Business: McDonald’s
Location: 56 E. Broad St., Bridgeton
Owner: Anna and Elmer Ford-Keels, of Bridgeton and Teaneck, Bergen County
Employees: 70 plus
Phone: 856-453-4787
We have a seating capacity about 52 seats. The restaurant is the latest design McDonald’s has to offer, sleek and modern to appeal to families.
The decor package is more contemporary, and we have a new digital menu board and the new side-by-side drive through to take orders from two lanes.
We’re more energy efficient with LED lights, and our seating is made of recycled soda bottles.
We have the latest fryers McDonald’s has to offer ... whatever is the latest, we have it in the restaurant. Besides free WiFi, we have two flat-screen TVs for the customers.
Entry: We have two other McDonald’s restaurants in the area, one at Carll’s Corner (Upper Deerfield Township) and the other on North Main Road in Vineland. We acquired them in January 2010.
My husband and I have been in the business since 1991, starting with New York City restaurants in Manhattan.
We were looking for a change in lifestyle. That opportunity came to us, and now we’re very happy that we’re here.
McDonald’s does the legwork sorting out new locations, and then they approach potential franchisees with the opportunity.
We participated in the store design and then moved forward on decor packages. The cost varies.
McDonald’s is extremely easy to work with. It’s a total partnership to make sure everyone benefits.
The future: Right now have our hands full with this new restaurant open only two weeks and our other two restaurants.
We’ve worked closely with local officials to recruit employees from the community.
We’ve had several giveaways and at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, we’ll have a drawing for a game console, digital camera, camcorder, bike and e-reader.
We’ve also continued to donate school supplies to the Bridgeton school system.
We intend to have reading hours at the restaurant, with myself, my husband and managers reading with local youth.
