"This week on Undercover Boss..." "The president and CEO of Checkers and Rally's, the world's largest double drive-thru chain, poses as a failed business owner, competing to win a fast food franchise." " I'm Alex Garcia." " All right." "By working on the front lines, he'll see what it really takes to make food fast." "You can't leave those people on hold for that long." "They waiting on you." "Pow!" "Mark, how do I do five chicken bite boxes?" "I am dying." "And for the first time ever, a boss will be forced to do something so drastic..." "Right here, right now, we're gonna shut the restaurant down." "...his company will never be the same." "I just wanted to work." " I just need a job." " So we're losing our jobs?" "Coming up next on Undercover Boss." "Undercover Boss 3x04" " Checkers  Rally's Original air date February 17, 2012" "Headquartered in Tampa, Florida," "Checkers and Rally's restaurants operate in 30 states across the country, earning more than $680 million in annual revenue and serving 2.2 million burgers a week." "Thank you." " Thank you so much." " Have a great day." "Enjoy." "Overseeing the 20,000 employees that keep this business moving fast is one man." "I'm Rick Silva, president and CEO of Checkers and Rally's." "Checkers and Rally's actually started as two separate companies." "Rally's began in 1985, Checkers in 1986." "They were almost two twins at birth." "The menus were almost identical, both restaurants had double drive-thrus, and a walk-up window without a dining room inside." "Checkers business and the Rally's business merged in 1999." "They figured out, "you know something, let's join forces."" "We realized we have great equity in both brands, and so we'll continue to keep both brands alive." "Here you go, my dear." "Have a good one." "I spent 13 years at Burger King." "I did work on their international side." "I was president of Latin America." "I was recruited by Checkers and Rally's five years ago." "When I came on board, we had to make some changes in the management team." "I brought many new people onto the team to work with me... people I knew could deliver." "My expectation is perfection." "We won't sell anything that our customers haven't told us is what they want, and so we run all of our ideas through focus groups." "It's definitely a appetite pleaser." "If you come to my restaurant and you don't get exactly what you want," "I take that personal." "You want a checker burger with cheese, sir?" "Yeah, that sounds great." "I love the business I'm in." "It is incredibly competitive." "I love to compete." "I love to win." "I hate to lose." "We have evolved so many parts of this business." "We introduced chicken wings a few years ago." "We just introduced cold creations." "When I'm hungry for a snack, what's better than some ice cream?" "And now that gives us that additional visit." "I'm still getting that burger visit, but guess what?" "On Wednesday night, when they want to go out for some ice cream, they're gonna come to Checkers and Rally's." "The other competitors may chase us, but they'll never catch us." "Because we're already on to the next thing." "And you can only win one way..." "get everything right." "Anything less than that is a complete failure." "I'm Cuban-American." "My parents came from Cuba." "I have an older brother and a younger brother." "We were probably one of the first Cuban families to be in our neighborhood." "It was an interesting way to grow up." "They spray-painted our house with the word "spic" on it." ""Spic" is a slang for hispanic." "It's a racial slur." "There were these older kids that were bullies, and they would push me off my bike." "My mother saw this and said to me," ""don't ever let anybody treat you with disrespect."" "And so I picked a fight with the kid who pushed me off my bike." "I lost the fight." "But once I stood up for myself, these kids never bothered me again." "And it was an early lesson that I've kept with me for the rest of my life." "After my mother had worked as a pharmacist in Miami, my parents put a second mortgage on our house and opened a small pharmacy." "The whole family worked there." "In fact, it was my first impression of business." "I was young, and, in fact, that's where I learned to love business." "I know you're getting ready to leave." "So I was looking through some photos, and I found this one." "And I thought this look might help you be completely unrecognizable." "I'm married to Lisa." "We met in high school." "In fact, we went to our high school prom together, back when I had hair." "We've been married for 20 years." "We have two children, Michael and Jessica." " You ready?" " I'm ready." "All right." "This is the perfect time to re-evaluate and find new things that we can do different." "We're at 800 restaurants today." "My aspiration is that we'll be at 1000 restaurants the next couple of years and we'll continue to grow." " What do you think?" " Oh, my goodness." "I don't know if I can let you go on the road alone now." "The thing that would upset me the most is if I saw either our guests being treated inappropriately or our employees being treated inappropriately." "That, to me, would be very, very upsetting." "Oh, wow." "While undercover, I'll be posing as Alex Garcia, a failed pharmacy owner from Philadelphia." "My co-workers will be told that I'm a contestant on a reality tv show called Second Chances, where I'll get the chance to start a new career in the restaurant industry." "I'm here in Homestead, Florida." "I'm going to spend the day with a team member in a restaurant." "I personally have asked Checkers and Rally's to sell more product at a faster pace than we've ever done it before." " Are you the new guy?" " Yeah, my name is Alex." " Hey." "Todd." " You're Todd?" "Do me a favor, come round there, and I'll meet you there." "I'm here today to see how the work we've already done is working, because I want to make sure that while we're getting faster and we're serving more products, that we're not somehow sacrificing" "great quality food and great quality service." "Hey, come in." "So you're going to train me today." " Yeah." " I don't know much." "Okay." "My name is Todd." "I'm a crew member here." "The main things that I'm going to teach you today are the grill and the fry station." "You follow me, you won't go wrong." " Thank you very much." " No problem." "So right now, we're going to start by washing our hands." "So how long have you been here doing this?" "I've been here for almost a year and a half now." "How long did it take you to get the hang of it?" "Me, it took... it didn't take me too long, because I kind of sort of trained myself." "I was surprised that Todd wasn't properly trained." "That position is absolutely critical." "So I'm a little worried." "This is the grill." "We have a cooking time and we have a finishing time" " for each product." " Okay." "Press the button and now..." "This computer tells us what to do." "Yeah, whenever you hear that beep, turn the meat." " So we flip 'em?" " Yeah." " Uh-oh." " Got it?" "Okay." "Not so much seasoning on each one." "Don't forget to press the button." "Oh, I forgot." "Okay, thank you." "Make sure, 'cause they're looking a little burnt." "How we doing on meat, guys?" "How we doing?" "Sorry, I'm slowing you down, aren't I?" "Yeah." " How late can you stay?" " I gotta "ax."" "What made you get this job?" "All of a sudden, you wanted to own a business like this?" "I had a drug store in Philadelphia, and we had to shut it down." "And so I'm thinking about going into the food business." "It's more than you cooking a beef patty." "You're satisfying your customer." "I always wanted to be a chef, since I was either seven or eight." "I went to school for it." "I had to stop going to school." "Why'd you stop?" "It seems like you really love it." "I'm all about my mom and my family, helping her out with bills and everything like that." "You bring money home for her?" "Yeah." "I'm her rock right now." "I don't think of it as me being in a tough bind or tortured by anything." "I'm doing what I can, and I'm doing it to the best of my needs." "Sir?" "No problem, sir." "I have some down now." "Am I slowing you down?" "Will I get you in trouble?" " No." "No, no, no, no, no." " Okay." " We do a lot of yelling." " Okay." "That's our way of communicating." "I don't want to get you in trouble, that's all." "No, no, no, no, no." "It's okay." "This right here, of course, is the fry station." "Basically, it's the same thing with the grill." " We're going by the timers here." " Okay." "Once you get up here, it's all about speed." "Two medium fries." "There's a lot going on over here." "Speed it up, 'cause it's all about time right now." "I don't want to break the box, though." "You're gonna hit the button that says "finish strips."" "Okay, the timer..." "I don't know, the buttons, they're a little messed up." "We have very strict standards in terms of how the product should be cooked." "And that's why we have all those timers." "Can you help me with the buttons here?" "Tell me which button to hit?" " Oh, down here?" " Yes, sir." "I saw that they... we were cooking it in ways that weren't necessarily correct." " This is crazy over here." " Yeah." "Go ahead and drop me some spicy." "The buttons weren't properly labeled." "Which is the rings?" "Do that one." "They weren't following our procedures, and so, when they were preparing the products, they weren't preparing it the way they're supposed to prepare it." " Todd." " Sir?" "I need you to take the trash out." "No problem." "I kept hearing the general manager barking orders." "Sir?" "And I heard again..." "How many hours do you have right now?" "So if you go on overtime," "I can take you outside and beat you up, right?" "Todd, is this what usually happens?" "When you try and do something, someone's calling you all the time?" "I can't tell you right now." "I need you to drop what you're doing, do me a favor, and take out some trash." "Would you do that please?" " Okay." " He needs to help me here." "Is that okay?" "No, you're going to go with him." "Okay." "Okay, good." " Is that what he always does?" " Yeah." "That's how he is." "Like, he was telling people they would get in trouble" " if they didn't do their work." " Yeah, he's a bit of a $#@*." "I try not to, you know, pay attention to it so much." "I couldn't work in a place like that." "I really could not work there." "I couldn't work there for ten minutes." "I would never let somebody talk to me like that." "It's my job." "Why do you keep working for Checkers?" "I do it because I need to help my mom." "So how's it make you feel?" "Like I'm worthless." " Let's go talk to him." " No, I don't think so." "Yeah, I want to talk to him." "Come on." "I don't..." "I don't think so." "I want to talk to him." "Let's go." "I need my job." "Any means necessary." "What's wrong?" "What's wrong?" "I didn't sign up for this." "I just wanted to work." "I just need a job." "You still have a job." " Make sure you have a better job." " I just need a job." "I come to work and I do what I gotta do." "What kind of job do you want?" "I want a job where I can be respected." " Was that job today?" " No." "Well, how much training did we give you?" "Basically, I took what I learned from McDonalds, and I put it into this." "I didn't..." "I didn't get any training here." "I trained myself." "I'm going to talk to him." "Give me his name." "What's his name?" "His name is Stevens." " What?" " Steven..." " is that your name, sir?" " Stevens." "Yes, sir." "Can I talk to you for a second?" " Of course." " I might have an opportunity to join Checkers and Rally's system." "What excuse is there to talk to people without being respectful to them?" "What excuse do you think that would be?" "Honestly, I don't think I was disrespectful." "You have to talk up." "They will not listen to you unless you..." " "They"?" " They." " Who's "they"?" " The crew." "Why would I want to work for you with the way you talk to people inside there?" "The first hour that you talked to me that way," "I would leave." "I wouldn't even leave my name tag and my..." "I would walk out the door and never come back." " Let me ask you a question..." " How would that make you feel?" "I would say that you couldn't handle the job." "You do what you've got to do to get them to listen to you." "You run them." "They don't run you." "I came into this company just like you." "Wanted to be nice, low tone." "It doesn't work." "If I don't scream at them, they don't listen to me." "But I'm not going to let you continue telling me I'm disrespecting my crew." "Something's seriously wrong with him." "He needs to stop." " What?" " I don't know." "He's out there trying to talk to Stevens about something." "Have you been in the fast food business before?" "Uh, no, I haven't." " Ah." " Maybe that's my problem." "Have you been in the restaurant business?" "At all?" "I've studied the restaurant business." "No, not studied." "Have you any experience in the restaurant business?" "Actually, I do." "I'll be honest with you." "I do have experience." "I'll tell you exactly." "I have been in the restaurant business for over 20 years." "And I've been in the fast food business for over 20 years." "I am the CEO for this company." "I know exactly what it takes to run a restaurant like this." "And guess what?" "I know the right way to do it and I know the wrong way to do it." "And what I saw here today is completely the wrong way to do it." "I was asking people questions about what was the right button and they didn't know what the answer was." "When you see our advertising, do we say," ""hey, we sell lukewarm burgers, come get them"?" "Is that what you think is going to sell burgers?" "No, sir." "I guarantee you, half the people that came to this restaurant today didn't get hot product." "They got lukewarm product." "Right now, you're not doing the job to our standards, and so you don't belong in that restaurant." "Right here, right now, we're going to shut the restaurant down." "Rick Silva, the CEO of Checkers, is a boss undercover in his own company." "Now, if I'm not fast, are they going to scream at me or something?" "Well, yeah." "You go on overtime," "I can take you outside and beat you up." "He's on his first job and it's not going as he expected." " So how's it make you feel?" " Like I'm worthless." "Right here, right now, we're going to shut the restaurant down." "Right now, you're not doing the job to our standard." "It's completely unacceptable." "How long have you been in this restaurant?" "About six weeks." "I was thrown into this position." "There are certain things I don't know right now." "I don't know." "I was on my third week of training as an assistant manager." "Before they said, "I want you to run the restaurant."" "Okay." "So you were promoted, and you weren't ready to be promoted?" " Honestly, no." " Okay." "I didn't even finish training." "Honestly, not one single person in that restaurant is trained properly." "I cannot train them because I don't know everything yet." "This is going to be the last car we serve today right now." "I'm very disappointed." "I'm disappointed in myself, because, at the end of the day, accountability rests on my shoulders, because we didn't properly train them." "Thanks for coming to Checkers." "Guys..." "Erica." "Ma'am." "We're shutting down." "We're getting one last car and that's it." "We're shutting down." "I'm mortified." "I actually am mortified that it happened." "But there really was no other solution under the circumstances." "We're closed for tonight." "My name is Rick Silva." "I'm CEO of Checkers and Rally's." "The person who I was training was actually the CEO of Checkers." "I'm still in utter..." "I'm still in shock." "I decided that we weren't gonna keep operating this restaurant." "We're going to close it." "So we're losing our jobs?" "No, you're not losing your job." "I want to apologize to all of you guys, 'cause I let you guys down." "The reason I'm shutting this restaurant down isn't because of you guys." "The truth is, if we haven't trained you how to do it, you're doing the best you can." "It's not your fault at all." "Okay?" "It's my fault if you're not properly trained." "No long faces." "Everyone's getting paid." "Everyone's got a job." "And it's going to be a better restaurant than it was today." "I couldn't leave that restaurant today not knowing that, when I left, that restaurant may not be operating at my standards." "Hold on a second." "Mark?" "Not doing very well." "In fact, I'm having a horrible night." "What I need you to do right now is to get me some general managers from other restaurants." "I want to bring them in." "And I want to make sure that we got a crew here before we re-open this restaurant." "My legacy at Checkers and Rally's will always be we do things the right way and we win by doing things the right way." "It's kind of a weird situation here, but what you did was you gave me an opportunity to see we're missing the boat." "We're going to shut the restaurant down." "You think that's the right thing to do?" "You think I made a mistake today?" "You're the CEO, so I'm going by what you say now." "I will make sure that you and I meet somewhere" " in about a week or so." " Okay." "Tomorrow, we can make it a better restaurant." " What do you think?" " Okay." "Let's go inside." "Seeing what I saw today on my very first job is extremely disappointing." "As a CEO, it's my job to create an environment where everybody's going to be treated with respect." "When anybody can raise their hand and say," ""something's wrong," it just doesn't feel right." "If the rest of my journey continues like this, all of our amazing results could be at risk." "I'm here in Carol City, Florida, and I'm going to be working with the general manager during late night." "Hello." "Hi, I'm looking for Joyce." " Give me one second please." " Sure." "We've doubled our late night business since I've been CEO at Checkers and Rally's." "Hopefully I'll find ideas in this restaurant about how we continue to grow late night." "It's our number one priority." " Hi." " Hi, are you Joyce?" "I sure am." "You must be Alex." " I'm Alex." " You're my new trainee." "Okay." "Let's clear the door." "Welcome to my home." "Okay, coming through." "Big woman coming through." "This is Alex, our new manager-in-training." "I don't sell burgers and fries." "Anybody can sell burgers and fries." "I sell you hospitality." "Hello, my dear." "What can I get for you, honey?" " Number 12?" " Yeah." "Okay, now that's your chili dog, right?" " Yes." " Now that comes with onions." " Little bad breath, is that okay?" " Yes." "Oh, there you go." " Gonna be $6.72, honey." " Okay." "You rock, mama." "Have a good one." " Okay." " Okay." "I have some stuff I have to take care of." "I'm going to be just away for a couple of minutes." "But what I want you to do is fly solo." "If you have any questions, anybody here will be able to help you." "You've got Mr. Mark right here." "You've got Mr. Shane over here." "I'll be back in just a couple of minutes." "You're gonna be all right." "Thank you, Joyce." "Hi, sir, how are you tonight?" "Let me get a medium number five, please." " Medium number five." " Thanks." "Heavy mayo, heavy ketchup." "Uh... give me one second." "Mark?" "My computer went down, sir." "Thank you, Mark." "I appreciate that." "Sorry, sir." "What else..." "what kind of special did you want on the sandwich?" "You said no..." " Heavy mayo, heavy ketchup." " Heavy mayo, heavy..." " sorry about that." " All right, no problem." "Alex... his first customer, he was like a concrete block." "He was so stiff, so rigid." "If I was a glass of milk in his hands," "I would probably be a milkshake after he was done." " Any more customers?" " Yes, there is." "Hi, ma'am." "Um, can I have..." "I guess a number six." "Can I have a number 12 medium?" "Sure, absolutely." "Give me that one right there." "Um, what you call it?" "$2 chicken bite box?" " Yeah." " Give me five of them." " Hold up, hold up, hold up." " Yes, sir?" "You know, I would like to change that." "One sec." "I'm sorry." "I'm trying to learn here." "Banana split shake... what size?" "Okay, one second." "I'm sorry." "I'm new to this, okay?" "Thank you." "I apologized a lot tonight." "I kept apologizing for being slow." "I certainly felt like I could have done things faster." "Okay." "Well, it's getting kind of late, so we're going to go on to our next task." "What we have here is the speaker system." "We press the button and that's how we talk to them." "We let go of the button and they talk to us." "All this by myself?" "Yep, there you go." "Hi, welcome to Checkers." "Can I take your order?" "Was that a two-for-three crispy ch... sandwich?" "And a big chicken." "Our equipment here is older than Methuselah, so you have to work real hard to decipher what they're saying." "I'm sorry, can you repeat that one more time?" "Don't forget to call out your product." "I didn't hear any of it." "I sat there and had to repeat my question over and over again." "If I was that guest, I wouldn't have been happy." "I can't hear them." "You know what, the further away you stand..." "I hate this thing." "There's so much pressure that I've put on the restaurants to be fast and every order's got to be perfect." "It's kind of hard to be fast and perfect if you can't hear the order." "Sorry for making you wait." "Can I take your order now?" "I'm sorry, let me get that again." "A number eleven with no tartar." " No tartar." " What else did you need?" "I'm sorry, I don't think I heard it right." "I can't hear..." "I can't hear them at all." "Sorry about that." "Thanks for... thanks for being patient with me." "Thanks for your patience with that." "It took me a little while." "We're going to take a little break." "You get your first meal on me." "Monsieur, au revoir, hasta la vista." "Let's hit the road." "So, talk to me." "What do you think?" "What do you feel?" "I'm thinking about, if I end up in your role, what... what you would do differently, I guess." " If I had my own store..." " What don't you agree with?" "When you go to the neighborhood that you're gonna go, know your customers." "Like, for example, we sell apple pie sundaes." "They took away our chocolate cupcake sundaes." "My customers loved those." "Did they ask you before they changed it?" "No, this is corporate rules." "And because they've done a survey..." "I'm one voice, you know?" "They're going by what the customers want." "Customers love apple pie sundaes." "Well, maybe in the midwest, they like them, but down here in the South, they don't like apple pie sundaes." "That's a thing for Thanksgiving." "I believe in a lot of local store marketing." "Haven't you ever seen, like, burger places or something that" " have, like, car shows outside?" " Yeah." "And they would distribute coupons for a free small soda." "What, are you going to come in just for a free soda?" "No, I'm going to push for burger and fries." "You don't have the freedom to do that?" "No, unfortunately." "You know, they say "jump," you say "how high?"" "And they just tell you what to do." "They tell you what to do." "Joyce shared that she had these marketing ideas that she thought would help her business." "I may be making decisions in focus groups, but honestly, the better solution might lie here, listening to her ideas." "How do you keep up so much energy?" "How do you do that?" "Seriously." "You don't stop." "Because I'm so grateful for what I have." "I had a bad family life." "Both my parents were alcoholics." "I buried my whole family within six months." "Well, my father was a welder." "And back in the '50s and '60s, they didn't use masks." "He got C.O.P.D.... emphysema." "Now, meanwhile, in this time, my mother, she stopped drinking, but unfortunately, it was too late." "She developed cirrhosis of the liver." "Then my brother came home to visit." "And he said "I have AIDS."" "My whole world just crashed." "Then I lost my job." "And meanwhile, my daughter, at the time, was probably about five or six years old." "So we're selling everything we got." "We robbed Peter to pay Paul, and how am I going to make the mortgage payment?" "And how am I going to pay for this?" "And we found two coupons for Checkers, free." "That was our dinner." "That was two days' worth of dinner." "And that's why I'm so loyal to Checkers." " Were you married at the time?" " No." "Um, I came out." "I'm gay." "As a matter of fact, where the hell is my girlfriend?" "She's supposed to be here soon." "She's a general manager for Checkers also." "We've been together 21 years." "That'd be really nice." "Sounds like you have a really good relationship." "It's a roller coaster, like everybody's relationship." "When you were in that restaurant, all I could think about... this woman has the world by the tail." "I would never, ever in my wildest dreams..." " Oh, thank you." " ...would have imagined that you had this much that you've overcome." "I'm struggling." "I'm on a tight budget right now." "I'm in debt up to my eyeballs and then some." "My daddy had an expression..." "God never gives you anything more than what you can't handle." "And apparently he thinks I can handle one hell of a lot." "And I see the cars starting to get busy," " so we're going to go on in." " Let's do it." " 'Cause I'm..." " Getting sleepy?" "It's late." "I've been up since 3:00 yesterday." "Joyce reminded me we are a local brand, and we spend a lot of money on focus groups, but maybe I'm not using an asset, a talent, that we have in the organization, and I think we can capitalize on that." "Thank you very much." "Your total is $3.95." "Please pull forward." "Happy dance, happy dance." " Is this the happy dance?" " There you go, happy dance." "There you go." "Let's go." "Catch up tout suite." "Hi, welcome to Checkers." "Can I take your order?" "Coming up..." "You've got to pick up your speed a little bit there, 'cause they waiting on you." "...the boss falls behind." " No." " Oh, forgot about the tomato." "Darn it!" "You know, if somebody had a gun to Alex's head, and asked Alex to wrap me a perfectly made sandwich..." "It feels slippery with these gloves." "I can't do it." "Pow!" "He would get shot." "Today, I'm in Mobile, Alabama, the birthplace of Checkers." "Right behind me is the first restaurant in the entire Checkers system." "We actually bought property right next door and we built the latest company restaurant." "We designed a brand-new prototype that's going to take us into the future." "I will be working with a team member on the sandwich board." "Every burger, every chicken sandwich, gets produced on the sandwich board." "Good morning." "I'm looking for..." "Johanna?" "So I'm here today to see if all the design changes helps us deliver a better sandwich, and I want to see it firsthand." "Is it Johanna?" "I want to make sure..." " Johanna." " Johanna." " Good." " Yeah, johanna." "I'm Alex Garcia." "Nice to meet you." "Okay, I'm going to let you in over here." " Okay, thank you, ma'am." " All right." " You come on in." " Do I put my hat on?" " Yeah, put your hat on." " Is that okay?" "Yes." "First thing we gotta do, we're going to grab you a headset." "We're using these for to hear the customer." "Two number twos." "Two number twos." "Medium or large?" "What flavor drink?" "So I hear him ordering the chicken burger right now while I'm talking to you." "When do you start making the sandwich?" "The minute I hear a customer order." "I don't wait on the ticket." "The minute I hear a customer order," " I go ahead and start making it." " Why do you start so..." "Because, he can get his food just like that." "By the time he makes it to the window," "I want his food to be tagged, fries in the bag, and out the window." " This is your bread toaster." " Okay." "Every sandwich that comes up out of Checkers," " the bun is toasted." " I have to toast... okay." "The meat bin that you see right here, that holds your meat." "It holds your small meat, your large meat, and your hot dogs." "If you're kind of low on meat, talk to your grill man." "Let him know, "hey, I got one pan of small meat left,"" "and that's why you talk to one another." "All right, I'm fixin' to show you how to make" " a Classic Checker burger." " Okay." " Give me a loaf of that." " A loaf?" "Yep, of sourdough bread." "Open up that top." "And the top, the part that's under it that we don't use..." " Yeah?" " Put it in the waste bucket." "Am I just not strong?" "What's wrong with me?" "What's wrong?" " I don't know." " I got these big ol' arms." "Are you nervous?" "Hold on, let me do this." "Alex could not open up plastic." "When he did that, I was like, "really?"" ""Today might be a little hard."" " You need a wrap now." " Got it." "That's it." " Now this is..." " Down and across." "Ketchup... two rings." "Pickles... one, two." "Spaced out." "One onion, tomato." "Your lettuce... you shake out that excess lettuce." " Okay, awesome." " And see how I do that?" "Only things that go on your bottom bun, meat, bread, mustard, and if they get cheese." " That's easy to remember." " Take your top to your bottom." " Now let's see you do it." " Like that." " Slide it in the middle." " Okay." "Wrap it." "That's a checker burger." "You feel like you can make one?" " I'll try." " Go ahead." "As long as you help me out." "Okay, I got that." "Mayonnaise." " You tell me..." " Ah." "Uh-uh." " You did it too many times." " Too many times." " Is that enough?" " That's enough." "I did too many times." "Okay." "Yeah, you did it too many times." " How's that, okay?" " Good." "This is easy, 'cause you've got them all lined up for me." "That's a big ol' handful." "Use just a finger pinch." "You're kind of using a little too much." "Okay." "Her expectations were high." "One ring of mustard." "There you go." "You're fast." "You've got your basic sandwiches." " Checker burger." " Yep." "All right, got your double cheeseburger." " Okay." " Yep." "This your spicy chicken, the Big Buford and the Triple Buford and our Baconzilla." "Once you get the hang of it and you kind of remember, you'll... it'll flow with you, it'll come with you." "Okay." "I'm sure you'll teach me." "Hi, thanks for choosing Checkers." "What can I get you today?" "Let me get a chili dog without cheese." "Chili dog, no cheese." "That's chili... onions." " Where's your mustard?" " Mustard!" "You know, I'm so used to knowing what I need to do and getting it done, it was hard for me." "Let me get a number nine." " What's a nine?" " The spicy..." " Spicy chicken." " Spicy chicken." "I didn't know the sandwich builds." "Ah-ah!" "Oh, it needs lettuce." "Put that chicken back up there." " Put it back up there?" " Now put your lettuce." " No!" " Oh, forgot about the tomato." " Darn it." " What's missing on there?" " He said no pickles, no onions." " He didn't say no ketchup." "Now you've got to throw the top out." "Oh, you're right." "Throw the whole thing or just the top out?" "Re-do the top." "Whoa, I'm way behind." "Give me a second." "Your wrap needs to be a little bit more neater than that." "You know, if somebody had a gun to Alex's head, and asked Alex to wrap me a perfectly-made sandwich," "Alex would get shot dead on the spot." "This feels slippery with these gloves." "I can't do it." "Pow!" "He would get shot." "You've got to pick up your speed a little bit there, 'cause they waiting on you." "His speed... he was too slow." "He was slow like a little turtle." "I'm going to step in for a minute and come over here and... you know, and help you a little bit." "You're going to help me?" "If he was fast like that rabbit he was feeding, he would be okay." "Thank you." "You all got to the Checker burgers on the other side?" "All right, thank you." "Two small fries, Irene." "You guys make it look easy." "Johanna, Alex, you guys had a great lunch." "Good." "I'm going to let you guys take a break now." "Alex never got speed." "I mean, it's fast food." "It ain't called slow food." "Would you like something to drink?" "I would love a diet coke." "I am..." "I am dying." "I think the new prototype design is working well." "It's more spacious and clearly a lot easier for everyone to get their job done." "I made a lot of mistakes there." "I can't remember those sandwiches." "How many years you been doing this?" "I've been working for Checkers for seven years." "This is the first..." "first Checkers ever built, in Mobile, Alabama, stands right there." "They're going to tear this one down and making it a parking lot, you know, we still get cars that come through here and order." "There's a car right there." "Come to this one, baby." "Come to this one." "They're so used to doing it that way, huh?" "Yeah, that's why they built that." " That's why they put that there." " 'Cause people keep doing it?" "Yeah, that's right." "So, tell me, if became a franchisee, and I did all..." "I worked part of it, but I'd need people to work for me, who would I hire... who do you think would be a perfect manager?" " Me." " You?" "If tomorrow, you were just the manager, what would you do?" "How would you do things?" "Because, with Checkers, it's, like... the managers get bonuses and the managers get this." "They didn't get where they got by theyself." " No way." " Let them know," ""hey, I appreciate you for doing this for me," you know?" "And I just feel like... they just don't treat us..." "you know, reward... reward your crew." "We've never been rewarded." "Never." "The whole seven years I've been with Checkers..." " You haven't gotten any?" " No, I make $8 an hour." "That's why..." "I mean, I live paycheck to paycheck." "I don't even look forward to getting paid." "Honestly, I don't." "And then if I was to take a manager position, it wouldn't be nothing but, like, a 50¢ or a $1 raise." "That's the only difference when you go to manager?" "Yeah, I mean, Checkers pays their management, like, $9." " Is that it?" " Yes." "You have other places that'll start managers off..." " Higher?" " $11... yes." "So their crew members start at $9 or $10, other places." "It was enlightening to see her perspective on the incentive structure, and what she allowed me to realize is, we may not have a compensation program that takes into consideration the Johannas of the world." "That's another reason why I never took a management position." "You have to have reliable transportation." " Got car problems?" " This car cuts off on me." "I never want to jump in to do something if I know I can't handle it." "I know I'm having car trouble right now." "Why would I jump into being a manager?" "Johanna is a magnificent individual." "We're lucky to have her." "We've got to go back in here to work." "And I feel that I need to find a way to continue to grow her, because she has much more capacity than we're using today." "That's a risk." "If we're not using her to her full capacity, somebody else will see her and they will steal her." " Yep." " All right!" " Look at that." " Good job, all right!" "Good job." "It's been a very long week." "I'm tired." "My feet hurt." "I was reminded of the time when I was pushed off my bike many times this week." "That lesson I learned from my mother about standing up for myself... it's absolutely unacceptable for a Todd to feel uncomfortable in a restaurant." "I realized that empowering the people at Checkers and Rally's is equally important." "Giving people a voice, a chance to create an environment and a community where we protect those that get pushed off the bikes." "What we need to do is be as obsessed about providing the systems and the tools for our people as we are obsessed about our guests." "I've asked the employees I worked with this week to come to one of our Rally's restaurants in Flint, Michigan." "This is one of our most successful new franchise restaurants, a perfect place to reveal my true identity." "The employees think they're here to weigh in on whether I should get a second chance in the fast food business." "Alex is going to have a heart attack, because I was on him about his speed." "I'm very honest." "I'm gonna be very honest today." "I found out that my trainee was actually the CEO of the company." "I'm still a little confused about the whole thing." "But as far as I know, we'll get to the bottom of it today." "Hey, Alex." "You're all dressed up." "Alex." "Do you know who I am?" "I hope... yeah." "I'm Rick Silva, CEO of Checkers and Rally's." "Wow." "I feel so bad." "I did you bad." "I did you bad." "Now you make me nervous." "Johanna, do you realize how good you are at your job?" "Do you realize how smoking fast you are on the boards?" "You're probably one of the fastest people I've seen and you weren't even trying." "No, I wasn't." "That was just me." "One of the things you talked about, this idea that we have these incentive programs for managers, and yet those incentives, don't always, in all the restaurants, roll down to the team members..." " Yes." " We're going to fix it so that we take our incentive program, and when managers get incentives, team members also get incentives." "Re... oh, that's excellent." "Thank you." "Thank you, that is very excellent." "Don't thank me." "There's a lot of people like you that can do a lot more, right?" " Yes." " We're going to put a program together so that every district manager is going to be a mentor, but I also want to make sure that you're the first mentee in that program." "And your mentor is going to be me." "Really?" "See..." "You're going to tu..." "you're gonna mentor me?" " Yes." " Into being a good manager." " Yes." " Wow." "What I want to do right now is" "I'm going to promote you into a management-in-training position so you're going to make more compensation than you're making now." "It's a 25% promotion." "I'm okay." "I'm okay." "Thank you." "So I'm gonna be a manager?" "You gotta make it." "What if I'm a manager, and I'm on my way to open up the store, and all of a sudden, my car just... cut off?" "Well, you know, I don't want you to have to deal with that, so we've decided we're gonna give you $20,000." "Are you..." "Really?" "Really?" "Let me give you a..." "Ah, forget about that." "I cannot believe that my CEO recognized me as a good employee, and he is rewarding me for it." "$20,000 and a management position with a higher pay." "That's what I want." "That's what I need." "Checkers, I'm home!" "I'm home, Checkers!" "Joyce, I was so amazed... it was late, and yet you find a way to bring that energy and that passion that nobody else can bring." "Well, the other thing I noticed was that that speaker box wasn't working." "It's terrible." "A lot of our speakers are like that." "Yeah, well, we've already gone ahead, and when you get back to your restaurant, that will be replaced." "So you don't have to deal with that." "Your job is hard enough already." "Oh, thank you so very, very much." "Thank you." "We talk about knowing our customer really, really well, but you opened my eyes to the fact that you know the guests better than other information we technically use." "Because of what you shared with me, we're going to do something different" " at Checkers and Rally's." " Okay." "We're creating a general managers counsel, and every quarter, we're going to have them sit with me and other members of the executive team..." "Awesome." "...and share those ideas that you had." "You are the first member, right here, right now," " of that counsel." " It's an honor." "It's an honor." "You also shared with me that you have some financial pressure." " I'm okay." " Oh, I know you're okay." "We want you to be more than okay." "I want to give something back to you." "We're gonna give you $10,000." "Why?" "You've done so much for us." "Oh, my God." "Thank you." "What I noticed was that you are always taking care of everybody around you, and I get the sense that you don't do much for yourself." "Never." "And so we're going to give you an additional $10,000 for you to do something for yourself." "And you have to spend it on yourself." "I think what I would do is get an urn for my brother." "I didn't have any money to get him one, so he's still in the original container." "This way he can sit next to my mom and my dad." "You know, they're on the mantel, and every day..." "Oh, my God, I don't know what to say." "I'm, like, in shock." "Thank you for what you do every day." "I really appreciate it." "To have Mr. Silva single me out to tell me, personally, thank you, is worth more than any dime." "I'm just proud that I work for him." "And I'm proud..." "I'm just proud." "It's an honor." "It's an honor." "Todd, the thought of somebody treating you with disrespect really disturbed me." "I'm incredibly proud of what we did that night." "I really am." "It started with you." "You spoke up." "You had the courage to speak up when I asked you." "You know, I felt like it was my fault." "But then, as I think about it," "I'm proud of what I did." "And I wouldn't change it." "No regrets." "When I found out that the team in that restaurant was not properly trained, as a CEO, I felt responsible." "I don't ever want to see that happen ever again." "Just so you know, Stevens is being re-trained." "Because of the experience that I had at your restaurant, every new employee at Checkers and Rally's is going to be trained on our values... that's about treating everybody with a great deal of respect." "You inspired me to change the company." "How do you feel?" "I feel good." "When we were on the grill, you lit up like a light bulb." "Really, you showed the passion for cooking." "Well, we want to put your dreams back on the table." "We're gonna pay for you to go back to school and finish your culinary degree." "We're going to pay for everything." "Not only your tuition, but all your books, all your expenses so that you can finish that culinary degree." "Thank you." "You told me about how much pressure you have because your mom counts on you to bring home the money." "Yeah." "So we're gonna give you $15,000..." " Wow." " ...to help cover those expenses, and help give you some relief." "Thank you." "I really appreciate it." "I really feel like I need to give you a hug." " I really..." "I really do." " Give me a hug!" "It feels so good." "It really does." "I'm gonna stand up for what I believe in." "It's my time to shine." "This week I learned that Checkers and Rally's is much more than just a restaurant." "It's the people inside the restaurant, and their everyday lives, and their everyday struggles, and how they make this brand what it is." "Our future lies right there."