McDonald’s in Broken Bow will be closing its doors permanently in less than a week.
KCNI/KBBN spoke with Greg Hall, owner of the Broken Bow McDonald’s about the details surrounding the closing which comes ahead of a 20-year lease which was set to end next year.
“Unfortunately, October 31 will be the last business day at Broken Bow” said Hall.
Hall said that McDonald’s Corporate looked at a lot of different metrics and numbers to try to determine what the next 20 years will look like in Broken Bow. Among the factors discussed regarding the Broken Bow location closure were population and employment.
He went on to say that negotiations happened for 18 months between McDonald’s Corporate, himself, and partner Corey Hall. They drug their feet not wanting to close McDonald’s doors knowing what the impact it would have on the community.
“There were lots of emotions and tears from the employees. And I know we’ve got so many regular customers that count on us for either if it’s just a cup of coffee or for their meal during their lunch break or bringing in the family after a baseball game in the summer. I mean there are so many memories that were made at the restaurant. It’s tough, really tough” said Hall.
McDonald’s only opens and closes so many restaurants, and they had a slot available to do an additional restaurant closing by the end of this year, and unfortunately, it lined up to be the Broken Bow location.
Jobs are guaranteed for all Broken Bow McDonald’s employees at other locations and all employees are being provided with severance pay. Insurance benefits will be carried out through the end of November.
“For us, we were more concerned about the people aspect of things versus sales or profitability. McDonald’s has been in our family for 49 years. My brother and I own the Broken Bow restaurant and we are third generation. Our grandfather started the first McDonalds in our family back in 1974″ said Hall.
