Slim Chickens, the drive-thru fast-food restaurant OHS has been waiting for, finally opened on July 15th with high expectations. Like many newly opened establishments on Happy Valley Road, the franchise quickly gained popularity, overflowing with high school students not only ordering from the new menu but also dropping off applications.
The arrival of Slim Chickens has allowed an interaction that benefits both parties: the franchise and the students. One of the main advantages of the new Slim Chickens location is its close adjacency to the school, which allows them to find willing workers among the students, and further build close ties with OHS.
“We’re focused on giving everybody that works for us from the school [their] first job opportunity, and I think them liking their job is gonna bring more people to us and we want to make an impact on the school,” said Mervin Carreon, Slim Chickens manager.
Not only is the location convenient for Slim Chickens but many OHS students as well, especially those who also feel it is a favorable location to work.
“I think they chose [to work here] just because it’s conveniently located, like the people at school, they live around school, so working somewhere close to where you live is really great,” said Calissa Roughley, junior.
The environment that Slim Chickens is helping shape through OHS students is mostly affected by the kind of people that work there. The workers create a friendly setting that makes it comfortable to work at the restaurant and entices more students to visit or apply.
“When we went to the orientation and officially met everybody, everyone was really nice and when we were figuring out how to do the work, they were super helpful,” said Isabelle Why, junior.
However, student employees there have mixed feelings about seeing faces they may know from school at their workplace often.
“It’s not my favorite seeing everyone that I go to school with, but it’s nice to see familiar faces and my friends at work,” Roughley said.
Further into the school year, Slim Chickens hopes to benefit the school by helping fundraise for events, encouraging the mutually reciprocal benefits of the two.
“In the near term, we’re looking at doing fundraisers, helping the school with football and things like that,” Carreon said.
Slim Chickens is looking to make these changes and impacts to communities around the state. Having been scheduled to build over 30 franchises in Arizona, Slim Chickens is branching out over the southwest.
“I know they opened a location in Mesa or something down there and it did really well… so it started expanding all over Arizona,” Why said.
Slim Chickens is looking to build a well-rounded community of workers, and through OHS students, they are working to provide quality service with quality chicken.
“We’re very diverse in what we want to bring into the group. Pretty much… have good availability, eager to work, fun, good attitude, just little things that, you know, make each and every one of us different, I think would be what we look for,” Carreon said.
