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Happy Meal, happy family business for Greencastle’s Jedeles
McDonald’s has been a part of Bob Jedele’s life so long his career even predates the legendary Happy Meal.
And he’s probably happier about it than anyone who’s ever worn a red wig and big floppy shoes.
After all, as McDonald’s happily marks the 40th anniversary of its Happy Meal, Jedele is on the precipice of some landmark dates of his own.
The year 2020 will mark a 50-year association for Jedele with McDonald’s and 25 years as the Greencastle storeowner.
And it’s been a family affair for the Jedeles. Wife Jamie was the store’s bookkeeper for 20 years and is now happily retired. Sons Paul, Tim and Mark and daughter Heather Miller have all worked for their dad at the Golden Arches.
“How fortunate could I be,” Jedele noted, “that I get to go to work every day and I work with my kids? It’s been wonderful to not only work with my McFamily but my kids as well.”
And it’s been good for them too.
Son Paul owns and operates three of the family’s restaurants, while Tim supervises three stores and is working toward becoming an owner/operator. Mark and Heather are now school teachers after spending their teenage years on the local McDonald’s crew. Heather teaches in Greencastle and Mark in Normal, Ill., after previously teaching and coaching in Greencastle.
Heather also met husband Jeff while working at McDonald’s. While still in high school she was working with her dad in Greencastle (it was “a blast,” Bob says), while pondering her college choice. He suggested she talk with Jeff Miller, who was working at the Cloverdale store while attending Purdue University.
“He took her on a tour of Purdue,” Bob said, “and now they’re married.”
Bob Jedele, who started as a McDonald’s crew member at Bay City, Mich., while a senior in high school in 1970, now owns nine McDonald’s locations. He purchased the Greencastle and Cloverdale stores from Art Cocozzoli in 1995 and has since added sites in Mooresville, Crawfordsville (north and south), Monrovia (at the Luv’s truck stop off Interstate 70), Brazil (U.S. 40 and State Road 59 locations) and Plainfield (Vestal Road on the west side of town).
“I didn’t know I didn’t like my previous jobs until I went to work for McDonald’s and loved it,” Jedele assessed.
When he left McDonald’s to go to college at Central Michigan in Mt. Pleasant, Jedele ended up working at a Mr. Hotdog.
“And it was boring,” he quickly added.
After college, Bob ended up at McDonald’s locations in Texas and Michigan and for three years wrote training programs for store managers while stationed at the Chicago corporate headquarters.
During that time the Happy Meal burst onto the scene in 1979 while Bob was in Texas. It was an instant sensation and continues to this day to be one of the top-five sellers at the Greencastle store.
“Greencastle’s a big Happy Meal store,” Jedele said, recalling how when the Happy Meal first came out it was so popular his store in Texas would pre-assemble the boxes, stuff them with toys and stash them in places all over the restaurant to make it easier at time of sale when a hamburger, cheeseburger or chicken nuggets was added.
“The iconic part of the Happy Meal, as I remember,” Jedele said, “is that it became a quick, easy package for parents to buy for their kids. It was something special in a box just for them. That’s why kids have treasured them for so long.”
McDonald’s sold 100 million Happy Meals alone in 1997 when the toys were Tiny Beanie Babies.
Jedele recalled how the Greencastle public thirsted for those meals and their Tiny Beanie Babies.
“The first time they did Tiny Beanie Babies,” he said, “they were unbelievable.”
Son Paul recalls the Happy Meal being a part of growing up.
“Though my dad has been a part of McDonald’s since before I was born,” he said, “visiting a restaurant and getting a Happy Meal was a big treat for our family growing up. I remember the strict policy of no toy until all my food was eaten.
“My favorite toys were the ‘Mac Tonight’ character that was placed on various cars,” Paul added. “My dad had a little wooden plaque that he had each of the cars glued to that I remember looking at when I would visit his office. Currently I have really enjoyed when we put books in the Happy Meals and my kids, Mason and Marley, really enjoy those toys.
“I am really looking forward to this 40-year celebration as McDonald’s will be bringing back a sampling of toys over the 40 years and seeing how kids today and kids of the past -- me as an adult -- get to enjoy memory lane and see their children receiving toys that they loved as kids.”
The Jedeles took over the Greencastle store in 1995 when the location was across the street from where Kroger now resides. There was no stoplight then and trying to turn left out of McDonald’s to go back toward downtown was a real adventure.
“That was a suicide turn to try to go left before Kroger came in and they put up a light,” Bob Jedele said.
“When I bought the store, we knew the store needed improvements, and McDonald’s said, ‘either rebuild it or relocate it,’” Jedele added.
Of course, relocation came in 1999 when the store opened at the corner of Indianapolis Road and Percy Julian Drive, and business has boomed ever since.
The new store has already been expanded (bumped out front with the addition of a community meeting room) and remodeled once, and in January will get another major renovation of the dining room and the addition of ordering kiosks.
“It’s just been wonderful to be a part of the community and have so many folks come see us,” Jedele said. “Whenever I go into the restaurant I see old friends, people who’ve been coming to see us since 1995. The neat part of the business is to be in the store and get to say hello to them.”
So it’s not just a Happy Meal but certainly a happy McLife for the Jedeles.