Despite COVID-19, Popeyes opens new store in Kingston
FAST Food chain Popeyes has opened a new quick service restaurant at the corner of Mountain View Avenue and old Hope Road in Kingston.
Following its recent official launch ceremony, the restaurant is currently providing delivery and kerbside services for their Cajun-themed meals. The new store is the ninth in Jamaica, bringing to 160 the number of persons employed by Popeyes across the country.
“The restaurant business is tough generally, but the pandemic has brought even more challenges due to lockdowns, curfews, stay-at-home orders and other protocols. We have to be adapting our business model constantly to the rapidly changing situation while keeping our crews and customers safe,” Lisa Lake, group chief executive officer (CEO) of Restaurant Associates Limited (RAL) — operators of Popeyes in Jamaica — explained:
“Our job is to feed people awesome meals, give them great service, make them happy, and do it fast. Over the past seven months we have also been ensuring we get the food to our customers quickly and safely,” Lake said, referencing the delivery service the company implemented at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, when social distancing orders, curfews and lockdowns began to hamper customers from accessing the restaurants, the RAL CEO said.
Lake said that RAL was proud of the fact that throughout the pandemic they have kept all their restaurants open and did not lay off any staff. They are also thankful for the continued patronage of customers across the island and have sought to continue to pass on the goodwill by providing complementary meal packages to a range of groups, including persons in need and students on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) programme.
Front line COVID-19 workers including medical staff and Ministry of Health workers and security forces, were among the first teams to benefit from the brand’s philanthropic efforts as early as March 2020.
Sabrena Mcdonald Radcliffe, head of marketing at RAL, noted that in a reversal of the “Welcome, new neighbour!” tradition in which residents bring food and gifts to the newcomers, a team from RAL visited several businesses in the community around the Mountain View Avenue/old Hope Road areas, presenting Popeyes Cajun Care
Packages (meals).
“Once we posted on social media that the store had opened we had such a positive response that we immediately wanted to meet our neighbours. They welcomed us warmly and we are very happy to be a part of this new community.”
The new Popeyes store joins others in Manor Park, Red Hills, Constant Spring, Half-waytree, Cross Roads, Portmore, Savanna-la-mar and Negril.