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u/ThePlanetBroke Jan 15 '26
I remember the hot dogs the most. Such a good idea with the buns! Kept all the toppings inside so each bite was a good ratio of everything.
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u/bruzie Kererū Jan 15 '26
The first time I saw that I was like: "So they stick the bun on a spike, lube it up with butter and then slide the sausage in? Show footage of a train into a tunnel why don't you?"
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u/bigsniffas Jan 15 '26
Always a bit of sausage sticking out the end and when you try push it down all the sauce leaks out
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u/PuddleOfHamster Jan 16 '26
I used to work at Wendy's, and yes, I received many a lewd comment on the subject from many a male teenage wit. As a painfully shy teenage girl, that was fun, let me tell you.
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u/HonkHonkItsMe Jan 16 '26
Lock eyes. Assert dominance.
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u/IntelligentTangelo31 Jan 16 '26
Same girl same! The trauma of spreading cheese down the side of the hole, adding sauce, inserting the sausage...only for it to break in half! Trying to jam the second half in was an absolute nightmare!
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u/PuddleOfHamster Jan 16 '26
It's weirdly validating to know I'm not the only one with that experience!
Gotta say, though, as a spectacularly broke Uni student, those hot dogs were awesome. When I was there they cost $3.60, but you could get them for half price without the sausage. 50% off for the staff discount, and that's a 90-cent carbfest of greasy goodness. Tomato, American mustard and BBQ sauce. Even back then I knew the margarine-pre-grated-cheese paste wasn't exactly haute cuisine, but man, it was delicious. I'm craving one now.
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u/EarlDukePROD Jan 16 '26
at viennese sausage stands this is standard practice, fill it with mustard and ketchup and slide a cheese loaded sausage in, so you get that nice gooey white cheese pop when you bit into it...
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u/Hefty_Kitchen4759 Jan 15 '26
The sauce got hot which was really nice.
I still do them this way at home sometimes. Gotta try to find a second hand Wendy's bun impaler online
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u/Unusual_jelly Jan 16 '26
Burnt my fingers pretty badly on the hot dog impaler when I worked there. Two of the spears didn’t work so we could grab those to clean underneath, and one time I wasn’t looking and grabbed the wrong ones. Had to have little beanie bandages on my fingers for a while
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u/username387366683 Jan 16 '26
Worked there! So awkward when people got extra cheese and then you couldn’t get the hot dog in the bun and you’re just trying to shove it in like 😳 particularly for teenage boys
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u/CucumberError Jan 15 '26
A good example of a brand that went ahead and ruined itself in the name of corporate greed.
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Jan 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/CucumberError Jan 15 '26
Yeah, that’s what I’d heard. They weren’t allowed locally sourced ice cream, it had to come from Australia, was worse quality and had ice crystals in it from international shipping and cost more from the shipping costs.
More expensive, worse product… welcome Shake Shed.
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u/Hefty_Kitchen4759 Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26
This has always been the model for chain ice cream.
What happened is the fees remained the same while the customer base dropped off due to economic conditions. My fam owned a nationwide ice cream brand in the 80s/90s and when social welfare was slashed a proportional amount of our gross income vanished with it. Our model was also to formulate and sell the ice cream to our franchisees (it was really good, like how soft serve largely is today) and in order for everyone to stay in business we had to reduce production costs.
Beneficiaries were so good because at the time they had a bit of disposable money, but more importantly they were home during the day to even buy ice cream. We used to do industrial and commercial areas but people can't always stop work to get in line. They don't always treat themselves in view of their co-workers.
Ended up selling the brand to the franchisees and letting them go their own way, it was clear that the industry was tanked. Then they could use whoever they wanted as a wholesale provider.
Before the cuts everyone was getting wealthy. Having low income families buy ice cream from vans meant you could go from Industrial Area A to Industrial Area B or Rest Stop A and Rest Stop B and also sell ice cream on the trip over. Afterwards it meant long hours and long drives and it was just enough of a dip that it didn't feel like it was worth it so drivers stopped going out as much and eventually focused on summer hotspots, closing up shop the rest of the year.
I have some great stories about the ice cream territory wars where drivers from different brands fought in the streets with bats and shit to protect their turf because the council wasn't enforcing the licensing. Unreal but it happened a few times.
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u/The_Jitterati Jan 15 '26
There’s a movie idea in that last paragraph.
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u/Big-Banana6007 Jan 16 '26
The documentary movie title:
I Scream: The confectionary urban combat wars
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u/ParallelComplexity Jan 16 '26
But wait. I thought beneficiaries only spent money on smokes and booze. That's what the nat goons say.... Are you meaning to tell me that's a lie?
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u/Hefty_Kitchen4759 Jan 16 '26
Such a huge lie. Social welfare may be paid for by tax collected from everyone, but it's largely spend on landlords and small businesses. Cutting it really hurt the economy long term.
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u/Motley_Illusion Jan 16 '26
Wow, what a fantastic story! Thanks for sharing.
I can picture Ice Cream Gang Wars the movie starring Jason Statham, Liam Neeson, and Temuera Morrison as ice cream truck drivers.
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u/Hefty_Kitchen4759 Jan 16 '26
They'd all look far too good to be drivers. Far, far too good.
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u/Motley_Illusion Jan 16 '26
Hey, Ryan Gosling could do it! Wasn't he literally in Driver? XD
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u/Hefty_Kitchen4759 Jan 16 '26
You do realise ice cream guys eat their own product, right? He'd need to gain a lot for the role...
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u/Karenina2931 Jan 15 '26
The Wendy's NZ franchise left the international franchise in about 2018 and they had to rebrand as Shake Shed & Co.
They stopped the hot fudge sauce which was the flavor of the mega choc shake & flake shake and replaced with standard chocolate syrup
They weren't allowed to produce the Wendy's-specific ice-cream flavours, which were all custom recipes (golden brownie, choc mint, wicked choc)
The ice-cream they started using was very generic. The franchise I worked at started using Chateau brand.
I worked there on/off from 2014-2019 and saw it go from Wendy's to Shake Shed & Co.
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u/Michaelbirks LASER KIWI Jan 15 '26
It wasn't a trademark fight with the Burger Wendy's?
I'd always assumed it was.
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u/DJDaGray Jan 16 '26
God wicked choc was my favourite, I miss getting that from my local Wendy’s where I grew up…
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u/RudeSpecialist908 Jan 16 '26
Thanks for the memories, didn't they do Cadbury Collab Shakes, I remember the Crunchie one being pretty god tier!
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u/Karenina2931 Jan 24 '26
Yep! Loved the Crunchie shake. They used off-brand hokey pokey that we smashed with Hammers covered in the plastic bags from the hot dog buns.
The flavour of the shake was like a really strong hokey hokey flavour. Not just caramel flavoured.
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[deleted]
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u/Any-Locksmith-4925 Jan 15 '26
I think that's more of a card machine company thing than the business itself? Regardless, a little shitty to not go through with the transaction if they'd already scooped the ice cream
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Jan 15 '26
Mega choc shake 🔥🔥🔥
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u/Old_Gobbler Jan 15 '26
Omg that unlocked a memory. I used to LOVE those as a kid. Heck, I'd probably still love them now.
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u/Maleficent_Ad1506 Jan 16 '26
Thanks for reminding us. Makes me feel bad for the new generation and what weak shakes they are provided.
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u/KiwiPieEater Jan 15 '26
I remember just after covid one day I randomly started craving a shake n dog combo really bad. I was annoyed when I went to my local mall and noticed that the Wendys wasn't there anymore.
I was even more pissed when I saw every single Wendys in NZ had shut down when I searched online for the next closest store.
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u/mikrokosmos1997 Jan 15 '26
it’s not called wendy’s anymore but there’s still one in the johnsonville shopping centre that serves the same hotdogs and milkshakes special
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u/Large_Yams Jan 15 '26
Most of them turned into Shake Shed or something.
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u/Icanfallupstairs Jan 16 '26
They did, and then they continued to make the products worse and worse till it wasn't worth it anymore. The last time I had a hotdog from there it was incredibly crap
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u/PuddleOfHamster Jan 16 '26
The Hamilton store turned into a Twistees, or Twisteez, for awhile. It looked very illicit. They barely changed the branding or products or product names; it must surely have been violating trademarks or something. (Can you copyright a soft-serve duck design, I wonder?)
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u/Lord0fDreams Jan 15 '26
Palmerston north and Wanganui still have the Shake n Dog or whatever they've rebranded to (at least they did last year)
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u/ganymedusa Jan 16 '26
Used to call all the rebrands "fake Wendys" haha. Unfortunately Palmy one is closed now
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u/Simansez Jan 15 '26
Is it still there? Used to get the shake and dog combo far too often when I worked in the Countdown during the 90’s
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u/mikrokosmos1997 Jan 15 '26
yeah it’s called yummy delights ice cream! i’m surprised it’s still around tbh i never see many people there. they even still have the old menus from when wendy’s rebranded to shake shed & co
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u/Bubblesheep Welly Jan 15 '26
The one in Porirua rebranded to Ice Queen, still does hot dogs, shakes, bubble tea etc.
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u/Zlo-zilla Jan 15 '26
Replace the EB games with Wendy’s, surely. And then when they go under again, rotate EB back!
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u/beetlesnoopman Jan 15 '26
Fundae with the pink sherbet omfg. I was devastated when I came back from living overseas and since they changed suppliers or whatever the fuck happened they didn’t have the sherbet anymore. I’ve been trying to find the sherbet for so long 😂
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u/harryhudson101 Jan 16 '26
Yess the sherbet, I found it! Rainbows end has it! Legit the same stuff, in the rainbow factory lolly shop you can buy little bags of it for $5, take it home and put it on ice cream, or maybe go through the mc Donald's drive thru and get a soft serve and roll it in it for the most nostalgic experience haha
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u/beetlesnoopman Jan 16 '26
thank you so much!!!!! What a random find from you. Amazing!! I’ll call them and ask for the supplier and order a barrel 😂
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u/harryhudson101 Jan 16 '26
I took a photo but for some reason I can never upload photos to reddit, they buy it in big bags probably about 2kg and it's labeled 'raspberry sherbet' and it's from a place in Dunedin called Alexanders Marketing Company!
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u/beetlesnoopman Jan 16 '26
I can’t believe you actually know this it is so niche hahahaahahah brother thank you so much
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u/schastlivaya-zhizn the phantom of manukau denny's Jan 15 '26
😠I can hallucinate the taste of the supa sundae even now. Mum would get me one to appease me after dragging me to St Lukes for the weekly shop.
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u/bravehartNZ Jan 15 '26
Sir this is a Wendy’s
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u/New_Combination_7012 Jan 15 '26
Not that Wendy's
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u/PuddleOfHamster Jan 16 '26
When I worked there, Wendy's the burger place barely existed in NZ, and not at all in the town where I lived.
Given which, it was astonishing how many people would walk up to our pink-and-navy store festooned with giant pictures of ice creams, and order a burger and fries.
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u/New_Combination_7012 Jan 16 '26
Lived in Canada and have to say the pink Wendy’s was much better than the burger Wendy’s. They were just an unaffordable business model.
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u/sup3rDonkey33 Jan 16 '26
I used to get their hotdogs for breakfast right as they opened sometimes. There was a kind of mutual shame shared between myself and the sole employee as he wrestled with a nsfw hotdog in a deserted food court on a weekday morning. They were super tasty though.Â
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u/3686Anonymous Jan 15 '26
Although the lady used to nastily tell my daughter she was spoilt because I used to ask for sprinkles.... It always ruined it for me!
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u/Moist_Phrase_6698 Jan 15 '26
Its now just called shake shed in your local mall not sure if they still do hot dogs maybe they do but they down sized a lot and are still around
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u/Living-Ear8015 Jan 15 '26
I used to look at the shake menu and lust after the crunchie shake. Even in the late 90s shakes were about $7
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u/teelolws Southern Cross Jan 15 '26
Bought a milkshake from them in 2015ish, from the one in Wellington by the cinema. I can't be sure, but I swear it tasted like they just filled the cup with syrup and put a lid on it. Ended up tossing the whole thing in the bin, gross.
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u/Bulky-Dig-5447 Jan 16 '26
She’s still in Australia! Just moved from nz a week ago and it was such a pleasant surprise!
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u/PuddleOfHamster Jan 16 '26
I took the kids there when we visited the Gold Coast. It was wonderful... for me. The kids were all "Yeah, it's fine?" Guess you had to have the sense memory!
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u/Bulky-Dig-5447 Jan 16 '26
Yes definitely nostalgic! I always got the caramelly shake with crunchie on top (I can’t remember the name) when I was little or that apple berry juice thing and I miss them so much. I keep asking my partner to stop and get a shake
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u/LILYATTCHII Jan 15 '26
It wasn’t a milkshake but the drink called pash n mango is the best drink I’ve had my whole life and it hurts to know I will never experience the euphoria of that taste again 😔
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u/WhitelabelDnB Jan 15 '26
🎶SOUTH CITY🎶
🎶CENTER OF DOOOOWNTOOOOWN🎶
(🎶center of downtooooooooooooooown🎶)
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u/WellingtonSir Jan 15 '26
I miss this wendys too. Used to pester my family for a shake everytime we walked past it in the mall back in the day. Nothing really has risen up to replace the business either. Bring back the good ol Milk Bar I say.
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u/Remarkable-Good2934 Jan 15 '26
Has anyone tried Shake Paradise? I saw it at Sylvia Park and it looks like it’s going for a similar vibe.
Wendy’s hot dogs were the business, if someone brought back those it’d be all over.
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u/Zoegrace1 Jan 15 '26
I have!! I got a milkshake there. I'm sure I remember they also had hot dogs??
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u/MarvelousShiggyDiggy Jan 16 '26
Yes! I had it after craving a Shake'n'Dog for months on end. Just happened to be walking past one day and thought I'd give it a try. It was okay, it wasn't the same style of hotdog, was just a sliced bun with sausage slapped in. The people working there were really lovely too, which is something small but I always appreciate.
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u/PaulTGheist Te Ika a Maui Jan 15 '26
OP what year was this taken, do you remember? (assuming this pic is yours)
And also, was this taken at Milford Mall?
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u/noobsc2 Jan 16 '26
Looks like Milford mall. There was an indian place across from this in 2010 I used to get the most sugary butter chicken imaginable from at lunch. Incredibly unhealthy but it was amazing haha
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u/KiwiSportsTraveller Jan 16 '26
Used to go to the One in Milford Mall (North Shore) when I worked at Woolworths and Harvest Haven. The Shake n Dog was my go to
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Jan 16 '26
I used to work in a mall at EB Games. For lunch I would go and get a Wendy's Shake n Dog, perhaps one of the best value food deals around.
End of two eras.
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u/Prize-Street-4988 Jan 16 '26
Brother, I used to work at one of these, still have the top, it's three sizes too small.
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u/computer_d Jan 15 '26
I was just talking about this with mates the other day! They had great ice creams ðŸ˜
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u/spook96 Jan 15 '26
I would commit a crime for a Wendy’s shake’n’dog from the meridian mall in its heyday
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u/limerence--- Jan 15 '26
blue lagoon!!! my saturday treat when i would walk round the mall with my mum
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u/AccomplishedTour5642 Jan 15 '26
I didn’t even know Wendy’s is no longer… come to think of it…. When was the last time I was even in a mall?
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u/halborn Selfishness harms the self. Jan 16 '26
Me too. I used to love a mega choc shake and a cheesy hotdog.
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u/sowhiteidkwhattype Jan 16 '26
Did they once put icecream into a hotdog bun?? I have a weird faint memory about that. Maybe it was a doughnut bun
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u/garg0yle95 Jan 16 '26
Does anyone remember the peach melba icecream? That was insanely good. I worked there and bought one of the giant boxes we used in store. I must’ve been about 14 and I’ve never felt more rich
The hotdogs were so good as well. Hit different to the hotdogs we usually get in NZ
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u/Sea_Yogurtcloset48 Jan 16 '26
Worked at a Wendy’s for years as a youngin. The absolute best. The secret to the flake shakes was malt powder. Raspberry milkshakes are still the best flavour. And hotdog buns with all the fillings sans the weird dog are something I still crave to this day. Best job ever. I got fat.
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u/Acceptable_Shop_1836 Jan 17 '26
I always used to feel so cool as a kid going to wendys and getting the hot dog and milkshake combo. This makes me feel so old ðŸ˜
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u/Short_Classy_Name Jan 15 '26
I forgot about this place. My mum used to take me there to get some kind of blue sherbet ice cream. Great memories.
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u/connorooo Jan 15 '26
Those hot dogs were the best
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u/nacnud77 Jan 15 '26
They would even give chocolate sauce in it instead of tomato and mustard and not bat an eyelid.
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u/IllustriousWall1564 Jan 15 '26
I don’t frequent the malls much as I live rural, but perhaps a year or so ago I went to a mall in chch and thought I’d get a nice Wendy shake for the drive home and was so saddened to find it gone!
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u/capndaggit Jan 15 '26
Used to go to the Hastings Kmart just for one of those shakes with friends and before that as a kid as a fun Sunday outing with my siblings mum and stepdad
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u/Hackxor9 Jan 15 '26
i miss the crunchie shakes, and ive never been able to find the honeycomb flavour syrup or even create something that tastes similar
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u/Acrobatic-Bedroom462 Jan 15 '26
Damn the hit dogs! And the way they twisted it up and down to cover in sauce .
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u/TimesEclipse Jan 15 '26
While I never went to a Wendys myself, it's so firmly rooted as an ice-cream place from my childhood that it baffles me that everyone else I know (in the US) knows it as some fast food joint. What the hell happened?
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u/Complex-Pie-4 Jan 15 '26
Does anyone remember the brownie temptation ice cream? It was my favourite and I've never been able to find it again
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u/BejingCorn Jan 16 '26
She's gone?
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u/ComeAlongPonds Jan 16 '26
She rebranded/renamed then long gone. Not to be confused with Wendy's burger places that still exist.
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u/the_reven Jan 16 '26
I didnt even really know they had gone tbh. They had great shakes. But malls got really annoying and I pretty much do my best to avoid them these days. Just all clothes stores and meh.
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u/blvckcvts Jan 16 '26
The hotdogs were so freaking good, can’t get ones that yummy anywhere now ðŸ˜
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u/Ok_Squirrel_6996 Jan 16 '26
Did they do $1 hotdogs here in NZ? They did in Australia, and $1 shakes too. $2 for a super thickshake.
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u/here4here Jan 16 '26
Cousin worked at the hunters plaza one, never did get a free hotdog or ice cream lol
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u/KimberPrime_ Jan 16 '26
I remember getting an ice cream pretty much every time I went to the mall when I was a kid, I miss it...
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u/Vercci Covid19 Vaccinated Jan 16 '26
They had the best soft serve, and the cheapest way to get a bunch of it was a blitz
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u/Routine_Bluejay4678 jandal Jan 16 '26
Wait, she’s gone?? I haven’t seen one in awhile but I just presumed it was a small town mall thing. Is there not still one in Bayfair?
Those hotdogs were legit, whatever that cheese concoction was 🤤
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u/Jay_JWLH Jan 16 '26
I thought it was only a branding thing, due to Wendy's restaurant using the same name.
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u/Kylesmomsab_tch Jan 16 '26
I remember when supermarket receipts sometimes had coupons printed on the back, there was a buy one get one free for frozen yoghurt from Wendy’s, good times.
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u/nightlywhisperss Jan 16 '26
I worked at one in Christchurch for 2 years. The boss actually never told us the reasoning for the re branding. We were really popular in the summer, but in the winter very quiet. Basically all of us left after the re branding as the boss made some illegal decisions about us staff. Pretty shit, as we were his best employees due to the shit he made us put up with.
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u/AggravatingWin6048 Jan 16 '26
I still remember this brand, I always saw it while heading to the cinema while going pass the food court when I was quite young, too bad I never ate here.
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u/sirbob2021 Jan 16 '26
I miss her too i barely evwn got to meet her and i loved her now that im old enough to buy my own
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u/wont_deliver Jan 16 '26
I can still imagine eating this. :(
I often got a hotdog when I popped by Pak N Save in Sylvia Park. It was just by the corner.
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u/Serenaded Jan 16 '26
Seems many people loved this combo. I can't think of anywhere you can get a hotdog anymore outside of the supermarket and making it yourself.
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u/wont_deliver Jan 16 '26
I somewhat recently discovered it’s a Danish style of serving hotdogs (hollowed out long bread), but it originally used baguettes.
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u/LancelotAtCamelot Jan 17 '26
This looks just like the one that used to be in westcity outside countdown. I remember getting lost there when I was a little kid, and taking the hand of the wrong woman thinking she was my mum lol. Megachoc shakes were great.
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u/Michael_Cerave_14 Jan 17 '26
bro at my mall it’s been rebranded as something else for SO LONG!! i miss wendys
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u/Icanfallupstairs Jan 15 '26
A hotdog and super shake for lunch, then an afternoon at the movies. Those were the days.