Residents against McDonald’s opening in Glebe are handing out flyers to encourage people to stop by a local cafe instead

THE battle to stop McDonald’s from opening in Glebe may have been lost but residents are still fighting on regardless.

Glebe residents outside the McDonald’s pop-up store on Glebe Point Rd on Friday morning. Picture: Craig Wilson

THE battle to stop McDonald’s from opening in Sydney’s Glebe may have been lost but residents are still fighting on regardless.

Residents turned up outside the Glebe Point Rd pop-up store on Friday morning, hours before the opening of Fries With That, to rail against the fast food giant.

McDonald’s said the store is open for only three days, from 11am to 6pm each day and has just fries, for free, with a limit of one serving per customer, per day.

The company said Fries With That is a testing ground for its relatively new Loaded Fries range.

Customers are being quizzed on what they think of the new flavours being trialled, which include pesto mayo and parmesan.

Customers Francesca Tang and Alicia Mitchell at the McDonald’s pop-up store in Glebe.

Amanda Tattersall, who launched a Facebook page and online petition against the McDonald’s store when rumours swirled the company was planning to open in Glebe, said residents will be handing out flyers over the weekend as part of their campaign against the pop-up.

The petition has garnered almost 1000 signatures, with dozens of people expected to hand out the flyers.

The “Love Local, Love Glebe” flyers, which will be distributed along Glebe Point Rd, contain information about more than 20 cafes in the area to encourage people to stop by one of those businesses rather than McDonald’s.

“What we want to do is promote Glebe as a village and minimise the impacts of this pop-up,” she told the Inner West Courier.

Ms Tattersall hit back at claims their campaign against McDonald’s was snobbery at its worst.

“We’re just a group of parents who think one less McDonald’s who would be a good thing,” she said.

She was still unconvinced the company would not seek to have a permanent presence in the suburb.

“It’s hard to take them seriously,” she said.

“It’s been a new piece of information every day (and) they’ve spent so much money on the refit.”

Glebe resident Julia Hush with an anti-McDonald’s sign outside the pop-up store. Picture: Craig Wilson

The decision to open in the former Valhalla cinema complex has also raised eyebrows, given that location does not see much foot traffic on weekends.

While the resident campaign had not prevented McDonald’s from opening the pop-up, Ms Tattersall said she hoped it had sent a message to the company not to open another pop-up in Glebe.

McDonald’s Australia Director of Marketing, Jo Feeney, said the decision to open in Glebe was “to celebrate our Loaded Fries”.

“We were looking at different spots and Glebe was probably a bit unexpected for us — and we like to do things a little bit unexpected some times.

“Given it’s for three days, we thought it was a nice spot to come and celebrate fries.”

People began lining up for the free fries about 90 minutes before the store opened.

“Customers are enjoying it which was absolutely the critical thing for us,” Ms Feeney said.

“I believe there was one gentlemen who had been here for about an hour and a half who was first in line, which was nice to see.

“That’s what we wanted and that’s what we’re here for, our customers.”

She said the company was not looking at having a permanent store in the suburb.

“Our intent is to have a fun, three-day celebration,” she said.

“We really are just here for three days, and we can assurance residents we’re not here permanently and we aren’t scoping for restaurants.”

Staff Eduardo Reinaque and Hannah Ben-Ameur.

Senior corporate communications manager Skye Oxenham said McDonald’s did alert residents the pop-up was on its way but there was a reason they were coy with specific details.

“We communicated with residents via a letterbox drop and that was probably about a week out,” she said.

“We wanted to keep it a secret for our customers, too, because that’s part of the surprising element of what we’re doing.”

Customer Alicia Mitchell, who works in Glebe and tried the sweet chilli and sour cream loaded fries, said: “It’s a good amount of topping and it’s very tasty”.

Police were called to the store prior to its opening after part of the glass frontage was smashed by an unknown offender.

Police talk with security outside the store. Picture: Craig Wilson

Originally published as Residents against McDonald’s opening in Glebe are handing out flyers to encourage people to stop by a local cafe instead