in a free market and can do what they like to best fit their current operating model. There are no doubt other places you can go that will let you arrange your salad how you want?“

This.

I agree. The self serve salad gave it that "edge".

I now choose Harvester as a last resort as l have so many other restaurants that are cheaper (and take my AA discount which Harvester discontinued)...

But if they want to 'control portions' then they should stop advertising themselves on an 'all you can eat' basis, and admit that it's about saving money, sorry, 'saving the planet', not about 'keeping you safe'.

This

^
This.

The one we stayed in was back to normal self serve for everything.

I agree OP, I've seen people question it on Twitter and the Harvester has said they've done a survey and 'customers prefer it' - personally I don't know one person who actually prefers not doing it themselves, and also it makes the rest of service even slower because the waiters have to do it all.

Go else where, why you giving it so much head space?

Our local harvester told me that customer feedback had told them that customers prefer being served at the salad bar by staff, rather than helping themselves so it was here to stay. A pain in the arse as you often have to hang about waiting for someone to be free to serve you.

Have they published the stats of the feedback, though? They could cite one single person jocularly exclaiming "Ooh, fancy - it's top-class service in here now, very nice!" as 'customer feedback tells us' whilst ignoring all of the people objecting to now having to queue up and wait.

Even if some people do prefer it, why can't they have both? Have serving spoons there for people to help themselves and a bell to ding for anybody who wants to wait for a member of staff to come over to serve them. This already happens in plenty of restaurants, where some people prefer to wait for their table server to come over and order drinks with them, whilst others just go straight to the bar when they want another drink. Both options seem to work fine alongside each other.

There's a rather strange story on the BBC News website today about a woman who's started a petition to get Tesco to keep the traditional staff-operated checkouts, as she personally doesn't like self-service tills, although she acknowledges that other people do like them. Tesco have confirmed that they offer both kinds of tills to give customers a choice and are not going to be removing the staffed ones at all, so it seems quite a pointless exercise, really!

I agree also that it gets rid of the 'unlimited' element to the salad bar as most would feel awkward to ask their waiter to go up again with them, that's even if the waiter has time to return to the table at all.

It would even be better if they had one or two dedicated members of staff stationed at the salad bar to do it for you, at least then you could still go up as you want, even if you can't dish it up yourself.

Not that I have looked for, and I assumed it was a corporate response that they had been told to give. Personally I think its daft and I would prefer self service. As an aside I think that the items on the salad bar have been reduced at the time, so probably more a money saving thing. But choice would definitely be better!

Yes, agree with this for hotels as well.

Every hotel I have stayed in since 2020 no longer does housekeeping during your stay and you have to ask for towels/toilet roll/tea/coffee at reception. They are obviously saving loads of money on this, probably laundering a fraction of the towels etc.

I don't even mind the towels as I always reused but it's annoying to have to wait at reception after getting in at night in order to get some toilet roll or whatever.

We visited McDonald's recently at the end of a day trip recently. I keep my kids well away from the touch screens full stop. Given what my husband observed when taking the children to the toilet before we left, that research doesn't surprise me at all. He was staggered at how many adults and children (accompanied and unaccompanied) just didn't wish their hands at all after leaving the toilets. Just grim.

On the wider point of Covid now being a reason for lower standards of service etc, I do agree for the most part. The apparent inconsistency and disproportionality of Covid restrictions was always a frustration for me and continues to be so. It may be a public comms issue in part but it's not the whole explanation.

I don't really buy the wastage argument, as many restaurants where you order routinely serve up very large portions of the main food that a lot of people can't finish and so it goes back to the kitchen at the end to be binned anyway.

Maybe doggy bags should become a regular thing in restaurants?

Nothing to do with health, huge money saving opportunity for the restaurant, in the guise of keeping customers safe.

Some Premier Inns have always had waitress service for the cooked breakfast part of the meal. We go to them regularly and they do have some with help yourself buffet for hot food and some where you chose and they bring it to you. When we've stayed recently the ones with a buffet operated as they always have and we helped ourselves.

I wouldn’t have thought salad would cst that much

It only takes a second to pick up a bread roll, and a few seconds to sort a drink out. People linger over those revolting salad bars for ages.

And yes I do know that "post covid" isn't really a thing. It was just easier to say.

I had covid a couple of months ago. Last week I had to stay with my brother and his wife due to my mum dying and all hotels being booked up in the area. They both had covid. Fortunately I seem to have escaped unscathed.

I live in a popular holiday area and whilst I don't work in hospitality myself, a lot of my friends do. Covid is still causing a lot of issues for them in terms of staff shortages and supply chain issues. There are still lots of people off work sick with Covid so deliveries are not always reliable and quite a lot of places round here are still on limited menus etc. I wonder if Harvester are having problems with their salad supplier or something and are therefore specifically trying to control how much of that gets used? It could be that they have a huge supply of bread rolls in the freezer,and loads of refills for the drinks machine so don't care how much of that you help yourself too, but salad presumably has to be delivered fresh so is more susceptible to supply issues? You can't stockpile salad after all.
I'm sure there are other influences on current shortages etc but "because Covid" is still the most accepted reason. I imagine lots of organisations are keeping some of their Covid related chages simply because they have discovered they work better. I coach at a kids' sports club and we are never going back to our precovid systems. At the moment parents who have been around for years still talk about our "Covid restrictions " but their children will be too old soon and for everyone else, this is just how our club operates. People will stop seeing it as a Covid response and accept things as the norm. I expect we will see that in lots of aspects of our lives.

Well in that case if we are predominantly looking bang our lives as normal and Covid is still here What a waste of time and money the lockdowns were

Looking bang = living

damn auto correct

At first I agreed with it as a way to reduce the number of people touching everything.. but then I was in Harvester last week and watched a child stick their hands into several of the different salad bar things like the peppers & pineapple etc and eat them and go back in for seconds. All whilst the adult with them was laughing.

Feel like it’s put me off for life!

I don't even mind the towels as I always reused but it's annoying to have to wait at reception after getting in at night in order to get some toilet roll or whatever.

It seems to defeat the object of a hotel in the first place, as you're paying for somebody else to do all the work and planning for you. They know full-well that a lot of people will find this awkward and will seriously eke out the toilet rolls or pack a couple to bring from home. It's a wily corporate ploy (governments and councils do it too) to allow you to do things, the same as always, but in the full knowledge that, if they make it onerous, time-consuming, embarrassing or even just not obvious to know what to do/whom to ask, it has pretty much the same effect as banning it, but without them looking like the bad guys.

Loads of elderly, disabled and vulnerable people already routinely go without available central services that would make their lives much easier and more equitable, because councils make it deliberately hard for them to know how to access them in the first place, especially if you aren't online and/or don't have a smartphone.

Looking bang = living

damn auto correct

Don't retract that too quickly - I give it six months before all of the young, trendy influencers are giving their many followers 'essential' tutorials on 'how to ensure you're looking bang at all times'