A McDonald’s on West Sugar Creek Road in northeast Charlotte has a mission: Customers should feel no different going there than to a McDonald’s in SouthPark. That may not seem like a lofty goal for a fast-food chain where consistency is baked into the food and the experience, but trying to deliver on it in a deeply troubled area has required a lot of expense, diplomacy and vigilance.
To that end, McDonald’s General Manager Toya Sigler-Gaddy has an unusual set of skills. She knows how to take an order with charm, screen job applicants and encourage colleagues to quicken their pace.
She also knows how to respectfully and firmly ask prostitutes, drug users and people begging for money to leave the restaurant’s parking lot.
“You have to let them know that you're not going anywhere,” Sigler-Gaddy said. “They're going to leave before I do and usually I'm here 10 hours. So we're going to fight this battle, but I'm going to win it.”
‘Subtle, but impactful’ changes
There’s a lot of strategy that has gone into reclaiming this Mcdonald's as a safe, friendly place for customers. Owner Ron Zarek says Sigler-Gaddy and the troop of employees she manages are a major part.
He bought the Mcdonald's at Sugar Creek and Interstate 85 in 2020. The area has the highest violent crime rate in Charlotte’s busiest police division. Zarek surveyed the parking lot on a spring morning.
“As you walk around now, there is no activity that is on the parking lot. Now, that did not happen by accident,” Zarek said.
Zarek has a playbook for what it takes to turn around McDonald's restaurants in areas that see a lot of crime. Before buying this McDonald’s and two others in Charlotte, he was employed by McDonald’s corporate office. He consulted with franchisees in Atlanta and on the south and west sides of Chicago. Vigilance is crucial.
“That has taken two years to let people know we're not going away and we mean what we say,” Zarek said.
You can see that in a 6-foot black decorative fence that encircles the property, as well as several cameras, including two that connect to the police department’s real-time crime center.
And staff can flood a side of the parking lot with a tune that comes up when you type “most irritating music” into Google. It comes through speakers directed at the Shell gas station across the street and areas where loiterers congregate.
“Speakers are hidden under the roofline so that they don't get shot. And so it's just designed as yet another deterrent,” Zarek said. “It's just make it a little less comfortable. Find somewhere else to go.”
The restaurant itself was recently renovated with a sleeker look and security upgrades. There’s a walk-up take-out window for overnight hours, and reinforced steel doors into the bathroom that staff must remotely open. Zarek calls them “subtle, but impactful” changes that don’t interfere with hospitality.
He estimates he’s spent around $100,000 on security upgrades. That includes $20,000 on a security guard for two weeks last summer when shootings picked up around the intersection.
“We had to do something to make sure my people knew we cared about them and that we were going to do what we needed to do to help offset what was going on,” Zarek said.
He’s increased training, boosted pay, and expanded benefits for staff to help attract and keep good employees.Engaging the community
This McDonald’s is in one of Charlotte’s designated Corridors of Opportunity, low-income areas where the city wants to facilitate more investment. And that doesn’t have to mean high-end coffee shops or new breweries.
Sometimes, a safe place to get a Happy Meal is enough.
The McDonald’s presented its new face in May with a grand re-opening. There was a big arch of yellow balloons over the entrance and music, but it wasn’t a party.
“We are ready! Yes, we are ready to get this health fair on,” said Janette Kinard.
She wore a Mcdonald's shirt with her name on it. Kinard is not an employee, but she runs a neighboring nonprofit. Champion House of Care has found a welcoming place at the restaurant for families in the surrounding hotels and the developmentally and intellectually disabled teens and adults it serves.
“We're excited that we have this new look of McDonald's and everything, which means we're going to do a bunch of community stuff inside,” Kinard said.
She was the one who first approached Zarek about forming a business association to help businesses take a stand against crime together.
Sylvia Grier passed out brochures for the Genesis Project. The group provides mental and behavioral health treatment in the business park across the street.
“I'm not a frequent at McDonald's, but it's improved,” Grier said. “He improves his place. We've improved with cameras and lights. And the police are out here more, so the whole area is improving.”
Improvements and persistent challenges
The challenges are still constant. The area around Sugar Creek Road and I-85 often receives twice the number of calls for police service as the city’s next highest hot spot. People wander up and down Reagan Drive.
A woman appeared to be soliciting people beside the street on a recent afternoon. When approached by a reporter, she whispered, "There’s nothing sweet about Sugar Creek" and “be careful.”
The day Zarek was pointing out changes, a woman got off the bus and walked to the middle of the drive-through line. He immediately headed over there.
“We asked her nicely. We informed her it’s private property and she's not allowed on the property for what she's doing,” Zarek said.
He said she swore at him, used “a racial epithet” and remained put.
“Now we'll just go to the next step and call the local police to have her removed. That's kind of what we do,” Zarek said.
Officers arrived five minutes later and she left with another panhandler.
‘We just want you to feel normal’
These days, Zarek says, they call the police less often, there are fewer insurance claims, he can keep good employees, and sales are growing. But there’s another way to measure success.
“As you sit in this restaurant now, do you feel safe? Do you feel like you're in a typical McDonald's?” Zarek asked. “Then, we've accomplished what we're looking for. We just want you to feel normal.”
Arie Miles used to hold birthday parties for her kids at the Mcdonald's. But that was 30 years ago. She lives down the road in Hidden Valley, and she stopped going to the restaurant as crime increased. A recent business association meeting brought her back.
“I think it's good. It's nice and clean and up-to-date. That’s the first time I've been in that building in years,” Miles said.
She said she’ll tell her daughter and grandchildren they should consider stopping at the McDonald's on Sugar Creek now.
