A long-standing fast-food outlet in the heart of Tauranga's CBD will close its doors next week due to 'changing shopper behaviour”.
For nearly two decades, Burger King's Elizabeth Street branch, next to Event Cinemas, has been serving up its famous grilled burgers, fries and shakes.
Burger King on Elizabeth Street will close its doors on May 16.
But after May 16, the burger bar will close with the premises' lease coming to an end. It opened in September 1995.
A Burger King spokesperson says the imminent closure has always been part of the company's long term plan, with the operation relocating to the Cameron Road branch between 5th and 6th Avenue in Tauranga City.
The spokesperson says the relocation simply reflects the changes in retail shopper behaviour.
The Elizabeth Street branch does not have drive-through access – unlike their branch on Cameron Road and outlets at Fraser Cove and Mount Maunganui.
The retro-style restaurant on Cameron Road, which opened in March 2013, was the 83rd Burger King store to open in New Zealand.
It was the eighth Burger King to open in the Bay of Plenty and their first newly-built outlet in the region in almost 10 years.
The spokesperson says all staff have been offered their positions within the market and the company doesn't expect to decrease its staff numbers as a result of this change.
Burger King was founded in Miami in 1954, and is the second-largest burger chain in the world, operating in 74 countries, with around 90 per cent franchised.
It opened in Newmarket in Auckland in 1994 and is owned by the Antares Restaurant Group Ltd, which employs more than 2600 people throughout its staff and management team.
BK's outlet on Cameron Road.
8 comments
Well
Posted on 07-05-2015 14:02 | By NZgirl
Another empty store in town. Looks like a ghost town in CBD now with all the empty stores about. FREE PARKING is the only way to bring life back into the CBD
Free parking wont help this
Posted on 07-05-2015 15:28 | By yourthumb
@NZGirl How would free parking help this situation? There are hardly any parks available as it stands. And, additionally, wouldn't it be more important to bring in businesses people want to visit rather than trying to cut the cost of going to place they don't want to go to anyway.
When was it open?
Posted on 07-05-2015 16:14 | By Theway
Every time I went past in the evening it was always closed! They will have to sort out the cr*p service and disgusting mess inside and outside in the Cameron Road store if they want me to go there again!
Changes in CBD
Posted on 07-05-2015 18:04 | By YOGI BEAR
Reflects the reduction in people traffic and that directly relates to all that is happening in the CBD. perhaps it is high time that TCC and staff moved out to the soon to be vacant ex Trustpower building at TeMaunga, that would place them in a dead end road and so would be a lot easier to contain and control the mob, bad behavior, decisions and more. the Nightmare would be contained at long last ...
Hard to believe
Posted on 07-05-2015 19:01 | By Angel74
That the doors are closing for good , Will make the one up on Cameron road extremely busy and unbearable.
@nzgirl
Posted on 08-05-2015 07:35 | By Bop man
It has nothing to do with free parking it has to do with the fact that malls have popped up in the burbs and people go to shops that are closer to them not because parking is free.
Bad service!!
Posted on 08-05-2015 15:40 | By jed
We had bad service their once so never went again.
Tauranga CBD..
Posted on 10-05-2015 14:10 | By kiwigrunt
will be a ghost town in the next 3-5 years.A month ago i walked around the town and counted 53 vacant premises...the place looks more like Kawerau than a supposed vibrant bustling city as the council would have you think.
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