MEALS TO MOTELS

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32068, 16 August 1969, Page 19

MEALS TO MOTELS

Large Trade Built Up A Christchurch restaurant owner has built up a large “meals on wheels” trade to city and suburban motels, offices, fiats and houses. He is Mr R. H. Jackson, who has a coffee and hamburger shop in Victoria Street. From there his two vans run a shuttle service to customers Who telephone for the meals, and he now delivers between 300 and 400 meals a week. Mr Jackson said that he decided after reading so much about the tourist facilities needed in Christchurch that there was scope for a meals service to the man with four or five motels. Every motel in Christchurch has a copy of his menu, which offers grills, fruit juices, soups, salads, desserts, four "international dishes,” and soft drinks, tea and coffee. Mr Jackson's dial-a-meal service has been going for nearly a year. Within three months of starting it he had to double the size of his kitchen. Now that he Is delivering meals to offices and houses as well as motels he expects to have to enlarge his premises again. His customers Include doctors and office workers who want a meal at their desks, canteens in factories that are working overtime,-sales conferences, and persons living alone, and owners of one-man shops who cannot get away for a meal at lunch-time or on Friday nights. “Now we’ve started a ’dial-a-chicken' service as well,” said Mr Jackson. “We deliver roast chickens piping hot to the customer's door. I was going to call it ‘dial-a-bird,’ but I thought I might get the wrong sort of customers.”