Golden arches serve up a success story

Havelock North McDonald's opened with a bang at the weekend, with thousands of customers passing through its doors.

While an opening function was held on Friday, the new restaurant officially opened to the public at 10.30am on Saturday.

However, its popularity struck a raw nerve with one customer.

A reader's text to Hawke's Bay Today complained about a 20-minute wait for specials that were not available.

Franchisee Marcus Pohio said the complaint was disappointing but there were fewer "teething problems" than he expected and he encouraged any customers with issues to give them a call.

"If they want the problem solved, we're the ones to do it," he said.

He said they were proud of how the new restaurant looked and said they had thousands of customers come through during opening weekend.

"It was busier than we expected, which was nice, so I guess people have been pretty excited by the opening and came along to see what all the fuss was about," Mr Pohio said.

McDonald's also opened its doors to all the late-night revellers that filtered out of the Havelock North bars, which Mr Pohio said helped prevent them from congregating on the streets.

Havelock North Business Association president Adrienne Pierce said she had been out of town at the weekend but believed the opening weekend had been quite busy.

"A few people in the office sort of dropped in at the weekend, so sounds like it was all pretty busy," she said.

"I'd like to see how it went on Saturday and actually I wonder how much the Mobil lost on pie sales, with the teenagers and people searching around looking for something to eat.

"McDonald's have the systems to cope, if you like, with lots of people late at night, so that's a good thing."