McDonalds in Balmoral

So, after my post about McDonalds buying land in Kaikoura I was contacted by the good folk in Balmoral Auckland. They have been fighting to stop a McDonalds restaurant open in their suburb.

TV3 ran a story tonight that said the McDonalds application has been approved - with one proviso: that they aren’t allowed to erect the 10 metre high identifying “Golden Arches”.

Needless to say the Balmoral Community Group are gutted. They continue to fight and are raising funds to appeal the decision.

According to the Balmoral Community Group spokesperson Nathan Inkpen, the biggest walking bus in the country will be passing by the McDonalds restaurant twice a day. Perhaps that is the main reason that the McD’s positioned the site there. After all, we know they like to target the young.

Go to the Balmoral Says No! website to lend your support and help them continue the fight.

Wagamama turns us away

There’s a recession on but the staff at Wagamama don’t know this.

Our family turned up there last night around 6.15pm for a quick meal. The place was buzzing and there were empty tables.

Excellent - no waiting.

Wrong - we were turned away.

A young woman told us, and the others waiting at the door, that their systems were down and (shock, horror) they were having to write everything down by hand. This meant they couldn’t serve us, or even seat us, or even take an order by hand and deliver it to the kitchen.

What is it with this reliance on electronic systems? If the maitre de had been 32 instead of 22, and had been able to add figures with a pencil and paper instead of needing to rely on a calculator then they might have been prepared to take our money instead of turning us away and leaving us with a bad taste in our mouth.

The kitchen was full of staff - are we to believe that they wouldn’t be able to cook a meal because the order was handwritten? Was management prepared to close the whole restaurant because their computer “said - No!”.

It was pathetic. We spoke to other potential diners who had also been turned away - they were from out of town. What sort of an impression did this leave them with? Being good Wellington citizens we made recommendations to them and found ourselves apologising for their bad experience.

As a result of our experience we headed to Cuba Street. I can highly recommend Rasa (next to Roger’s Tattoo Art) - an Indian and Malaysian restaurant. Small, filled with happy people, great staff (with the ability to count) and the most beautiful succulent fragrant food at very reasonable prices. And can I say how proud I am of our two seven year old boys - gobbling down butter chicken and lamb biryani like there was no tomorrow.

Rasa
200 Cuba St
Wellington
Phone: 04 384 7088

Beware of the beans

This post could only be described as a Friday night special cos it’s kinda stupid.

I have just returned from Pak and Save in Petone. My turn to do the grocery shopping.

On the list: baked beans (Watties).

The peskys are eating a lot for seven year olds and one 420g tin just aint enough to feed them, and me. So I thought I’d buy the 820g tin being almost double the size.

Then I checked the price. Cheaper by two cents to buy two 420g tins, plus we’d get an extra 20 grams of beans.

Then I saw the 420g tins blister packed in threes. “That’s got to be cheaper” I said to myself. It’s a recession and I’m looking for a bargain.

Well, the answer is “No!”

A blister pack of 3 tins of 420g Watties baked beans is $5.04.

To buy three separate cans costs $4.50 - a saving of $0.54 cents.

It was obvious from the shelf that most people were buying the blister packs as the shelf was half empty. People will always assume, as I did, that buying in bulk will save you money - and it will, but only of they are packaged separately and not blistered by the manufacturer.

So, next time, if you can be bothered, calculate the weight of each tin divided by the cost and determine which is the cheapest. Never rely on packaging to ’suggest’ a good deal.

The same thing happens with Sunlight washing liquid. Buying two medium bottles of detergent is (9 times out of ten) cheaper than buying the 2 litre bottle.

Happy shopping.

Here endeth the lesson.