{"id":340421,"date":"2021-03-18T06:05:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T20:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=340421"},"modified":"2021-03-18T06:05:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T20:05:55","slug":"the-community-is-our-bread-and-butter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/the-community-is-our-bread-and-butter\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The community is our bread and butter\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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File photos show the McDonald\u2019s Middle Road branch soon after its opening in 1993 and the Ayuyu family posing with guests on opening day. (Contributed photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McDonald\u2019s is celebrating its 28th anniversary today in a milestone that gives Joe Ayuyu Jr., vice president of McDonald\u2019s of Guam and Saipan, a brief time to step back, exhale, and look back at everything that led to this milestone. Ayuyu credits this important period in the history of McDonald\u2019s of Saipan to hard work, dedication and giving importance to every customer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are humbled and grateful to reach McDonald\u2019s of Saipan\u2019s 28th anniversary. We feel that our customers believe in us and showed the loyalty that kept us in business, especially in a small community where our repeat customers are our bread and butter and particularly now that we don\u2019t have our transient customer base of tourists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ayuyu said his parents have always instilled in him the idea that it is the community that makes their business successful \u201cand that\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a part of the community means being a good neighbor, he said, and that includes helping out after natural disasters like typhoons and the current pandemic happen. \u201cWe\u2019re lucky enough to be there for the community when they need us most. \u2026They trust us. When typhoons happen, not all businesses can reopen immediately so we try to open right away because we know our community depends on us,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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Joe Ayuyu Jr., vice president of McDonald\u2019s of Guam and Saipan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For over a year now, the pandemic has ravaged businesses all over the world and Saipan is no exception. While everyone was groping in the dark on how to continue to remain open for business, Ayuyu knew they had to adjust. \u201cThe biggest challenge in the beginning was the safety of our employees and customers and adjusting to all the protocols. We had to change our old processes to be able to meet the new criteria of safety and sanitation. We overcame this with help from our McDonald\u2019s resources and the local Department of Public Health to ensure that we were in compliance as soon as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother challenge was dealing with \u2018fear\u2019 in both our staff and our customers. We knew we have to treat this as a priority. We needed to help them overcome this fear. We needed our staff to come in to work to serve our customers. We had to assure our employees and customers that they are safe by giving them information, educating them, helping them understand the virus, how it spreads and how to prevent the spread,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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The pandemic may have delayed renovation plans but that doesn\u2019t mean the work won\u2019t happen. \u201c\u2026 We still intend to complete our plans. \u2026What we are most excited about is the renovation and bringing a new, modernized, fresh look to McDonald\u2019s. Part of this change is called \u2018Experience of the Future,\u2019 which will bring in digital menu boards, self-ordering kiosks and modernized seating and d\u00e9cor for our dining area. \u2026We\u2019re also looking forward to bringing back the community\u2019s favorites such as McRib and Shamrock Shake,\u201d Ayuyu said.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026We\u2019re lucky to be able to give opportunities for employment to the community\u2026and also offer our employees [the] opportunity for career advancement. \u2026We thank the community for their continued support of McDonald\u2019s despite the pandemic. They still come and trust that we serve them delicious food safely and with safety measures inside our restaurant. \u2026We truly are all in this together,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

For Ayuyu, he just doesn\u2019t \u2018sell\u2019 products, he is also a fan of them. \u201cI love the food! My favorites are Bacon Quarter Pounder Sandwich, Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Oreo McFlurry, and Strawberry Cr\u00e8me Pie. I also love the people I work with for they are like family and the challenges that everyday brings because it\u2019s always different and my days are never the same. I love seeing our customers happy when they\u2019re eating at McDonald\u2019s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McDonald\u2019s is celebrating its 28th anniversary today in a milestone that gives Joe Ayuyu Jr.,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":340422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-340421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-supplement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}