I'm from Scotland and I love pies but absolutely nothing competes with what you put out there. Steak and cheese pies from a bakery in central Dunedin is the best thing I've probably ever tasted.
Small New Zealand bakeries and cafes are now killing it with some pretty epic pies. Something like Georgie Pie could never come back much in the same way Starbucks never took hold here, just about everywhere does better coffee. You can't crack a market with a worse product.
The problem with the small bakeries etc. is that they're not open at 11pm and don't have drive-throughs. I used to make many a late-night trip to GP back in the day for when dinner was a couple hours gone but I was still hungry.
To the extent starbucks is successful here, it's basically with their sugary drinks like the frappuccino. Not sure if anyone goes to starbucks for regular coffee because not only is it worse than what any cafe and a lot of bakeries will make, it's also generally more expensive.
If the price is right, people will buy it. Customers will always set the price which worries me, have you seen the price people are willing to pay for a hashbrown from Macca's
Georgie Pie was our weekly treat. Shopping at Countdown Kelston then into Georgie Pie there for a treat meal for the kids after .. Miss those days so much.
I loved this when I was a kid and always wanted it to come back, got really excited when it was bought by McDonalds, but the New Zealand we live in now has a huge pie competition.
Yeah, as stated in the video, pie technology has advanced. I remember the pies of the 90s to be pretty rubbish, really. I didn't eat one for over a decade after discovering a massive ball of congealed fat in a Big Ben pie once. Fortunately, we have places like the Baker's Cottage in Kingsland, pumping out mean as potato tops.
Good video. I am still a bit bitter about the closure of Georgie Pie. Our town's store was insta-closed upon purchase by McDee's. Many people, esp overseas do not "get" NZ's affinity for a Meat Pie. Memories ingrained back to childhood, often in good times. My view is, when McD's bought Georgie Pie, it wasn't just commercial decisions, it dashed those very memories. But well done on this video. It raises the points re cost per pie, and the valuable real estate they often sat on. Ironicly, it was a prediction of a business trend that we are seeing now: the value of the real estate exceeds the value of the earning potential of said business. Examples today, old bars and taverns, sports clubs, RSA's, small retail.
A good synopsis for what many kiwis were just starting to learn in the mid to late nineties. I learnt that when pubs at the ends of the small towns were closing; usually being far too big for three of four regulars.
Yep, why start any sort of business when you can flip a house for crazy profits and not pay any capital gains? It's a big problem in NZ. Our economy is largely just people buying and selling houses off each other.
Like Icarus, Georgie Pie tried to fly too close to the sun. You just can't be profitable selling a $1.20 pie for $1 😭 The combination of pie & french fries still has yet to be paralleled. (I also had a high-school job at a Countdown and had the Progressive discount card, and yes, a significant portion of my meal breaks were spent at the Georgie Pie next door!)
I'm still annoyed that Georgie Pie is no longer. Growing up in the 80s/90s I spent so many great times with my family and mates in them. I wish they'd come back, as dine in restaurants. And yes, the pies were that good in the first place. Especially for their price. Great video!
We have a great bakery at Palomino Shops in Henderson, Auckland - always queues out the door for their pies and wonderful apple turnovers, apricot squares etc. Their vegetarian mushroom and broccoli pie is just the best!
Ahh precious memories of Georgie Pie Adelaide road and later Manners Mall. Priceless nostalgia for a 15 year old self. Screw you maccas for killing the kiwi dream.
At the time MacDonalds first purchased Georgie I think it was just one of those business decisions to eliminate competition, and later when they thought a reintroduction of the pies under its own roof might be profitable they tried it. The quality was down. The prices were up. A happy Kiwi story that ended unhappily, though at least there are shops where Kiwis can get a decent pie. Somehow, it is not quite the same though ....... (Happy new year 😊!).
that would explain why the old foodtown pies were square and tasted just like a Georgie Pie!! long after Georgie Pie shut down, I would get the foodtown pie from Foodtown Chartwell before it became Countdown and it was just like a Georgie pie.
Georgie Pie, mince pie was start selling at 75c when it first arrive in my local and 85c for mince and cheese pie. I was 12 years old at the time often come to this place for food after long swimming session, and it is cheaper than Mcdonalds to fill stomach. The Thickshake was very filling, unlike the milkshake in Mcdonalds. The last day before Mcdonalds bought Georgie Pie, the mince pie was selling at $1.00 and the mince cheese was at $1.20.
I’m a Kiwi living in Perth and we briefly had a Georgie Pie here in the late 90s and early 2000’s at the Carousel Shopping Centre in the suburb of Cannington. I reckon we’re about the same age and remember at Otago uni, how awesome Georgie Pie was at filling the belly, after spending the rest of my student allowance on, let’s just say, less nutritious items. Love the channel, great reminder of home!
I remember working at Georgie Pie in Wellington. We were half a block from the Basin Reserve and after a cricket match, we'd have 6 tills going flat out and 300 people in the place! We also had 50% discounts for emergency services staff, but the police abused it by using their discount to feed all the prisoners in their cells as well as themselves.
During the come back when McDonalds brought back the steak n cheese pie or mince and cheese, there was a massive line at Greenlane Mcdonalds. Once we took that first bite it didn't quite taste like how I remembered the pie to taste like. I later found out its because it was missing the msg
I remember going to the one in chch for my 5th birthday which must have been back around 1994. It's a shame they couldn't make it but I can't see it ever coming back. Kiwis love pies and the standard most people expect would be hard to meet for a cheap price.
I agree. Most towns in NZ have access to at least one bakery that makes pies that are 10x better than what Georgie Pie ever produced. Decent pies cost more. I've heard so many people over the years talk about how Georgie Pie should come back, but the reality is most people are satisfied with just going to the local bakery for a pie. And let's face it, if Georgie Pie did ever come back, you'd be looking at $12-$15 for a meal combo which just wouldn't be worth it.
@@newzealandstories5621 Good call. To be fair, there were only six to eight 'bites' in a Georgie Pie, even a Jimmy's Mince takes a minute longer to appreciate.
@@newzealandstories5621 Yup I even said so at the time when Georgie pie expanded to all of NZ around 1994. I was 15-16 at the time and had seen them up in Auckland but had no idea what they were like. I remember going to one of the outlets in Newtown in Wellington when there was a cricket game at the basin reserve. I was not impressed at all. They weren’t even as good as the tuck shop pies at my school, let alone the 3-4 bakeries within biking distance of my house. They were just a cut above service station pies and supermarket pies. They were cheap though, I’ll give them that; $2 for large,pies and 1$ for the smaller ones. Maybe a good food option for when you were super short of dough and needed a quick cheap feed.
@@newzealandstories5621 Yeah I don't know if I would ever go to a Georgie Pie again if it came back except for the novelty of it to be honest. I love the pies from my local bakery and I'd rather support a small local business anyway - I doubt a giant fast food chain could offer a similarly good pie for $6.50.
There used to be a Georgie Pie on the corner of Great South & Greenlane Rds in Greenlane Auckland, where McDonalds is now. I got food poisoning there one time, thanks to one of their pork pies, so it was Goodbye Pork Pie from me =)
My dad used to work at Georgie Pie for a few years, even sticking around after they merged with McDonald's. It was his first job since returning to NZ with my mum and older sisters so the pay kept them going while mum was seeking out her own job and eventually buy the house we're currently living in to this day. I wasn't born yet during that time, but we still have some of the kid meal toys lying around somewhere. I sometimes collect the toys whenever I find them at an Op shop or on TradeMe. Still kicking myself for not trying the pies when they were on the maccas menu when I had the chance, lol.
this guy created my childhood.... grew up on Georgia pie (the Glenfield one was legendary, Hyland Park then became our regular) and my first job at 15 was at Foodtown. this guy was a legend!!
I remember for my 10th birthday it was my weekend to stay with my father . He came to pick me up on his motorcycle / Harley and took me to Georgie pie. Was the only time he ever took me to a fast food other than fish and chips . Will never forget that day it was hosing down with rain but I still loved it .
One thing that annoyed me as a kid . The curry and mince $2 was my fav. It was a larger round pie . They stopped doing them for awhile and bought them back with the same poster as they used to use with the large round pie . But when they served it was the smaller square pie I was really annoyed. Wanted the big pie . My mother said no that’s what you chose and I showed her the picture but she wasn’t having a bar of it 😂
I use to work in the hospitality Industry in Wellington working until the wee hours. Georgie Pie opened no too far away from the main strip. We would finish work then hit the bars that were still open. Before going to the bars we would put $5.00 in our back pocket. After the bars closed we went to Georgie Pie's which stayed open til late on Saturday night. We bought 1x $2.00 and 3x $1.00 pie's. Great cheap feed after our night out.
The whole myth of “Mcdonalda bought GP just so they could close it down” persists in society, it’s absolutely not right. GP ran themselves into the ground. McDonald’s bought the locations. Blame GP not McDonald’s.
I had to visit Palmerston North occasionally for work. I always took the opportunity to get a Georgie Pie at what I thought was the last store in NZ, but maybe just the last one in the lower Nrth Island?
I remember going to the one in nelson when it was open as a kid for dinner. Back then we got the option of georgie pie or fish and chipa as you could feed a family of four for under $10. Now a big mac combo is $15.50 for something half the size
I lived in perth when one opened , made the trip down for the taste, the pies were way over spiced, nothing like Georgie Pie NZ. Apparently the owner wanted them extra spicy even though customer feedback told him otherwise, it wasn't long before it closed down.
I LOVED getting to taste a GP mince + cheese again courtesy of McD's... pure living nostalgia. It's not that they were great pies, but they were distinctively satisfying - just like a Big Mac isn't a great burger, but has its own appeal. Instead of selling through McD's, I wish they'd found a way of mass-producing and distributing them in the same way they do those cheap crappy plastic-wrapped petrol station pies. *That's* the market for Georgie Pies in the 2020s: garages, dairies, and the frozen section in supermarkets. If the Clown would get off its corporate ego and sell the IP to some enterprising Kiwi, we could still be chowing down on our own unique brand of fast food.
When they reopened Georgie pie I was never more disappointed. They said they were using the original recipe so I bought one on opening day took one bite and threw it in the bin. I dunno what the heck they thought they were serving but it wasn't a Georgie pie.
Me and my cousins would go to Georgie Pie Rotorua every Tuesday evening with my Grandad for Dinner. He loved the Seafood pie and they also had fish and chips. It was like rectangle pieces of fish and chips on the side. The mince and cheese was our fav! Sadly the old Georgie Pie is now a liquor store 😢 ...
A big reason why Georgie Pie collapsed was because it was a franchise model and that senior management (of head office) were allowed also be franchise owners. Long story short, instead of properly performing the job they were hired to do, they were coddling their stores over doing what was best for the chain.
I was a hungry teenager during the Georgie Pie era. It took me no time to figure out that 2 $1 pies was more pie than 1 $2 pie. Never made sense to me but I took full advantage.
Good old Wellington Georgie Pie, I was the strange kid that always got the fish and chips off the menu. Still Remember the night we went to the Basin Reserve Georgie pie which is now a MacDonalds and over heard the manager telling the staff that they were being closed down. Very sad
Just came across your channel. Pretty good video. Unfortunately never got to try a Georgie Pie since I'm a bit younger myself (the stores were closed before I was born). But it is interesting to hear about what it was like.
I was literally telling my kids about Georgie Pie and the Georgie Pie Kids Club the other day! They were saying they wished there were kids clubs now like we used to have for fast food places and What Now etc
Those were the days. Now privacy and advertising laws destroyed those opportunities. I do remember doing GP Kids Club newsletters for typing exercises.
My partner and I were talking about this yesterday. McDonald's needs to sell the rights off and Georgie pie could re-invent itself as a small hole in the wall franchise. Not a big player but a smaller privately owned franchise business with kiosks in malls and on high streets.
@@fcukugimmeausername Greenlane was 24 hours and and always busy here were 14 outlets. My mates and i would by 3 or 4 at a time as they were so cheap. I would have thought the estimate was bang on.
They also only did the mince and cheese…ignoring that the mince and smaller pies were super popular. They should be forced to sell the rights due to monopolistic reasons and not sit on the IP!
I had a bday at the Hamilton one and got a lion soft toy from Them. .. better than mcd ever gave me. A lot of the original buildings are now Burger King stores.
Georgie Pie reminds me of another Kiwi success in fast food Eagle Boys 🍕 pizza. Unfortunately the power of foreign-owned, fast food companies has a habit of swallowing ours up.
@@silentsketcher_97 haha yep, way better. I had a mate who lived next door to one back in the early 2000s. We used to get $5 pizzas and play Goldeneye on the 64. Good times!
I remember going through my mum's stuff after she passed and found a pink Georgie Pie tray XDDD we had a good laugh that it was still in useable knick.
The good thing with Georgie pie was that the quality was always the same every time. Unlike maccas and KFC etc when the quality would be different each time you ordered
Can you do some investigative journalism and track down the girl from 6:57 and ask why she had to lick the pie? I get blowing on the pie, but licking?!?
There were most certainly better mince 'n cheese and steak 'n cheese pies out there, [my all time fave of these, a now closed bakery chain in Napier - Heaven's Bakery] but I've never come across a better steak 'n kidney pie than what they had at the George. Real chunks of kidney, not just nasty gristle you tend to find in other versions. The ratio was on point as well. The blackberry and apple pie was also my favourite in terms of sweet. I still get a mix of nostalgia and sadness going past the BK in Napier - which used to be GP, knowing I'll likely never have a better steak 'n kidney again.
I’d hate to know now what the hell was in those pies I ate there- probably whatever AFFCO couldn’t sell I’d imagine…. I could still go for one of those desert pies though.
We used to go to the Kelston store when we were kids it had a conveyor belt running by the front windows with the pies on our Mum used to take bread and butter and a knife and fork we were so embarrassed we'd sit at another table 😂
Back in the mid 90's McDonalds Greenlane had teamed up with Georgie Pie, to introduce a breakfast pie, and a regular pie for $1.00, I could eat myself stupid for $5.00, but that only seemed to last for about a year, and that deal was dropped altogether.
I'm from Scotland and I love pies but absolutely nothing competes with what you put out there. Steak and cheese pies from a bakery in central Dunedin is the best thing I've probably ever tasted.
Do you remember which bakery? (I'm from Dunedin)
F
@@LordClarkson Probably 'Bake on Bond'
@@carlcrawford161 Probably marlow pies
Couplands ?
The A.I. upscaling on those old ads is the stuff of nightmares
The 90s were not supposed to be in high definition.
Looks like the pooky park video
Small New Zealand bakeries and cafes are now killing it with some pretty epic pies. Something like Georgie Pie could never come back much in the same way Starbucks never took hold here, just about everywhere does better coffee. You can't crack a market with a worse product.
The problem with the small bakeries etc. is that they're not open at 11pm and don't have drive-throughs. I used to make many a late-night trip to GP back in the day for when dinner was a couple hours gone but I was still hungry.
To the extent starbucks is successful here, it's basically with their sugary drinks like the frappuccino. Not sure if anyone goes to starbucks for regular coffee because not only is it worse than what any cafe and a lot of bakeries will make, it's also generally more expensive.
Ive never seen a starbucks anywhere in nz.@Junebug89
If the price is right, people will buy it. Customers will always set the price which worries me, have you seen the price people are willing to pay for a hashbrown from Macca's
You can't crack a market with a worse product?! You do know McDonald's, burger king, taco bell, Carl's Jr, KFC, subway , etc all exist, right?
When I was at Otago Uni, we use to go buy a load of $1 Pies each week and chuck them in the flat freezer for the week
Georgie Pie was our weekly treat. Shopping at Countdown Kelston then into Georgie Pie there for a treat meal for the kids after .. Miss those days so much.
I loved this when I was a kid and always wanted it to come back, got really excited when it was bought by McDonalds, but the New Zealand we live in now has a huge pie competition.
Fully! My bro was saying exactly that. There are some really good pies out there now. Gp was good for its time but today nah
Excited when it was bought by Maccas? That's why they closed
@mikemichaels2914 Yeah, I guess I meant I was excited when they announced they were going to bring it back. My bad, sleep deprived.
Yeah, as stated in the video, pie technology has advanced. I remember the pies of the 90s to be pretty rubbish, really. I didn't eat one for over a decade after discovering a massive ball of congealed fat in a Big Ben pie once. Fortunately, we have places like the Baker's Cottage in Kingsland, pumping out mean as potato tops.
When McDonald's did a hunger buster but the extra thing was a pie... I'm still working off the extra kilos to this day haha
Good video.
I am still a bit bitter about the closure of Georgie Pie. Our town's store was insta-closed upon purchase by McDee's. Many people, esp overseas do not "get" NZ's affinity for a Meat Pie. Memories ingrained back to childhood, often in good times.
My view is, when McD's bought Georgie Pie, it wasn't just commercial decisions, it dashed those very memories.
But well done on this video. It raises the points re cost per pie, and the valuable real estate they often sat on.
Ironicly, it was a prediction of a business trend that we are seeing now: the value of the real estate exceeds the value of the earning potential of said business. Examples today, old bars and taverns, sports clubs, RSA's, small retail.
A good synopsis for what many kiwis were just starting to learn in the mid to late nineties. I learnt that when pubs at the ends of the small towns were closing; usually being far too big for three of four regulars.
Yep, why start any sort of business when you can flip a house for crazy profits and not pay any capital gains? It's a big problem in NZ. Our economy is largely just people buying and selling houses off each other.
As an Aussie it pains me to admit that Kiwis make the best pies in the world.
Appreciate your honesty, now we just need to sort out phar lap and pavlova lmao
@@johncitizen306 I'm going to get deported for this... Also both Kiwi.
Their the poms of the South Pacific so they should know how to make a good pie 😁
@@RS-rj5sh Seems the convict poms next door missed that cooking class.
@@RS-rj5sh We're like the kitchen attached to the penal colony of Australia
Loved the apple and blackberry dessert pie.
Like Icarus, Georgie Pie tried to fly too close to the sun. You just can't be profitable selling a $1.20 pie for $1 😭 The combination of pie & french fries still has yet to be paralleled. (I also had a high-school job at a Countdown and had the Progressive discount card, and yes, a significant portion of my meal breaks were spent at the Georgie Pie next door!)
I'm still annoyed that Georgie Pie is no longer. Growing up in the 80s/90s I spent so many great times with my family and mates in them. I wish they'd come back, as dine in restaurants. And yes, the pies were that good in the first place. Especially for their price. Great video!
I think Maccas still holds the rights, which is why they bring it back on the menu once or twice a decade in order to retain ownership
Georgie pie was like gold for me when I was young.
We have a great bakery at Palomino Shops in Henderson, Auckland - always queues out the door for their pies and wonderful apple turnovers, apricot squares etc. Their vegetarian mushroom and broccoli pie is just the best!
McDonald's deliberately run Georgie pie to the ground , even back then 1 dollar a pie was cheap the apple and black berry pie was my favorite
Ahh precious memories of Georgie Pie Adelaide road and later Manners Mall. Priceless nostalgia for a 15 year old self. Screw you maccas for killing the kiwi dream.
Ummm - sounds like the Kiwi Dream was mismanaged and killed itself.
At the time MacDonalds first purchased Georgie I think it was just one of those business decisions to eliminate competition, and later when they thought a reintroduction of the pies under its own roof might be profitable they tried it. The quality was down. The prices were up. A happy Kiwi story that ended unhappily, though at least there are shops where Kiwis can get a decent pie. Somehow, it is not quite the same though ....... (Happy new year 😊!).
Seeing old footage of Winnie Peters in a (Tauranga?) Georgie Pie restaurant is wild
that would explain why the old foodtown pies were square and tasted just like a Georgie Pie!! long after Georgie Pie shut down, I would get the foodtown pie from Foodtown Chartwell before it became Countdown and it was just like a Georgie pie.
Georgie Pie, mince pie was start selling at 75c when it first arrive in my local and 85c for mince and cheese pie. I was 12 years old at the time often come to this place for food after long swimming session, and it is cheaper than Mcdonalds to fill stomach. The Thickshake was very filling, unlike the milkshake in Mcdonalds. The last day before Mcdonalds bought Georgie Pie, the mince pie was selling at $1.00 and the mince cheese was at $1.20.
I’m a Kiwi living in Perth and we briefly had a Georgie Pie here in the late 90s and early 2000’s at the Carousel Shopping Centre in the suburb of Cannington.
I reckon we’re about the same age and remember at Otago uni, how awesome Georgie Pie was at filling the belly, after spending the rest of my student allowance on, let’s just say, less nutritious items.
Love the channel, great reminder of home!
Nostalgia for the Kelston Georgie Pie.
I remember working at Georgie Pie in Wellington. We were half a block from the Basin Reserve and after a cricket match, we'd have 6 tills going flat out and 300 people in the place! We also had 50% discounts for emergency services staff, but the police abused it by using their discount to feed all the prisoners in their cells as well as themselves.
If They Bring This Back
THIS WOULD BE AN ABSOLUTE BANGER
as a non kiwi, this was really insightful and well done, thank you mate
It was the go to place for a feed after 1st xv game in Takanini, never to be forgotten 😢
During the come back when McDonalds brought back the steak n cheese pie or mince and cheese, there was a massive line at Greenlane Mcdonalds. Once we took that first bite it didn't quite taste like how I remembered the pie to taste like. I later found out its because it was missing the msg
I was so disappointed when I tasted the "come back" it didn't taste anything like the original. I'm not really a pie person but I loved Georgie Pie.
Not sure if serious, but MSG is freaking awesome. I make sure to use MSG-containing seasonings on steaks (like Lawrys). Game changer.
I remember going to the one in chch for my 5th birthday which must have been back around 1994. It's a shame they couldn't make it but I can't see it ever coming back. Kiwis love pies and the standard most people expect would be hard to meet for a cheap price.
I agree. Most towns in NZ have access to at least one bakery that makes pies that are 10x better than what Georgie Pie ever produced. Decent pies cost more. I've heard so many people over the years talk about how Georgie Pie should come back, but the reality is most people are satisfied with just going to the local bakery for a pie. And let's face it, if Georgie Pie did ever come back, you'd be looking at $12-$15 for a meal combo which just wouldn't be worth it.
@@newzealandstories5621 Good call. To be fair, there were only six to eight 'bites' in a Georgie Pie, even a Jimmy's Mince takes a minute longer to appreciate.
@@newzealandstories5621 Yup I even said so at the time when Georgie pie expanded to all of NZ around 1994. I was 15-16 at the time and had seen them up in Auckland but had no idea what they were like.
I remember going to one of the outlets in Newtown in Wellington when there was a cricket game at the basin reserve. I was not impressed at all. They weren’t even as good as the tuck shop pies at my school, let alone the 3-4 bakeries within biking distance of my house. They were just a cut above service station pies and supermarket pies. They were cheap though, I’ll give them that; $2 for large,pies and 1$ for the smaller ones. Maybe a good food option for when you were super short of dough and needed a quick cheap feed.
@@newzealandstories5621 Yeah I don't know if I would ever go to a Georgie Pie again if it came back except for the novelty of it to be honest. I love the pies from my local bakery and I'd rather support a small local business anyway - I doubt a giant fast food chain could offer a similarly good pie for $6.50.
God old Winnie’s been around since the pyramids hasn’t he 😂 4:29
😂😂😂
Yes he has.
Just can’t seem to
get rid of him.😂
There used to be a Georgie Pie on the corner of Great South & Greenlane Rds in Greenlane Auckland, where McDonalds is now. I got food poisoning there one time, thanks to one of their pork pies, so it was Goodbye Pork Pie from me =)
I had it as a kid but was too young to remember much I mainly remember the playground at the highland park one in Auckland
My dad used to work at Georgie Pie for a few years, even sticking around after they merged with McDonald's. It was his first job since returning to NZ with my mum and older sisters so the pay kept them going while mum was seeking out her own job and eventually buy the house we're currently living in to this day. I wasn't born yet during that time, but we still have some of the kid meal toys lying around somewhere. I sometimes collect the toys whenever I find them at an Op shop or on TradeMe. Still kicking myself for not trying the pies when they were on the maccas menu when I had the chance, lol.
this guy created my childhood.... grew up on Georgia pie (the Glenfield one was legendary, Hyland Park then became our regular) and my first job at 15 was at Foodtown. this guy was a legend!!
Large mince and cheese with fish n chips on the side was my usual pickup... Miss Georgie pie
The fish and chips went hard so did the chicken nuggets
Hell yes! So good 😊
Hahaha do you also miss being able to see your toes when you look down?
Ah bro, nothing more kiwi than a mince'n cheese and a fush'n chups. That's real kiwi cuisine.
My parents have such fond memories of Georgie pie so it’s nice to see why it shut.
I remember for my 10th birthday it was my weekend to stay with my father .
He came to pick me up on his motorcycle / Harley and took me to Georgie pie. Was the only time he ever took me to a fast food other than fish and chips . Will never forget that day it was hosing down with rain but I still loved it .
One thing that annoyed me as a kid .
The curry and mince $2 was my fav. It was a larger round pie .
They stopped doing them for awhile and bought them back with the same poster as they used to use with the large round pie .
But when they served it was the smaller square pie I was really annoyed. Wanted the big pie . My mother said no that’s what you chose and I showed her the picture but she wasn’t having a bar of it 😂
I use to work in the hospitality Industry in Wellington working until the wee hours. Georgie Pie opened no too far away from the main strip. We would finish work then hit the bars that were still open. Before going to the bars we would put $5.00 in our back pocket. After the bars closed we went to Georgie Pie's which stayed open til late on Saturday night. We bought 1x $2.00 and 3x $1.00 pie's. Great cheap feed after our night out.
1:49 Health and safety standards have changed exponentially since the 80’s 😅👍
The whole myth of “Mcdonalda bought GP just so they could close it down” persists in society, it’s absolutely not right. GP ran themselves into the ground. McDonald’s bought the locations. Blame GP not McDonald’s.
I had to visit Palmerston North occasionally for work. I always took the opportunity to get a Georgie Pie at what I thought was the last store in NZ, but maybe just the last one in the lower Nrth Island?
Was that the one near the bus area near that round about?
@@Jamison1888 There was one on the corner of Rangitikei and Maire Streets. It is now JA Russel Electrical.
I remember going to the one in nelson when it was open as a kid for dinner. Back then we got the option of georgie pie or fish and chipa as you could feed a family of four for under $10. Now a big mac combo is $15.50 for something half the size
I lived in perth when one opened , made the trip down for the taste, the pies were way over spiced, nothing like Georgie Pie NZ. Apparently the owner wanted them extra spicy even though customer feedback told him otherwise, it wasn't long before it closed down.
A great video essay despite the AI, I'm hyped to see what else you cover.
You could get a steak mince pie, a regular soft drink and fries for $1.80
pie 85c, drink 40c, and fries 55c.
Georgie Pie was a regular stop on the pub/club crawl. Pop in, scoff a couple of pies, and scarper off to the next meat market.
I LOVED getting to taste a GP mince + cheese again courtesy of McD's... pure living nostalgia. It's not that they were great pies, but they were distinctively satisfying - just like a Big Mac isn't a great burger, but has its own appeal.
Instead of selling through McD's, I wish they'd found a way of mass-producing and distributing them in the same way they do those cheap crappy plastic-wrapped petrol station pies. *That's* the market for Georgie Pies in the 2020s: garages, dairies, and the frozen section in supermarkets. If the Clown would get off its corporate ego and sell the IP to some enterprising Kiwi, we could still be chowing down on our own unique brand of fast food.
More videos like this please!!
When they reopened Georgie pie I was never more disappointed. They said they were using the original recipe so I bought one on opening day took one bite and threw it in the bin. I dunno what the heck they thought they were serving but it wasn't a Georgie pie.
I know there's better pies out there, especially now days, but Georgie Pies had such a unique taste that I miss.
my first job was going around cleaning and watering the plants at all the auckland restraunts
Me and my cousins would go to Georgie Pie Rotorua every Tuesday evening with my Grandad for Dinner. He loved the Seafood pie and they also had fish and chips. It was like rectangle pieces of fish and chips on the side. The mince and cheese was our fav!
Sadly the old Georgie Pie is now a liquor store 😢 ...
A big reason why Georgie Pie collapsed was because it was a franchise model and that senior management (of head office) were allowed also be franchise owners. Long story short, instead of properly performing the job they were hired to do, they were coddling their stores over doing what was best for the chain.
I couldn't survive without a Kiwi made pie
A world without steak and cheese pies wouldn't be worth living in
I was a hungry teenager during the Georgie Pie era. It took me no time to figure out that 2 $1 pies was more pie than 1 $2 pie. Never made sense to me but I took full advantage.
Good old Wellington Georgie Pie, I was the strange kid that always got the fish and chips off the menu. Still Remember the night we went to the Basin Reserve Georgie pie which is now a MacDonalds and over heard the manager telling the staff that they were being closed down. Very sad
Shame they never came here to the UK, we love pies in the UK! :(
Just came across your channel. Pretty good video.
Unfortunately never got to try a Georgie Pie since I'm a bit younger myself (the stores were closed before I was born). But it is interesting to hear about what it was like.
I was literally telling my kids about Georgie Pie and the Georgie Pie Kids Club the other day! They were saying they wished there were kids clubs now like we used to have for fast food places and What Now etc
Those were the days. Now privacy and advertising laws destroyed those opportunities. I do remember doing GP Kids Club newsletters for typing exercises.
ahhh that yummy taste of nostalgia. yup - fond memories of GP in both Auckland and Porirua.
Dope channel! Earned a sub 😀
I grew up with the Glen Innes Georgie Pie, my parents used to own the takeaways next door
Love GP! (And your logo!)
My partner and I were talking about this yesterday. McDonald's needs to sell the rights off and Georgie pie could re-invent itself as a small hole in the wall franchise. Not a big player but a smaller privately owned franchise business with kiosks in malls and on high streets.
FARKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK I forgot all about these pies and I can just remember how tasty they were...
There is no way those 26 stores were actually selling 600,000 Pies per week. Not a chance.
Not an insane amount when you think about it
@@chickentoucher55 My math could be wrong, but 3300 Pies per day? Nah.
@@fcukugimmeausername Greenlane was 24 hours and and always busy here were 14 outlets. My mates and i would by 3 or 4 at a time as they were so cheap. I would have thought the estimate was bang on.
Jimmy’s pies from roxbrogh in the South Island are our best pies
Gp tokoroa was our hangout 1dollar pies all round boys. .
They were actually really good too
The mcdonalds revamp of the georgie pie was a problem - unlike the original, the new ones were mostly filled with air and not good.
They also only did the mince and cheese…ignoring that the mince and smaller pies were super popular.
They should be forced to sell the rights due to monopolistic reasons and not sit on the IP!
When foodtown brought out their chicken and vegetable pie, their golden thick crust edges reminded me of Georgie Pies. Good times... 😊
I had a bday at the Hamilton one and got a lion soft toy from Them. .. better than mcd ever gave me. A lot of the original buildings are now Burger King stores.
1:06 whoah that was the old mc donalds in porirua, i remember the cob n co across the street, now cob n co IS the old mc donalds
Georgie Pie could've been our own Gregg's
Love it and miss it.
Great content fella!!
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Just had a mince and cheese pie from new world in Wellington (the big one by Te papa) and it tasted just like a Georgie pie!
Georgie Pie reminds me of another Kiwi success in fast food Eagle Boys 🍕 pizza.
Unfortunately the power of foreign-owned, fast food companies has a habit of swallowing ours up.
Fuckin hell that’s a flash back. I remember Eagle Boys in Darwin, mid 2000s.
I think Eagle Boys was founded in Australia. Same one?
@Lukavichiano Yeah it was Eagle Boys Pizza. Way better pizza than Dominoes
@@silentsketcher_97 haha yep, way better. I had a mate who lived next door to one back in the early 2000s. We used to get $5 pizzas and play Goldeneye on the 64. Good times!
Yum!! Bring back the chain!
❤ G.P next to the Movie Cinemas in New Lynn back in the 90s was the best out West Auckland...I preferred it more than Mc Donald's. "BRING BACK G.P" ❤
Greenwood street -Hamilton . ❤
always got a Georgie pie as a kid!
either get the frozen mass produced pies in the store or make delicious bacon & egg pies at home!
Man I used to live in Greenlane, spent a ton of time in that branch
i miss Georgie Pie 😭
In a lot of the restaurants, you could also buy beer with your meal if you were dining in.
I remember going through my mum's stuff after she passed and found a pink Georgie Pie tray XDDD we had a good laugh that it was still in useable knick.
georgie pie were the best pies i can remember
Bring it Back!
The good thing with Georgie pie was that the quality was always the same every time. Unlike maccas and KFC etc when the quality would be different each time you ordered
Can you do some investigative journalism and track down the girl from 6:57 and ask why she had to lick the pie? I get blowing on the pie, but licking?!?
The single pies came in boxes - not wrapped in plastic or paper 🥧 I would dip my fries into the pie 😋
There were most certainly better mince 'n cheese and steak 'n cheese pies out there, [my all time fave of these, a now closed bakery chain in Napier - Heaven's Bakery] but I've never come across a better steak 'n kidney pie than what they had at the George. Real chunks of kidney, not just nasty gristle you tend to find in other versions. The ratio was on point as well. The blackberry and apple pie was also my favourite in terms of sweet.
I still get a mix of nostalgia and sadness going past the BK in Napier - which used to be GP, knowing I'll likely never have a better steak 'n kidney again.
Went there as a kid a couple times. Don't recall the flavour, just the sensation of burning.
I’d hate to know now what the hell was in those pies I ate there- probably whatever AFFCO couldn’t sell I’d imagine…. I could still go for one of those desert pies though.
maybe what was in it was actual 100% real meat, instead of now days 99% artificial mystery ingredients
I agree. I remember Georgie pie being trash. Not much better than supermarket pies of service station pies.
Best pies ever
I never quite understood Georgie Pie. Turns out I'm not the only one.
8 bucks for a pie in some places. Kawakawa 7.50
Georgie pie fed us right through our teen boy racer year's.
We used to go to the Kelston store when we were kids it had a conveyor belt running by the front windows with the pies on our Mum used to take bread and butter and a knife and fork we were so embarrassed we'd sit at another table 😂
That's hilarious ... Mums aye =)
What is this song at the end? I want it 😂
It's not bad eh?
It's so epic lol haha it made me laugh so hard. Outrageously catchy.
A.I generated song
@@newzealandstories5621 download link pls
@@newzealandstories5621Download link to song.
Need to do one for Pizza Haven, hands down best meat lovers pizzas I've ever had till Dominos bought em out
Just "BRING BACK THE 80s & 90s"
I remember Georgie pie here in chch. My brother looked up at the sign and legit threw up! Lol. He was 7-8 years old at the time.
😂Poor little guy. Was this before or after he'd eaten there?
Back in the mid 90's McDonalds Greenlane had teamed up with Georgie Pie, to introduce a breakfast pie, and a regular pie for $1.00, I could eat myself stupid for $5.00, but that only seemed to last for about a year, and that deal was dropped altogether.