Opinion: International businesses score in fast food binge

Small business is what New
Zealand is made of.

Without them, we wouldn’t have an
economy.

And, for the past five weeks, a
lot of them had to shut shop in a bid to stop the spread of Covid-19.

On April 28, our baristas were
finally allowed to start making our long blacks again. But, as a nation, what
did we do?

Lined up at stupid o’clock to be
able to get our hands on a fatty  burger.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind
a good burger myself but am I the only one who thinks it’s a sad indictment of
our society that so many people are queuing for McDonald’s? Because it sure
feels like it.

The evening  news the day we stepped into Level 3 had story
after story about people lining up at McDonald’s and  KFC.

I really raised an eyebrow when a
television journalist interviewed a mum parked in her car with her kids at 4am
at the Maccas drive through. She was proud as punch – “I was sick of the kids
whining so I threw them in the car and here we are waiting for pancakes.”

As a nation, we have forced the
closure of fast food stores all over the country by eating them out of stock.

On Thursday, KFC confirmed that
both of its Invercargill shops had run out of chicken.

A KFC spokesman said, “we
were unable to open our two Invercargill stores today due to the unprecedented
demand for our chicken.”

McDonald’s shops on Wednesday
started to run out of lettuce and three stores in Rotorua and one in Feilding ran
out of food forcing them to close.

We made international headlines
for going absolutely nuts over fast food and I think as a nation we should be embarrassed.

I have heard  Finance Minister Grant Robertson say multiple times we are going to re-build our economy

Well, if that’s the case, this is not the way to do it.

On Tuesday, as a nation that
depends on small business, we should have been lined up at our local baristas
and cafes that make our latte’s and long blacks – not internationally owned
fast food outlets.

Our small café owners should have
been the ones that run out of coffee beans and milk because we were lined up
outside their shops since 4am!

Our small café owners should have
run out of lettuce to put in our BLT’s – not McDonald’s!

Our small café owners should have
run out of chicken because we brought to many chicken sandwiches.

Even though many of the country’s
 smaller businesses can operate under
Level 3 they are still facing tough times.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has
told the nation many times at the 1pm press conferences to support our local
businesses.

So why don’t we?

Right now, we have the perfect opportunity to reset and support our local businesses not major international brands that have stripped us of cash for years.