QSR June 2023

TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENTS

and people in the industry thinking this was going to be the immediate change when we opened back up, we’re not neces sarily seeing the consumer buy-in,” she says. “It’s one of those things that can get lost from a messaging perspective and the hustle and bustle of a stadium. I still think it’s coming, just not at the pace we anticipated.” Aramark encourages digital ordering by pairing the systems with highly desirable menu items. It also is adding layers of con venience with concepts designed around the technologies. As an example, a Virtual Food Hall concept enables fans to pur chase items from multiple locations throughout the building. Instead of waiting in four or five lines, they can go to a single pickup window to grab the entire order. A concept called Hall of Favs offers an even more consolidated version of that idea. It features the most popular concession items in one location, available via kiosk or mobile ordering. “It’s almost like a ghost kitchen,” Woznicki says. “Instead of doing just one concept, you’re doing all of the most popular items throughout the entire building in a single high-powered kitchen. We’ve also done a lot around alcoholic beverages because that makes up such a huge portion of our sales across our portfolio.” A Beer Express concept lets fans order and pay from their phone, then pick up their beer from one of more than a dozen

ogy with Amazon One devices. Guests who are registered with the system can pay with the swipe of a hand. Obletz sees similar opportunities to automate age verification for guests purchas ing alcoholic beverages, but the possibilities don’t end there. In the future, he predicts stadiums and arenas will dedicate large portions of the venue, if not the entirety of the venue, to a com pletely seamless experience, where guests don’t even need to use their credit cards. “Guest expectations are rising very rapidly, and our chal lenge now is to continue evolving the business in lockstep with those changing expectations,” he says. Another task will be meeting heightened expectations around food and beverage offerings. “This trend was very much underway pre-COVID, and it accelerated with the pandemic,” Obletz says. “You’re seeing two fronts on the culinary side. Expectations on quality and variety have increased, and expectations around local and offer ings that are tied to the external marketplace have increased.” Woznicki says concessions have been evolving beyond the typical stadium fare for years, and that won’t stop anytime soon. Aramark is tapping into the trend through LTO programs and partnerships with local providers. This year, the company introduced a slew of collaborations

ARAMARK IS RESPONDING TO CALLS FOR CONVENIENCE WITH SELF-CHECKOUT OPTIONS.

locations around the stadium after showing their ID. “What we realized when we started saying, ‘Hey, you don’t have to check out, you can go right back to the game,’ is that there was one last piece of friction around checking IDs manu ally,” Woznicki says. “Everything is going smoothly, and then you’ve got this one bottleneck. So, we started thinking about how we can automate that process as well.” The answer came in the form of an upgraded beer-pur chasing program that uses facial authentication technology to speed up the age verification process. Fans still order and pay through their phones, but when they go to the beer stand, they scan their face for age and order verification. Delaware North already is tapping into biometric technol

across its MLB stadiums. A Taste of Queens concept in New York’s Citi Field features a revolving lineup of local eateries. Similarly, a Launch Test Kitchen concept lowers the cost of entry for up-and-coming brands, giving innovative newcom ers the chance to gain exposure in stadiums without setting up a permanent location. Aramark also is capitalizing on social media trends with suc cessful LTO programs. Last year, it launched a Dare to Pair program that tasked chefs with developing their unique offer ings featuring uncommon flavor combinations. “We went viral with a Pulled Pork and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup sandwich in Kansas City,” she says. “Even though it was a little out there, it really resonated with people and ended upbe

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JUNE 2023 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com