Speaking to a regular bus buddy from concierge who goes to the gym and always looks as if he is about to fall asleep on the bus about the promotion - he advises me that he was definitely going to have a free burrito for lunch! Me well I was thinking about it and the coffee but was wondering how long the promotion was on for and how long the queues would be throughout the day to get a free burrito as we only have 30 minutes lunch lunch break - not enough time to walk out of the shopping centre wait then eat one.
After some feedback from people who have patiently queued up to get one or more even - I decided to go after work and get one even though the queues at lunch were nowhere as bad as after work I found out and orders were pumped out every 5 minutes even less.
After work at 5.30 pm I decided to have a toliet break then walk to the newly opened petrol station along with by, this time in the afternoon, hundreds of other people. I was near end of the queue which was making its way down the outside of St Ives Shopping Village's Mona Vale Road entrance where the bus stop was. It moved quite quickly however it did take me just under an hour to get my free burrito. I only ordered 1 spicy chicken burrito with avocado although we were advised to ignore the one per person offer as advertised on menu flyers and signs. I was order #81 in line.
Outside whilst queuing free bottles of water, chips and dips, various chocolate cookies (Not very Mexican Mrs Fields style) and free lattes were given out with menu flyers as well as live music playing at the entrance to the "Foodary" as it was called.
Once inside it was controlled chaos. Orders were taken very quickly - where on earth did they get so many crew members for the event? - they must have been stolen from the Bondi stores as well as all the other stores around Sydney. After orders were taken you were asked to move to the left and wait until your order number was called out. I could see one worker handing out the orders swearing heavily from his role! I will not be surprised if the person allocated to call out the order numbers lost her voice! Out of all the orders only 2 were not collected #3 a vegetarian burrito and #8 a mild chicken burrito. After repeated announcements for both order numbers, # 8 eventually went to a home even thought it may not have been the person who originally ordered it but poor #3 remain unclaimed even after I collected my order with someone even making a comment out loud "Who would want to order vegetarian today anyway?" I was tempted to claim it myself at one stage!
As soon as I grabbed my order I made my way out of the crowded space onto the road again but by now the queue of people was all the way past the entrance of St Ives Shopping Village's Mona Vale Road entrance and people were still steadily arriving ! It was around 6.30 pm and I spent a good 15 minutes trying to cross the main road to get to the other side to catch the next bus back to Gordon (whilst queuing up I checked my phone to ensure that buses ran up to 7 pm in the event it took longer then expected to receive my burrito) - an almost impossible task - I found a partial break but had to force cars to stop and let me cross at least to the median strip island through the centre of the road.
Free Burrito Day had started at noon and finished at 7 pm. I met up with a pharmacist working in the shopping centre and she advised me that she had a burrito for lunch but the queue was nowhere as long.
Photo attached and see my facebook entry comment and photos via link below
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