Really?
Georgie Pie – New Zealand’s own answer to McDonalds, featuring meat pies instead of burgers – began life in the 70s. But in the early 1990s, a ‘perfect storm’ of events significantly boosted the fortunes of the company, triggering a rapid over-expansion of franchises which, like all great empires, eventually caused the company to implode.
And even though Georgie Pie is also the single biggest contributing factor to an alarming rise in teenage bowel cancer during the same period1, Kiwis, particularly late 20s and thirty somethings, still get all misty eyed at it’s memory, and fall over themselves in support of any to bring it back. So why is this?
The answer lies in the events leading up to Georgie Pie’s spectacular rise and fall.
The first of these, was when, sometime in early 1992, Georgie Pie Greenlane, Auckland (then the biggest restaurant in a relatively small chain) became the first fast food restaurant in New Zealand to open it’s doors 24 hours a day. This was followed by the second great event…The Dollar Menu.
The concept was simple enough – price every item on the menu at either $1, $2, $3 or $4 – but it was fundamentally flawed. In order to combat the upward price pressure of economic inflation, the restaurant cut costs on their product lines, removing from their meat pies such unnecessarily expensive ingredients as… meat.
However, in the early days the menu, combined with 24 hour trading, was a phenomenal success. On any given night, between 1am and 5am, Greenlane Georgie Pie was packed to the gills with stoned, teenage kids, each feeding their munchies on four small $1 mince and cheese pies, and a chocolate thick shake.
The winning concept was quickly repackaged and franchised nationwide. There was much speculation in the press of when ‘God’s Own’ version of Maccas would expand into Australia, and, perhaps, the world. And mate! Wouldn’t that just finally put new zealand on the map!
But it didn’t last. Just when the company had overcapitalised themselves to the eyeballs, expanding into every nook and pie-loving cranny of New Zealand, inflation, and complaints about substandard quality, finally got the better of them. The Dollar Menu could not longer be sustained, and was quickly redrafted to a standard pricing structure. And although the actual prices barely went up a notch (it was more like $1.20), for their army of loyal fans, there was suddenly no point in going. Sales dropped off, stores closed, and eventually 90% of locations were sold to the McDonalds corporation.
In reality, the whole business model was doomed from the start. The restaurants were plastic, with terrible cream and brown decor. The pies stodgy, and, eventually, meatless. Even the children’s playgrounds were considerably shitter, and more likely to lead to broken fingers or missing teeth, than McD’s. But all of these significant points are conveniently glossed over by Kiwis, when reminiscing about how much they wish Georgie Pie would re-open.
What New Zealand’s generation X’rs and Y’s really remember is, a time, so very different from their present lives, when they could stay up all night getting stoned and eating dollar pies, without either waking up with a hangover, or getting really, really (really) fat.
Do most Kiwis really want Georgie Pie to re-open? Or do they, in fact, just wish they were still teenagers.
Because at least that is a type of nostalgia that everyone can relate to.
- This fact is speculative, not actually proven, and Kiwianarama can not be held accountable2 for any loss of income, status, or hair that may result from it’s reprinting.
- Technically, we probably can, but it would take a lot of lawyers, and somebody with nothing else better to do, and probably no friends. A real dick, in other words. And would it really be worth it? We think not. In fact, we’re banking our entire liability insurance3 on it!
- Kiwianrama.co.nz does not currently hold any liability insurance policies.
I think if you already approach and talk to women on a
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Deny that date with an old male friend if you don’t
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and sometimes past internet censorship, depending on the country
you’re in.
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did anybody see on trade me in late 2011 sombody found a couple of georgie pie pies in there freeza. they put them on trademe, got a real good $ for them too.
gets me thinking, if it takes them that long to clean there freeza, how clean is the rest of there house. yuck!
You think that’s bad. Last year I helped my sister defrost the freezer in her garage. Some of the use by dates were up to 9 years old and all the meat was freezer burnt. She didn’t throw them out either, just put them back in the freezer. She has never clicked as to why I am never available to go out to her place for tea when she invites me.
errr yea I wouldn’t be going over for dina either. or maby she might know and might catch you out 1 day just dont ask her to bring a plate, she might re-badge that 3guys supermarket steak and put your name on it. haha
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Fuck me some of the comments on here are deep ,, I’m 41 & GP was a good after getting on the piss munch stop thats it .I think some of you guys are just missing your childhood …
Very good looking slut. Where can I find more pics of her?
You should find plenty of the sort of photos you’re after, if you type into Google Images “I am a small, fat, bald man with no friends and I live with my mother. Who I secretly fancy.”
Good luck!
Ohhhh how can you say the playgrounds were shit?!?! I remember the ball pits at the bottom of the slides well and they were amazing!
Oh gross! Never go into the ball pits there NEVER!
They always had shit in them somewhere. Spend too long in the pit and you’d run into poo eventually.
Wendy’s Old Fashioned Burgers are to open another 20 shops around NZ over the next few years. I’ll be heading there for my fortnightly feast instead of MD’s. If there business drops off they may be forced to bring back Georgia Pie to make up for losses to Wendy’s. Anytime I’m in Auckland I join the cues for a great burger.
Why don’t you stop with fast-food altogether and learn how to cook from scratch instead?
Take it back…
TAKE IT BACK!
oh wait, this is an april fool’s right. nice one.
What drugs were you on when you wrote this???? Can I have some?
For your info our family does have a healthy nutritious meal every night. If you read the post correctly we have a takeaway meal ONCE A FORTNIGHT! You should be getting up the people that are always dining on junk food.
Um… Warren. Calm down bud! this blog is supposed to be in good humour, I was only joking. Remember the date.
Unbunch yer panties bud, you’re making yourself look really insecure.
A few weeks ago I had someone who tried to tell me how to live my life without knowing the facts, and they were dead serious. As for the panties, I prefer going without them and just wearing pantyhose.
I used to love smashing through a few GP mince pies then topping it off with apple pie with cream (was the cream real or fake? I cant remember.)
Probably one of the reasons why I’m so morbidly obese these days:)
That is an awesome question that you left us guessing with at the end…..BUT!
for those who hung out with stoners and were in the prime of their life was it really all about being stoned and satisfying your munchies? Not for me. It was the best hung over food and the pies were amazing! i vote BRING BACK GORGIE PIE!!!!
You can’t get a desent pie if your life depended on it these days. And even the gold award winning pies are completely CRAP! it was all about the pastry with gorgie pie! and then the cheese and then the meat! they were off the hook! i pretty much would die for a gorgie pie right now just thinking of it! I mean is it all about remembering the good old times? HELL YEAH! good times with proper pies! i’ve had to settle with Big Ben pies now and they are ok but for the mean time! C’MON GUYS!!!!
BRING BACK GORGIE PIE!!!
A friend urged me to check out this website, great post, interesting read… keep up the good work!
Ah, Georgie Pie. Along with Flight of the Conchords, Waikato singlet bar chainsaw dancing and the squeeze mate, the best thing to come out of NZ. All they needed was a chocoalte pie and their problems would have been sorted.
Why! I do declare! We have an evangelical pastor in our midst…
Praise be to the lawd! Hallelujah! One day people, our day will come, mark my words, our day will come, ahh! Hear the truth, ahh! The gospel truth, ahh!
Georgie, we await your resurrection, ahh! Save us Georgie! Save us from healthy food, and bein thin, ahh!
We promise not to forsake you this time, ahh! We promise to get in line, ahh! At least for the first 6 months until we get pie-bored and go back to Subway, Kebabs and Burger Fuel, ahh!
If I send u my address can u send me some of ur drugs??? Sounds like ur on the strong ones.
I’m just high on the love of our lord, Jesus Christ. You should be too, son. He loves even reprobates like you.
Unless, that is, you are a Mooslem.
Well there is nothing wrong with junk food in moderation. We have it once a fortnight, sometimes less. No I’m not a Muslim and I have a good friend who is one. I feel sorry for the extremists who have an advance booking in hell. But this is not bringing back Georgie Pie.
A fatwah on McDonalds might though.
Halal pies?
Halal pies, you might make money out of that idea in Iran or a country similar. Trouble is Osama and is mob may hide explosives in them and set them off just as their enemy is about to take a bite!
Ah, the logic is a little flawed there. Obama maybe?
Me and my ilk? you speak of us as if we are a minority, there are only a handful of people like yourself who comment on this page with your nonsensical, politically correct garbage.
I mean your comment about me not remembering what Georgie Pie tasted like clearly indicates to me that it is in fact you mate that has never tasted Georgie Pie, I remember it so well, after working a 12 hour shift at the Watties factory in Hawkes bay, Georgie Pie was the first place that I would visit on my way home.
I have most certainly thought this through and HELL YES!! I want to get carried away with the Nostalgia, the more fired up and support me and my ilk can get the better.
I have tasted alot of bakery pies and quite honestly nothing can actually compare to Georgie Pie, I don’t think I’ve had better mate, I know I have.
Now I didn’t want to get mean about this, because all I wanted was to show my support for The George, but as always there are those like you trying to burst the bubble, going against the grain and showing your unwarranted and unwanted opinions.
You sound like you are probably in the closet, or maybe too young to even know what its like to love something so much that you never want to let it go, abit like holding the woman you truly love, and no hugging your mum when you’ve fallen down and hurt your knee does not constitute holding a woman.
Whatever your reply to this, I don’t care, get as mean as you want because I just don’t care, the truth is that when the George returns, me and my ilk will be standing in line, thinking about this time and chuckling heartily,because that day is definitely coming mate, just wait and see.
Politically correct?! WTF are you farting about? are you doing some imitation of a complete moron or something? and what’s this guff about being in the closet? that’s exactly what I’d expect a real closet case to come out of the blue with.
If Georgie pie is the best pies you ever had then you must have been to some pretty stink bakeries.
But of course it’s not. You’re just some stupid dick talking poop out of his simple arse jumping on some bandwagon.
I well remember Georgie pie and I well remember it sucking balls. Nice shakes, too bad about the pies and the cheesy decor.
so what’s clear is that you don’t like the pies and never have. fine.
don’t assume the rest of us a morons blinded by nostalgia.
i remember the pies well, i can almost taste their high-sugar pastry now.
I’m a low-grade pie fan, always have been. At all times, i have half a dozen microwave pies in the freezer… for emergencies. Some people like fancy gourmet pies, some people like bakery pies with fluorescent yellow pastry, some people like GP. Don’t get me wrong, i’ll eat any kind of pie, i’m pretty sure i’ve eaten more pies than anyone i know. But the hole left by GP’s absence has never been filled.
While that may say more about my culinary standards (or lack thereof) than georgie pie’s merits, i’m just sticking my oar back in to suggest that perhaps you’re wrong in assuming the initial rush to re-ignite our love affair with GP will end up with half-chewed pastry and meat product spat out in the gutter.
I’m wondering if most of these people championing Georgie pie must live in AUCKLAND.
I’m 31 now and all of my peers think this is absurd. Yeah it was good going to Georgie Pie on Adelaide road in Wellington circa 1993-96 after toking up or hung over after a night boozing. And those cheap prices were good for teenagers.
Get over it and move the fuck on JAFA’s! it’s never going to happen again. You’re living in the past, the 1990′s is long gone and wont ever return.
I agree 100% with this blogger. I now some of you are going to be all Auckland about this and get on yer high horses and talk over me in a patronising way as though your opinion is something special. But as far as I’m concerned:
* The product wasn’t that great. The pies were bland and inferior to what the local bakery made. Anyone who says “those pies were the best ever” is either ignorant of good food or simply talking from their bottom.
* The business was a loser. There’s all this guff (I assume originating from one Marcus Lush) about how it was abandoned or how McDonalds did the dirty. Get real! the fact is they built a big factory for a big expansion and the NZ south of the Bombay hills just didn’t take to it. The parent company thought they’d cut their losses before it dragged down Foodtown and fobbed it off to Macca’s who got the real estate. If it was such a winner and Maccas got their hands on it then logically they would have continued it and pocketed the profits for themselves. This is the world of business and serious money not some playground spat.
* All of this talk about it coming from NZ just sounds like the sort of petty inferiority complex you get with nationalism. SO WHAT? so is Fletcher Challenge and we all know they’re wanks. If won’t be NZ owned ever again, it will be Macca’s taking your money while your local bakery feels the pinch, along with other NZ competition such as Hell Pizza, Burger Wisconsin and Burger Fuel or even yer local fish n chip shop or curry takeaway.
* It’s ridiculous to even imagine it will be $1 ever again. Part of why its sales dramatically dropped was because it went up 50c making the local bakery more appealing again.
* NZ had outgrown Georgie pie in 1996. I was 17/18 at the time and it was just a big joke to us with its cheesy decor and the fact only 4 or 5 of the advertised pies were ever available. Fast food may have been pretty novel in 1977 and pies may have been not too risque but fast forward 20 years and the novelty had worn off. By then it was seen as ‘budget’ and people were willing to try the less un-exotic (for want of a better term than exotic) Burger King and Subway. While NZ is still pretty bland the pallet has definitely moved on, even in 1996 how many kebab shops or Indian and Thai curry places were there compared to today?
* NZ, and especially Auckland should move a bit away from fast food altogether. I can’t help but smirk at all these JAFA’s berating McDonalds and yet their city has one of the highest 3′s of McDonalds per head of population in the world! How much money and health would people save if they got back to the kitchen?
So while logically this is a win-win situation for me there’s still something the bothers me about this. I am 99% confident Georgie pie will fail again if McDonalds brings it back (it will probably be offered on the menu and be dropped after sales disappear within two years) or the campangers will see their hero’s with the imitation pie have the book thrown at them. And yet there’s still this sense of embarrassment that once again NZ will have a fast food chain (or a fast food product) that will be bland tacky PIES
Rant over.
Obviously you are the moronic few who take pride in kicking someone when they are down, people like you need to get real and stop looking through the hole in your arse, honestly, the only reason why alot of Aucklanders may be responding is because Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand, and the North Island holds 2/3 the population in New Zealand, think about it mate.
I have resided in Auckland for the last 13 years, but I was born and bred in Hawkes bay where we absolutely loved Georgie Pie, although I do agree with some of your points, of course $1 pies are a thing of the past, I remember when maccas hamburgers use to cost 90 cents, businesses obviously have to move with the times otherwise sustainability goes out the window, a definite error that George was too lazy to forsee.
If there is one small bit of hope that someone can bring Georgie Pie back then I am all for it, like I said in my previous post, you don’t want it then don’t eat it and stop being such a prick about the whole thing, if you think that NZ has outgrown Georgie Pie then why is there so much support for it?
If there are 2 certainties I would like to happen in this lifetime, one of them is to taste Georgie Pie before i die (The clone in Kelston just doesn’t cut it) and the other is to win back the Rugby World Cup.
Cheers,
C
I think the moron is you and your ilk…
You’re just getting carried away with nostalgia and not thinking this through. I bet you didn’t really like Georgie pie at the time, assuming you’re actually old enough to properly remember this crap. You’re associating it with times when you think you had it better.
All these people like yourself who support this stupidity will not buy the stuff for long mark my words.
I’m not taking pride in kicking someone when they are down, and it’s you who is talking through your arse and probably diverting yourself from a more unpleasant personal issue.
i told you it was coming back, i don’t care about the decor or the stores, its all about the pies for me, thank you maccas, they will be announcing it at 11am this morning from mcdonalds greenlane, i’m lovin it
Hahahahahahaha.
Are you disappointed yet that it doesn’t taste like you remember it? You’re thinking that McDonalds have changed the recipe aren’t you?
One thing’s for sure; You won’t be buying this in 9 months time. And given the fact you still remember this from 4 years ago, that probably won’t seem like a long time for you
i think your right, ive been eating too many big ben and petrol station mobil pies hopefully my taste buds will remember the flavour, haha I read your comment and thought yeah how petty of me to bring this up again after 4 years, need to have a lie down now the anticipation of what maccas plan to do with georgie is making me dizzy
Rugby World Cup 2012…CHECK!!!
Now all that is left is for Maccas to pull finger and bring back either the Steak/Mince & Cheese, Steak/Mince or the Chicken & Veg. KFC made the first move with there Chicken & Gravy in a pie now its your turn Maccas.
Get over yourself!
The reality is that all you jealous losers having to live in the provinces ie out of visual range from the highest man made point in the southern hemisphere (thats sky tower) never waited for your sister to finish Jazz ballet in the 1980′s while eating a pie and a mellow yellow (Maccas never had that flavour). The quality then was exceptional.
I feel sorry that you only ate in the wellington branch and by the time your store opened they had even taken out the cow anus from the pies and they were entirely gravy. Rewind to 1989 when it was a friendly Auckland franchise -great quality and good slogans and a retard super hero logo to amuse at two am.
Once again I can see Auckland envy. The the only good things in NZ are in Auckland. Why don’t you buy a dance exponents track and hope that Victoria is a vague metaphor about a Wellington polytechnic.
Your so deluded it shouldn’t be hard
Ahahahahaha I only just saw this!
.
You’re too funny JAFA. Oh yes I nad the rest of NZ no make that the world are soooo jealous at the Sky tower. It’s the tallest building in… …the southern hemisphere!
Yes yes pies are such good quality food. What a high-brow, interesting, vibrant place Auckland is, can I live there instead of Sydney or Melbourne? Doing anything Friday night? Oh wait you can watch the Rugby on TV, sounds like a good call it will probably be raining in Auckland.
Now try and breathe deeply
To be honest, as a brand Geogre Pie is a stand out,a kiwi as stand alone brand ,Mcdonalds is extremely short sited look at the iconic quality and potential profittablity that this 80′s styled brand and store lay could bring.New to gen y loved by gen x & baby boomers.
If it works for bks 50s style presentation (generic application quite horrific really)Then the opportunities presented by relaunching this brand and upstaging Jesters overrated over priced pies,would ultimately benifit McDonalds.
But why the hell would you want to go to McDonalds for your gp pie ,i wouldn’t,that big clown in his over sized shoes and his american ascent forget it i’ll pass.
If your going to relaunch the brand ,do it right in a nice orange and brown building ,with tackie vinyl seats,but most importantly my $1 steak & Cheese pie!
Cheers
“Recently a shop selling pies by the name “GP Pies” opened in Kelston, West Auckland. McDonald’s announced they were looking into possible copyright infringement of the name. They also announced they were looking into relaunching the Georgie Pie brand, not as a stand-alone shop, but possibly inside McDonald’s outlets as a McCafe offering.”
McDonald’s has their dollar menu meal right now.
What the heck is wrong with you? stoned teenagers and late night munchies is most certainly not the only reason why I want the George back, are you that incredibly ignorant? I for one definitely do not support your view on this. Maccas itself has become substandard these days with their supposedly made to order menus, its not made to order if the ingredients are sitting in ovens drying out, thats not my idea of fresh, why is there so much beat up and negativity around resurrecting what was our own? sure they most certainly needed a better business model but the fact does remain that maccas only wanted the prime locations and bought them out to monopolise the market and fuel their own capitilistic needs, they did not need to totally erase George from the face of the earth. Just because Maccas employ NZ workers and work with kiwi made ingredients doesn’t make them Kiwi, Georgie was Kiwi, born out of our love for the humble pie, I miss the Chicken and Veg, the Steak and cheese, the dessert pies, if your a health nut then just don’t eat it, its your choice, hey all the more for us right! leave us pie loving, diabetic prospect, bowl cancer wanna haves to our Georgie pie addiction.
A new site to help people keep up with the news on this.
lets hope it comes back
For several months before their GP’s demise they actually dropped small mince pies to 50c and mince n cheese to 75c. Like sirens to sailors was that menu to stoned teenagers. I always stuck with steak n cheese though, at least you sort of knew the “steak” was meat-flavoured product. The mince was just brown gelatine and eyelid as far as I could tell.
Oh who am I kidding, I can’t stay mad at GP mince.
oh yes this kiwi wants Georgie Pie to come back !!!!!!!!!!
oh i can still taste the apple and blackberry pies..they were the best and so much nicer than the apple pies that McDonalds has…and i can say that if i didnt have McDonalds again it wouldnt worry me their food has gone way down in my opinion in fact i will say that its crap!!
5 mates, 1 tinny, 4 joints, 2 hours of laughing til you cry in the domain gazebo, 1 chicken and vege pie, 3 steak and cheese pies, 1 chocolate sunday and 1 large coke…… The good old days when 20 bucks all up sure did buy a good time.
Amen!
–”It’ll probably come to me later – in the middle of the night, knowing my luck!”
you’re right, because it’s a golden bukkake.
Ah yes, the ‘Golden Ratio’. As important as a number of other, ‘Golden’ objects/activities.
Gold Standard
Gold Plating
Golden Handshake
Golden Anniversary
..I’m sure there’s one I’m missing. It’ll probably come to me later – in the middle of the night, knowing my luck!
Golden shower
i think i may be in the minority then, because i reminisce about the actual pies. being a teenager sucked.
the best low grade pie i can hope for now is the luke warm big ben pies in the flattering cellophane wrapper. but it pales in comparison to the square edged beauty of the humble Georgie offering. the pastry-to-questionable-meat ratio of the small georgie pie was perfect.
no one in their right mind that would buy a large $2 pie when you could get two $1 pies, putting you in the middle of a menage a trios of delightful gastronomic shame. finish it off with an apple pie and you’ve had yourself a 3 square meals for $3.
foodtown madly only adopted the larger format pie after selling GP and it was never quite right. even squeezing out some of the “meat” in an effort to recreate that golden ratio only ever ended in failure. it was a reminder of what was once great and we can never have again. like cindy crawford in the early 90′s.
Oh god your so right! I went past McD’s Greenlane just tonight and still reminisced about good old Georgie Pie! But no to be honest if I had pulled in to the drive through for a quick $1 pie and some fries to ‘put in the pie oven’… my satisfaction would no doubt have been short lived and like McD’s I wouldn’t have returned until my last dissatisfying experience was forgotten only to make the same mistake again. Therefore I think you could measure peoples short term memory by how often they buy this kind of food… and that certainly explains why we ate Georgie Pie so often as stoned teenagers! Let it just remain a hazy happy memory I say