Halie Wetherington, reporter@greenepublishing.com
Hopefully by Sunday, June 5, Popeyes will be cleared to open to the public. Jeffrey Shivers, project and development manager, stated that the building is “100 percent complete and has been for about a week and a half.” However, the business is solely awaiting approval from the State of Florida for the correct license to operate. Shivers gave more insight into the operation, explaining that the community need not to worry about the previous trend of new restaurants in town only staying open for a short period of time. This is due to the corporation through which Popeyes is being operated, Sailormen, Inc. They are a Florida-based group that has a very high success rate with their stores and is the second largest franchise group for Popeyes.
Shivers also described the manager's partnership with CareerSource for hiring and how they work closely with the group in this process. “Everything is as close as we can get it to being ready” said Shivers. The State is the only box left to check off before opening. In the mean time, Shivers wanted to clear up some things with the community beforehand. “There will be cars going through the drive-thru, but we are not open. That is only the operations group making sure everything works with the technology and such.” He noted that there will be a formal announcement made before the grand opening of the newest restaurant in town. For now, the community needs to hold on just a little bit longer.