As we open the door for nominations into the 2017 Bidfood People’s Choice Award, it is time for you, the loyal customer to head online and vote for where your favourite chips are. We are both intrigued and excited about this new addition to our competition – finally a chance for the public to tell us who they think cooks the best chips in New Zealand. 
Chip shops can enter the ‘People’s Choice’ Award themselves, or they can be nominated by their customer. All the voting will take place online, on the Chip Group website. This is a totally separate award to the original competition – but stores will still need to have completed the Chip Group’s Online Training course in 2016 or 2017. Fat content isn’t important for this award, in fact the only thing that matters is that people love their chips. There will only be one vote available per person, so customers will need to be smart about who they choose, and bulk voting will not be possible.
We have some exciting and delicious prizes up for grabs (FREE CHIPS!) – for both the winning shop and for one lucky voter. Everyone who votes with their email address will go in the draw to win. We are extremely lucky to have ‘Bidfood’ on board as the naming sponsor for this event. Bidfood (previously known Bidvest) are one of New Zealand’s largest food distributors delivering goods to many food service businesses throughout the country. They also sell products on behalf of our other supporters including: Mr Chips, McCain’s Foods Ltd and Talley’s, as well as Bakels Edible Oils and Groenz (Kiwi Style Sauces).
The inclusion of this ‘People’s Choice’ award helps encourage customer engagement and the opportunity to show their support for their favourite chip shop. It provides the perfect opportunity for stores to connect with loyal customers and stores are encouraged to run in-store promotion to increase their chance of gaining more votes.
So, think about where your favourite chips are…jump online and show your support for all those hard-working chip shops. We can’t wait to see where you think NZ’s Best chips are!
Kate Underwood
Training and Education Manager
The Chip Group