Re: Sen. Wyden blasts Crater Lake concessionaire over ‘serious concerns’ in the national park

Maybe the same thing could be done for Yosemite. Aramark has made a mess of things there. Not that I eat at the Ahwahnee often but the newest thing I read about is that the dining room is going to reopen many months later than it was projected, and all the meals will be buffet style. Really, a buffet is not what people want to have when they pay the prices that are charged. What about the issues of the neglect at White Wolf where the building look like they are going to fall down and what the continued closures of the Sierra High Camps? I could go on and on.

That was my thgouht. They seem to have an attitude problem.

They run concessions at sports arenas. I didn't understand why (a) the contract at YNP with Delaware North was not renewed, and (b) why it was given to Aramark, of all companies. Aramark has shown repeatedly that it doesn't give a crap about people visiting Yosemite, doing anything it can to cut costs (and thus services). TM-area free shuttle? Nope, not even for a fee. Skiing at BP? Cancelled two years ago, and last year closed *early* b/c of record snow, whereas at Squaw Valley and Mammoth in CA and at resorts in CO, skiing stayed open until JUNE! Convert GP store into a winter hostel? Nope. Sufficient number of shuttle buses to accommodate visitors to the valley? Nope. Fire employees in 2020 when the park is closed because of the Wuhan virus panic? Sure. Close Vogelsang and Merced HSCs, under the ruse of "protecting the environment"? Sure. Plenty of other examples.

The worst part is that they have squandered any institutional memory that might have been there. Treat your employees like crap, even (or especially) if they're seasonal, and you won't have employees. Even if DNR is brought back when the contract with Aramark expires (in 2030? 2031?), it will take years to rebuild the goodwill that the concession operator had with employees.

I'm not a fan of either company. I remember the days of Delaware North all too well, and their attempt to extort millions of dollars for the Yosemite and Ahwanee names.

The failure has to be in the contracts. These companies sign an agreement to provide services, but there are innumerable exit clauses that allow them to avoid providing said services--which they exploit to the max. And then the execution of said services is never effectively supervised. I remember vividly the horrifically bad dining room in Grants Grove, Sequoia, run by Delaware North. Horrible frozon food served by a team of incompetent and unfriendly idiots, all for prices that were doulb e what they should haev been if the food and service were decent.

It seems that the only real leverage that the NPS has over these companies is the threat that they won't get the contract the next time it goes out to bid. OK. So they mazimize profits where they can (what company doesn't?) and if they don't get the contract next time, it's because someone underbid them, laying the foundation for even fewer services.

There has to be a better way.

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