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Re: Amtrak lost $800 million on soda and burger sales
Author: Freericks
Date: 08-03-2012 - 10:24
Bruce Kelly Wrote:
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> I think what most responders are missing is that
> it's not the retail cost of the food onboard the
> train that's in question. It's the outrageous
> price Amtrak (our government) is paying up front
> to stock that food. According to the reporting,
> they're literally paying MORE for some of this
> stuff than what they're charging to the passenger.
> Fiscal mismanagement of the worst sort. Carol's
> right about Costco, although I prefer their big
> greasy slabs of pizza at the same $1.50 as that
> dog. Someone needs to re-bid the Amtrak food
> services in a way that gets it out of the hands of
> established feeding-at-the-government-trough crony
> contractors and allows some real-world businesses
> to provide said service at a reasonable rate. You
> think it's conservatives and Republicans who want
> to pull the financial rug out from under Amtrak?
> It's going to be the non-train-riding taxpayers
> who will scream to have funding cut if news like
> this continues to come out.
Bruce,
I agree with you that overpaying for raw materials (in this case food) is an issue. I don't think it's one that only exists in government. I've worked for a number of companies that I have seen follow policy and procedure to the letter resulting in wildly overpaying for items for years. (I recall when I was with Paramount that I had to rent a car through their system an the car was $250 when at the counter they were advertising the same care for $45). There may be some benefit to the more expensive contract that I'm not aware of, but I was flabbergasted either way.
That being said, my issue with the initial post was the assumption that they are losing money because of Progressives. Amtrak was created by a Republican president and its present CEO is a Republican himself who was appointed by another Republican president.
I do however believe that Amtrak used to be less of a partisan issue. Trent Lott comes to mind as a huge Amtrak supporter while Jimmy Carter seemed to be virulently anti Amtrak. Today, ones support or distaste of Amtrak seems to do more with if they have a D or an R by their name.
As to the Costco hot dogs and pizza, the logistics for delivering food on a train are far more complicated than delivering food from a stationary counter in a stationary store. There is also a volume issue. How many hamburgers get sold on an Amtrak run versus how many hotdogs does a single Costco sell in a day? The greater the volume the more the savings in per unit cost.
Finally, I believe the general public is actually mostly cut into two groups, those who have used Amtrak and support it and those who have never used and don't care one way or the other. Talking about $800 million over ten years when we spend that every two days in Iraq kind of puts that into perspective. That is not to say it's okay to lose money by overspending, just that it's not a real issue in the total scheme of things.
Charles
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think what most responders are missing is that
> it's not the retail cost of the food onboard the
> train that's in question. It's the outrageous
> price Amtrak (our government) is paying up front
> to stock that food. According to the reporting,
> they're literally paying MORE for some of this
> stuff than what they're charging to the passenger.
> Fiscal mismanagement of the worst sort. Carol's
> right about Costco, although I prefer their big
> greasy slabs of pizza at the same $1.50 as that
> dog. Someone needs to re-bid the Amtrak food
> services in a way that gets it out of the hands of
> established feeding-at-the-government-trough crony
> contractors and allows some real-world businesses
> to provide said service at a reasonable rate. You
> think it's conservatives and Republicans who want
> to pull the financial rug out from under Amtrak?
> It's going to be the non-train-riding taxpayers
> who will scream to have funding cut if news like
> this continues to come out.
Bruce,
I agree with you that overpaying for raw materials (in this case food) is an issue. I don't think it's one that only exists in government. I've worked for a number of companies that I have seen follow policy and procedure to the letter resulting in wildly overpaying for items for years. (I recall when I was with Paramount that I had to rent a car through their system an the car was $250 when at the counter they were advertising the same care for $45). There may be some benefit to the more expensive contract that I'm not aware of, but I was flabbergasted either way.
That being said, my issue with the initial post was the assumption that they are losing money because of Progressives. Amtrak was created by a Republican president and its present CEO is a Republican himself who was appointed by another Republican president.
I do however believe that Amtrak used to be less of a partisan issue. Trent Lott comes to mind as a huge Amtrak supporter while Jimmy Carter seemed to be virulently anti Amtrak. Today, ones support or distaste of Amtrak seems to do more with if they have a D or an R by their name.
As to the Costco hot dogs and pizza, the logistics for delivering food on a train are far more complicated than delivering food from a stationary counter in a stationary store. There is also a volume issue. How many hamburgers get sold on an Amtrak run versus how many hotdogs does a single Costco sell in a day? The greater the volume the more the savings in per unit cost.
Finally, I believe the general public is actually mostly cut into two groups, those who have used Amtrak and support it and those who have never used and don't care one way or the other. Talking about $800 million over ten years when we spend that every two days in Iraq kind of puts that into perspective. That is not to say it's okay to lose money by overspending, just that it's not a real issue in the total scheme of things.
Charles
