The restaurant serves roughly a thousand customers a day, most through the drive-thru. But David and his team are just as proud of the people behind the counter, many of whom have stayed far longer than is typical in the restaurant industry. David and his partner Monty recently started working with Mighty, and we sat down with them to talk about what a McDonald's is actually selling, why the last five years have been a grind, and why there will always be somebody standing at the front counter.
Their answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
David: Hey there, this is David Peterson. I'm the owner of the McDonald's restaurant in Goleta, and behind me is my dad, Herb, who created the Egg McMuffin back in 1972.
David: You know, McDonald's has not really evolved that much, because I always say I'm not in the McDonald's hamburger business, I'm in the people business. And so it's all about people. It's about caring for people. It's about loving people. It's about caring for our customers. It's about quality, service, and cleanliness. Super simple values, and values are important to us.
Monty: The most important thing, by far, is our people. It truly is. Always has been, always will be.
Monty: So let's come on back, and now we're going into the depths of our kitchen, and I'm going to take you to where we cook everything. This is the general manager, Catalina Ramirez. She does an amazing job. This store does about $5.5 million a year, so it's really busy. Most of it is through our drive-thru. About 80% of a drive-thru store goes through the drive-thru, only about 20% inside.
Monty: I mean, the staffing is fabulous. We're keeping our people in an industry where turnover is about 150%. Ours is 25%, which means basically we hire people and they stay.
David: We have an amazing family here at the McDonald's Goleta, and we care for them, and they care for us. And if that happens, then they take that and care for our customers. So Monty's totally right on, it's all about people.
David: However, it has been difficult over the last season, the last five years, financially, and turning a profit. And Monty can kind of fill you in on that.
Monty: It's just harder to survive in this world, in this state, in this business, in restaurants, in this environment. We still do it. We still love it. We love the people aspect, like David said. But it's much more of a grind these past five years financially.
David: The next few years, I'm excited. I'm bullish that we're going to have a great next few years, you know, into the 2030s. I can't believe I'm saying that. And I love this business as much today as I ever have.
Monty: I just think more than ever the world needs that one-on-one contact with people. That eye-to-eye, that smile, what have you. At our restaurants, yes, you can use the kiosk if you're comfortable with that, but we will always have someone at that front counter, ready to take your order, ready to greet you, hopefully with a smile. So that will never go away.
I mean, it's amazing what a warm cup of coffee and a smile can do for someone's day. And we try to make those thousand impressions a day with our thousand customers a day. Just a warm cup of coffee with a big smile.
David: We're excited about Mighty. The local Mighty field rep stopped by our McDonald's and talked to me, and introduced me to this program, and showed me the discounts and the opportunities that they present, and we got excited about it. So here we are. Very excited.
McDonald's of Goleta is a family-owned McDonald's franchise in Goleta, California, and one of the many small businesses Mighty helps. Find out more at joinmighty.com.
