24 lose jobs as McDonald's closes in Hillsboro years ago
By JILLIAN OVERSTAKE
Intern Staff Writer
Boys riding bicycles along east D Street, stopped this past Friday morning to gawk at workers taking down the McDonald's Golden Arches, not for remodeling purposes, but for good.
After 12 1/2 years of serving the Hillsboro community, franchise owner Dan D'Albini is shutting down the only McDonald's in Marion County.
With help from his wife Elizabeth, D'Albini spent Friday morning loading boxes of straws, paper bags, and powdered drinks into their cram-packed vehicle.
Outside the burger joint, the arches were falling and plywood was being installed over the windows and front doors, one of which had a sign that read, "Closed, Thanks for your business."
"The corporation is closing it," D'Albini said, pushing a cart stacked high with boxes. "We had a choice. Two and a half years ago we told them no, but this time they made a better offer."
McDonald's is the leading global food service retailer with more than 30,000 local restaurants serving nearly 50 million people in more than 119 countries each day.
While D'Albini would not discuss the details of his buy-out agreement with the corporation, but statistics suggest that the global giant is moving away from small town America.
According to the corporate web site, in 2005 the company closed 145 traditional restaurants and 263 satellite restaurants.
At the same time, the company opened 558 traditional restaurants, of which about 85 percent were in the major market areas.
Even worse off than Marion County residents craving a Big Mac are the 24 employees who lost their jobs when D'Albini made the decision to close.
"It's a really huge deal," said D'Albini. "People are going to get upset. I don't know if mad is the right word."
He added, "Big financial decisions [led to the close]."
"I hate to say it didn't make any money, because it did," said D'Albini. "But when you look at it, every business in the world runs on money, and when there's no money, you get out."
D'Albini expressed concern for his own future.
"We hope to stay in the community," he said, putting a reassuring arm around his wife. "But it depends on how people accept us as not being McDonald's anymore."
D'Albini explained that he really didn't have much input to the decision, being a franchise owner against a big corporation.
"See, I own what it did, they own the building. They own the land, I own what went on," he said. "I'm a small franchise but they're a huge corporation."
As D'Albini loaded up the rest of his paper products into his car, a pickup truck rounded the drive-through and stopped at the microphone. After a few moments of silence, the truck drove away, leaving D'Albini to consider the impact of his decision to shut down his franchise on the community, and his desire for something better for himself and his family.
"What would you do?" he asked.
While the D'Albinis moved out the last few items from the back, over the radio came a one-hit wonder from the '90s, Semisonic's "Closing Time" played over the speakers.
"Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."
D'Albini didn't seem to notice and continued loading up, his wife by his side.
