Georgie Pie

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The Georgie Pie Logo

Georgie Pie was a fast food chain owned by supermaket operator Progressive Enterprises that hoped to be "New Zealand’s own homegrown alternative to the global fast-food industry giants such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Burger King."

The first restaurant was opened in Auckland in 1977, and expanded considerably in the 1990's. In 1994, plans were announced to open 25 new outlets per year, with the goal of having 114 restaurants operating by year's end, 1998. The chain came to prominence in the early 1990s with its $1, $2, $3, and $4 "Funtastic Value" menu where everything was one of those four prices, including the popular $1 "Small Pie." At its peak, the chain employed about 1,300 people, 80% of whom were under 20 years old; many of the employees were paid less than employees of rival fast food chain McDonald's. The franchise had hourly youth rates, starting from five dollars for 15 year olds, compared to the hourly rate of $8.41 (in 1996) at McDonald’s, regardless of age (as of 2006 McDonald's was also paying youth rates). The selling of pies allowed Georgie Pie to automate the food production process far more than other chains which sold more labour-intensive items such as burgers were able to.

[edit] The "Georgie Pie"

The pies at Georgie Pie were sold in small, unique boxes. The end and two side strips could be torn off along a perforated line. The two strips would then be used to push the pie upwards out of the box so it could be eaten without being directly touched with the hand. The large pies were a round shape, The small pies a distictive square. The large pies ranged in a variety of flavours which also included a variety of vegetable and unusually flavoured pies. The pastry was distictively solid and unflakey to avoid spills and mess.

Supermarket chains Foodtown and Countdown (both also operated by Progressive Enterprises) sold very similar square pies after Georgie Pie had mostly disappeared which looked and tasted almost identical and packaged in near-identical "unprinted" white, or yellow and brown boxes until late 2004. They were replaced with a generic standard round pie.

[edit] Decline

Progressive Enterprises soon sold the food chain to McDonalds in 1996. At the conclusion of the deal, 17 outlets were converted into McDonald's restaurants, and the other 15 were sold, some to other fast food franchises or restaurants and one into a Bunnings Warehouse.