I don’t eat pizza often but when I do I order ham and pineapple with extra cheese. During a recent Friday night pick up at Boston Pizza, I asked the friendly owner how business was. “It’s been a little slow, but we aren’t worried. With all the development coming to Ladner and Tsawwassen we expect to be very busy very soon.”
Together we listed all the pizza choices in South Delta and we came up with 10, although I’m sure we missed some. “With that many pizza choices there needs to be a lot of people ordering pizza on a Friday night,” I exclaimed. He just shook his head and grinned as the phone rang and the delivery boy whizzed past me laden with pizza boxes.
It’s not just a plethora of pizza places we can choose from as all types of quick service restaurants are coming to town. Take a drive around Tsawwassen Commons and fast food restaurants are popping up like daffodils. Nando’s, Wendy’s and A&W are open, with Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Menchies and many more chains on their way.
Ladner is getting a Tim Hortons, Triple O’s and Dairy Queen to add to its selection of restaurants.
Remember the quote from the movie Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” Well, there seems to be a field of dreams happening right here in our community. Franchise owners must be convinced that increasing the selection of fast food options will influence and accelerate demand. That’s a risky marketing strategy that could backfire as our small community becomes saturated with restaurants.
Mayor Lois Jackson gave her 2018 state of the city address to the Delta Chamber of Commerce earlier this month at which time she said, “We keep trying to protect what we have here in Delta but are continually facing external pressures to grow, expand and become something bigger.”
She’s spot on, and our growing fast food options are a reflection of that expansion. There are so many reasons to reject this kind of growth, especially if we look at the impact of fast food on the diets of children and teens. Growth and expansion doesn’t have to be bad for our community as long as we commit to the things we believe are healthy for us.
I am not immune to cravings for fast food now and then but practice moderation. For the most part, we are a sedentary society and eating highly processed foods makes us more vulnerable to diabetes and obesity. We need to be turning to slow food, where healthy, well prepared meals are convenient, affordable and delicious.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Trevor Linden’s Club 16 fitness studio announced it’s opening next door to all the fast food chains at Tsawwassen Commons. Maybe he’s hoping we’ll need to burn off the calories from all those burgers and fries we’ll be ordering from the drive thrus.
Ingrid Abbott is a freelance broadcaster and writer who is part of the 46 per cent of pizza lovers who believe pineapple is an acceptable pizza topping, which was interestingly invented by a Canadian.
