Can burgers keep a community healthy?
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/assets/images/partnering-locally/local-markets-3/video-stills/dicks-drive-in_07272012_878x494.jpg|Vice President James Spady in blue shirt sitting in Dick's Drive-In restaurant|Can burgers keep a community healthy?
V/O (Jim Spady): My dad was the first person in his extended family to go to college.
SUPER: Jim Spady, Vice President, Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants
Jim Spady: He graduates, 1950. Of course, what happens is the Korean War. Units called up…
SUPER: Dick Spady, President, Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants
Dick Spady: And I served in Southern Japan, as a Commissary Officer, feeding ten thousand troops. Got back from war, and one day I was having lunch-
Jim Spady: Right behind the counter, is this refrigerator filled with hamburger patties.
Dick Spady: And I said ‘My gosh, how long does it take you to use that?’
Jim Spady: The guy behind the counter says, ‘Oh, we go through that in a day, plus another one twice as big’ And his entrepreneurial instincts kick in, and he goes ‘If you made just a nickel, for every hamburger you sold, you’d have a pretty good business.’ We are memories. And when people have one of our burgers today, they remember. Or they’re making new memories now with their own children or grandchildren. Must be something in the milkshakes.
(V/O Kaleb England): Everyone knows about Dicks.
SUPER: Kaleb England, Employee
Kaleb England: People in my line, if I’m on the till, they’re like ‘I drove ten thousand miles just to get here.’ It’s like a Seattle Staple.
V/O (Bob Luciano) : Back in the college days it was a great hangout.
SUPER: Bob Luciano, Senior Client Manager, Bank of America
Bob Luciano: As I go now, bring my children there, it always puts a smile on my face because I remember the memories that I have from first going to Dick’s.
Jim Spady: My dad and his two co-founders, opened the first restaurant in 1954. We’ve been here for fifty-eight years, and we have five very successful restaurants here in the city of Seattle. And it’d been thirty-seven years since we opened a new restaurant. We thought, ‘This is a pretty big decision for us’. And my wife had the great idea, ‘Let’s ask the customers.’ We had an online poll, and a hundred and fifteen thousand people voted in a couple of weeks.
Bob Luciano: I actually learned about the new store opening online, and I had met Jim. And when I saw that, I circled right back and said, ‘Hey, we are very, very interested in doing the financing for you.’
Jim Spady: I told him at the beginning, ‘You’re gonna have to be head-and-shoulders above the other banks if you’re gonna get this loan. And Bank of America blew away the competition. Our new restaurant up in Edmonds, had been our most successful restaurant since the day it opened. And we couldn’t have built the new restaurant without Bank of America’s help. My dad’s always said that a business has to invest in your local community. So, we have a “Change For Charity” program, that’s raised over a half a million dollars. We’ve been a part of this town for a long time. People will know we care about our employees and we provide them with great pay and great benefits.
Kalab England: We even get scholarship money which I took advantage of. Just graduated a couple weeks ago. I wouldn’t of done it without Dick’s for sure.
Jim Spady: In the long run, if you care about your employees ,your employees are going to care about you. They’re gonna care about your customers, and then that’s gonna to be good for your business. And it’s worked for us for fifty-eight years.
Can burgers keep a community healthy?
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In the early 1950s, America was on the move. The country’s entrepreneurial spirit was turning into high gear as life was becoming faster. Cars were ubiquitous and the modern American fast food restaurant, due to its convenience and price, was born, rivaling the formal, sit-down meal.
Returning from the Korean War, Dick Spady recognized that people wanted on-the-go, quality food at an affordable price. Spady was the first in his family to attend college and employed his entrepreneurial spirit in 1954 to open Dick’s Drive-In, a full-service drive in restaurant with a simple menu — burgers, fries and shakes. Over the next 20 years, Dick’s only deviated twice to add a few burger styles and substituted soda flavors. Today, Dick’s has five restaurants and 120 employees in Seattle, but they have not added a new location in 37 years. Four generations of customers have identified strongly with Dick’s as a place to hang out and get the best food in the area.
According to Dick Spady’s two sons, Jim and Walt, the time is ripe to build, expand and create jobs. As a customer- and community-centered business, it was only fitting that the customers choose where the next restaurant would be. Jim and Walt leveraged social media and used an instant poll on the Dick’s website to receive more than 110,000 votes in three weeks. The city of Edmonds, just north of Seattle, was the lucky winner.
Jim and Walt needed help financing this new location. They talked to banks big and small, but no offers were as competitive as Bank of America’s.
“Bank of America wanted the business,” said Jim Spady, Vice President of Dick’s Drive-In. “They were supportive and really wanted to help a small business grow and support jobs.” Bank of America gave Dick’s a line of credit for the new location, and also maintains its checking and treasury management services.
Dick’s has already been recognized as having one of the best compensation and benefits packages, including a 401(K), full health care, an educational scholarship program and management opportunities. The new location will not only add 30 jobs, but also enhance the benefit to other local businesses and organizations that Dick’s Drive-In is working with. Their “Change for Charity,” program allows customers to drop their change into donation boxes to benefit local charities. So far, $300K has been raised for charities that fight homelessness and organizations that offer relief to natural disaster areas.
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