A family who had lined up for a long awaited KFC takeaway this morning was devastated when their meal didn’t make it into the car and hit the ground instead.
They were just one of many carloads of people who have been waiting in line for hours in Auckland to buy takeaway food since the city went to Level 3 at midnight last night.
Fortunately, staff at the Takanini KFC replace the meal.
A witness to the incident said it may have been a devastating experience if the accident had happened somewhere away from the KFC.
Food outlets opened for contactless takeaways, click and collect and delivery from 11.59pm on Tuesday night.
Take away outlets across Auckland have been inundated today as drivers formed long queues for driveway service and Tongan KFC lovers were among them.
Many take away shops opened at midnight or soon after and there have been long queues in Mangare since last night.
A worker from KFC in Manukau said about half a dozen cars had lined up by 7.30am. One customer had been there since 8pm the night before and had slept in his car.
By late morning staff at one McDonald’s in Māngere had set up traffic cones to direct traffic in its car park, but the line up remained relatively small.
However, earlier this evening it was reported that KFC and McDonalds in Māngere had 100 metre long double lanes of traffic waiting.
Vaccination
Auckland councillor Josephine Bartley has suggested setting up vaccination centres at KFCs.
“People are going to be waiting in line for ages anyway, they might as well get a vaccination while they’re there,” she told the New Zealand Herald.
“I’m more than aware that KFC has a massive customer base in Auckland and notably in areas that are a focus for raising Covid vaccination rates such as Māngere, Ōtara, Manurewa, Papatoetoe.”
Extremes
Tongan’s love of takeaway food has sometimes reached extremes. In 2015 when they were competing in the Rugby World Cup in the UK, the Tongan team made the local Nandos their home. The Samoan team lamented that all they could see was fast food restaurants, but their management banned them from all of them – including McDonalds and KFC.
