Chuck's Philosphy

Today I met Chuck. Chuck is the manager over the retail operations in the Bone Student Center on Campus. Retail Stores include: Einsteins Brother Bagels, Micallister's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Freshins. Chuck is a very passionate manager. He is extremely friendly knowing most of his employees by name yet he runs a tight ship.

Chuck introduced to me a new philosophy which he claims is why his retail operations do so well. What is his secret?

Cleanliness.

His goal is to have the cleanest restaurant in that particular franchise. Why? It pleases the customer and the employee. He explained that when you go into Burger King it is usually pretty dirty and grimy. You can practically see the grease dripping from the walls. The employees aren't the most happiest of campers either. Chuck  claims it is because of the environment they are in. You make a clean happy restaurant, the employees will want to work there and people will want to not only eat there but eat in.

Part of Chuck's goal of being clean also involves the attitude of "one should never have to prepare for an inspection". He's right. So in the food service business health inspectors, sanitation inspectors, safety inspectors, etc. will drop in unexpectedly and often times secretly, revealing themselves after the inspection is complete. Often times fellow restaurants will make contact with chain restaurants close by and warn them of the arrival of one of these dreaded inspectors. For Chuck and his workers, this is unneeded, because they wouldn't do anything different.

I have worked in numerous food operations myself, and I know first hand how dirty some of these places can get. Often times managers, will do the bare minimum and not do a real good hard core spring cleaning. Having worked in food service my appetite diminished for eating out because I knew where sanitation was on the priority list. But Chuck has restored my faith! I hope that someday as a Dietitian in an administrative position, I too can adopt this philosophy of cleanliness and experience as much success as Chuck has.