Covid 19 coronavirus: CEO of Wendy criticizes great players for not following the rules

The director of one of New Zealand’s largest fast food chains has criticized her rivals, alleging that her business is the only major chain that follows full Tier 3 rules and restrictions.

Wendy’s New Zealand CEO Danielle Lendich said that while small hospitality companies seemed to obey the rules, other fast-food giants were not following “any of the procedures.”

“It has been very disappointing that the great players, I don’t think, have been following what the government was trying to achieve,” ZB told Newstalk. “And it looks like they are getting away with it.”

At the reduced alert level, kiwis can get their fast food fix, but only if they can be ordered and picked up without face-to-face contact.

Yesterday images emerged of crowds of people who were ignoring physical distance rules outside a BurgerFuel store, sparking the ire of the Prime Minister and Director-General for Health.

In response, BurgerFuel says it is now using crowd controllers at its 56 outlets; has restricted online ordering; and has provided video training to staff on the rules.

The company released a statement admitting that “high order volumes after five weeks of inactivity resulted in some stores struggling to control crowds at peak pickup times” on the first day of alert level 3 on Tuesday.

Lendich said the other fast food franchises appeared to be operating their self-service as normal.

“I don’t know if they just haven’t thought about it or just think: ‘The government said we can operate drive-thru, so let’s just operate,” he said.

“It’s supposed to be a contactless environment and I don’t know how they don’t understand that.”

Wendy’s had implemented a series of procedures to ensure the health of staff and customers, he said.

“We are completely contactless, so our effects machine is out, it’s a pay wave. We pass our food to a table outside with your car window open, and you can’t roll down your car window until we close it.” .

The staff stayed a meter apart from each other and regularly washed and disinfected their hands, including sitting at separate tables on their lunch breaks, he said.

“We are even tracking contacts: every order that is placed, not through our app or Uber Eats, we are asking each person for their name and phone number.

“I don’t think the others are doing that.”

Yesterday another image emerged showing 13 delivery drivers standing next to a McDonald’s store in Auckland.

A McDonald’s spokesman said the Gray Lynn store was “by some means the largest Uber Eats restaurant in the country.”

“While we have developed new physical distancing and contactless service procedures, and restaurants had traffic management plans, customer volume definitely caused some challenges when we reopened on Tuesday,” he said.

“In some restaurants we had third-party delivery drivers congregating, waiting for orders. We had signage and restaurant managers asked the drivers to observe social distancing, but in some cases this was ignored.

“We have spoken to our delivery partners and asked them to remind their drivers of the spacing protocols, and we have taken additional steps with safety and signage in our restaurants.

“We thank everyone for their patience on Tuesday, and we hope that the initial rush will calm down today. We will continue to review our approach with physical distance and contactless service as we adapt together with our clients to operate below Alert Level 3.”

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Lendich said at Wendy’s, Uber drivers were asked to disinfect their hands and practice physical distancing.

“We put the food on the table and they must pick it up from the table,” Lendich said.

“We have marked the floor with squares. The squares are two meters apart, so when they are waiting they are two meters apart.”

“All my staff at least two meters from them at any time.”

Kiwis have adopted the less restrictive Tier 3 rules, flocking to mass fast-food vendors since Tuesday morning.

Auckland Burger Fuel saw crowds of hungry gamblers queuing up inside the bubbles of others on Tuesday night, prompting the company to apply for crowd control and receive a grilling from Jacinda Ardern.

Ardern said he had seen photos of people gathered outside the store, which clearly violated the rules for physical distance.

“We have received confirmation from officials this morning that they have been in direct contact with the central office of that operation,” he said.

But with more than 300,000 McDonald’s burgers devoured on the first day of “Threedon” and fast-food fans queuing hours before take-out stores opened, concern grows that the country will step back in his fight against Covid-19.

The director general of health, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, again urged the public to maintain physical distance, hand hygiene and stay indoors if they were not feeling well.

The general message: “Stay home, save lives” remained the same, he said, warning that non-compliant locals may be forced to close their doors.

But despite public warnings, Lendich said many customers were still trying to pay for their burgers in cash.

“I am amazed at the number of people who want to pay with cash; there has been so much publicity that no one should take cash.”

“I just don’t think others have taken it as seriously as what the government really wanted to say. We are still at level 3, we are not at level 2.”

• Covid19.govt.nz – The official government Covid-19 advisory website