By Valerie Franchi, Contributing Writer
Photo/Valerie Franchi
Westborough – McDonald’s is one of the most recognized brand names throughout the world. It is a huge international corporation, certainly, but local franchisees Katie Hurley and Lori Ruscito want their customers to know that their restaurants are very personal to them.
“Most people don’t realize that almost 90 percent of McDonalds’ restaurants are franchises,” Ruscito said. “We are really a small, family business.”
Ruscito and her husband Joe opened their first McDonalds in Winchendon 23 years ago, then another in Jaffrey, N.H., and 6 years ago on Route 9 in Westborough.
After graduating from college, she went right into the McDonald’s management trainee program, thinking it was a good way to gain management experience. She never left.
“Once the ketchup gets in your blood, it doesn’t leave,” she joked. “I like the fast-paced nature, that it’s a people business, and helping customers.”
Hurley and her husband Dan are owners and operators of two McDonald’s restaurants: on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, and Route 9 in Westborough.
For Hurley, like many young people, McDonald’s was her first job.
“One out of 8 Americans have worked for McDonald’s and for 1 in 15 it is their first job experience,” she said. “It teaches much more than how to make hamburgers. It teaches how to have a job, a work ethic and dependability and responsibility.”
McDonald’s is truly a family business for Hurley – she has two children who started at McDonald’s in high school and are now managers.
Hurley and Ruscito actually met years ago when both worked as area supervisors before opening restaurants only a few miles apart in Westborough.
The pair, along with other local owners and operators, work together to make sure they are all on the same page as far as menus and specials.
“None of us is as good as all of us,” Ruscito said, quoting founder Ray Kroc. She added that the collaboration helps them adapt to the needs of their communities.
“People think we are just part of a huge corporation,” she noted, “but we are really a small business. We are in the restaurants all the time, interacting with employees and customers.”
In addition, both Hurley and Ruscito spend much of their time giving back to the community.
They sponsor local sports teams, such as hockey and Little League, supply emergency food to police and fire departments, and participate in local events, such as town festivals. They also offer tours to Boy Scouts, schools and other civic groups, hold family nights with discounted meals and host book clubs and Bingo nights.
Ruscito’s restaurant has also held “McTeachers Night” to support the Elsie A. Hastings Elementary School. Teachers work a few hours at the restaurant to raise money for the school.
“The kids love seeing their teachers behind the counter,” Ruscito said.
The two maintain that they want to do more in the community, and encourage local groups to contact them for more information about how they can support them.
“We want to be a part of what’s going on,” Ruscito said. “But often we don’t get a call.”
To find out more about local McDonald’s restaurants, visit www.Mcmassachusetts.com.
