Why McDonald's quit city mall

A matter of menu was the prime reason behind McDonald's family restaurant vacating its site in Trafalgar Square.

Darren Rowland, owner of the three Wanganui McDonald's outlets as well as the one in Hawera, told the Chronicle the decision was "menu driven".

"The mall site wasn't anywhere near as big as our Avenue and Liffiton St restaurants, so we were restricted in the range of products we could offer," Mr Rowland said.

"We had people asking for a particular burger but we weren't able to provide all our range at Trafalgar Square."

He said the mall outlet did not offer any room for expansion.

"That meant we couldn't look at a McCafe starting up there or installing a playground, as we have at the other restaurants," he said.

The store's lease was up for renewal this month, so he made the decision not to re-sign. The store closed on November 30.

Mr Rowland said all 10 staff who worked at the mall outlet were offered redeployment at either Victoria Ave or Liffiton St outlets and all had accepted the new positions.

Craig Whittaker, Trafalgar Square operations manager, said nothing had been decided about future use or potential tenants for the vacated site.

Builders have been at the site stripping out the building ready for any future tenant.