Traffic staff sent to help with rush
The Christchurch City Council has had to manage traffic at two Mcdonald’s restaurants because of the long queues of people lining up for takeaways yesterday.
The easing of Covid-19 restrictions has seen Kiwis flock to fast-food outlets, including Mcdonald’s drive-throughs, across the country.
The demand for fast food in Christchurch in particular has been so massive that the council’s transport operations centre sent traffic management staff ‘‘to help the situation’’ at Mcdonald’s sites in Lincoln Rd, Spreydon, and Ferry Rd, Woolston.
There were also ‘‘long queues’’ of cars outside the Mcdonald’s on Colombo St in Sydenham. ‘‘We recommend holding off on that Big Mac at the moment,’’ a spokesperson said in a statement.
A queue of more than 25 cars snaked through the car park and onto the street at the Ferry Rd Mcdonald’s in woolston. Most cars had more than one person inside and the queue wasmoving at a steady pace. The street layout meant cars could only join the queue from one direction.
In Wellington, one queue for Newtown’s mcdonald’s stretched up the road and into a bus lane.
In Hamilton, 24 cars were counted queueing up at the KFC in Ulster St at 1pm as it opened.
More than 30 cars queued for Mcdonald’s at Christchurch’s Eastgate Shopping Centre at 11am. The queue snaked around the mall’s parking lot.
Angel Ihaka was waiting in the queue and said it was her second feed from Mcdonald’s for the day.
She said her children were sleeping when she went the first time, and when she got home they wanted to get some too.
Ihaka said watching people line up was ‘‘entertaining’’ and getting Mcdonald’s was worth the wait. ‘‘Mcdonald’s are the best, I think.’’
At the Quay St Mcdonald’s in Auckland, students Richard Aleni and Andy Vaa´i were all smiles yesterday morning as they emerged with their back seat entirely occupied with four Shareboxes. All up, their haul netted 16 burgers, including Big Macs, Mcchickens and Quarter Pounders, plus fries and drinks.
Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Julie White said she was ‘‘not surprised’’ about the queues at Mcdonald’s because the chain had a takeaway model in place already, whereas most local food businesses did not.
She said it was ‘‘fundamental’’ for people to support local businesses whenever they could because it would save jobs. ‘‘Stay local, eat local,’’ she said.
She said she believed only 10 per cent of the hospitality industry would open under level three and the measures in place restricting some business activity were ‘‘very prohibitive’’.
‘‘It [level three] just doesn’t work for the majority of hospo people.’’