Greco's Barrington location. Photo: Lizzy Hill

No Greco pizza delivery to Gottingen area residents

Community asks why service is being denied.

Former King’s student Rebecca Burgess decided to place an order to Greco Pizza on Barrington to fulfill her late-night craving for garlic fingers and pizza.

Instead of delicious pizza, she got turned down.

She called Greco’s 310-3030 number and was told the fast food franchise does not deliver to the area. She pointed out that according to the store’s “Grecoville” map, Gottingen Street is, in fact, within their territory.

“I live on Gottingen Street and they didn’t want to come here. It made me feel pretty angry and upset. I was frustrated.  I didn’t really understand why a large chain that delivers pizza wouldn’t give service to a customer.”

She believes there is a negative stereotype concerning her neighbourhood that is blatantly untrue.  Gottingen Street is the traditional centre of the African-Nova Scotian community in peninsular Halifax.

“This seems like a pretty good neighborhood,” says Burgess. “Just this morning someone walking to work helped push my car ’cause I was stuck in the snow. Everyone who was out shovelling was digging people out who were stuck in the street. I've never had a bad experience living here.”

A supervisor at the Greco Barrington Street store told customer Mike McGuire that the decision not to deliver to the Gottingen neighborhood was a safety issue. A second supervisor confirmed that they don’t deliver to Gottingen Street, but declined to say why.

A woman who identified herself as owner of the Barrington Street Greco location declined to comment on the issue to U-news and declined to reveal her name.
Guy Soucy, president of Grinner's Food Systems , which owns Greco Pizza, was unaware of the problem. 

“This is certainly not a practice adopted by the franchise but by the franchisee.  I am going back to the store and figure out what the problem is.  Every Greco has its own Grecoville, it’s own territory,” says Soucy. “This is not the policy for every Greco -- that’s for certain. I am going to follow up with her afterwards. I would be anxious to see how we can change our operation practices to meet the needs of that end of the city and the rest of Halifax.”

The day after Burgess failed to get pizza, her friend, Mike McGuire, tried to order pizza from Greco’s and recorded the conversation on video.  Upon being refused his order he demanded  to know why his order could not be placed. The supervisor at Barrington Street Greco said it was an issue of safety.

El Jones, a University of King’s College professor, and African-Nova Scotian poet and activist is upset by the policy. 

“Have we heard any cases of delivery drivers being shot?” asks Jones. “I think the idea of violence on Gottingen Street is over blown.  I feel much safer walking down Gottingen than I do downtown.  I mean look at the South End, with all these alerts about women waking up with stalkers watching them sleep. They aren’t stopping service to the South End.”

Michelle Strum, 31, President of the Gottingen Street Merchants’ Association, says this sort of thing has not happened for years, though a few years ago she remembers a complaint that KFC would not deliver to Uniacke Square.

“It is a stigma,” says Strum, who leads the association of 30 Gottingen Street businesses.  “People who think Gottingen is a dangerous area have never been here. There are tons of fantastic people. There are fantastic businesses. They are missing out on a lot of business and probably more, once people start reading this article. Tons of people live here and more are moving in by the day. It is a pretty discriminatory decision to make about an area.” 

The chair of the Nova Scotia Human Rights commission, Krista Daley, would not comment on the specific case, but referred to the Nova Scotian Human Rights Act.

“You start with the premise that all services that anybody gives in Nova Scotia have to be provided equally to everybody and non discriminatory,” says Daley. “Every business has to provide the same service. Then the question becomes what if you have a geographic area . . .  [where residents predominantly] belong to one of the groups that is protected."

“The question we would look at in that case is whether, if there is a high percentage of that group in a geographic area and the service is being denied, the question that is put back onto the company is why are you not going into that area.  If their reasons are for discriminatory reasons then that could amount to a human rights violation.” 

She went on to stress that such a claim would have to go through a long process and discrimination would have to be proven.

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