Bob Evans was a farmer in southeastern Ohio who started a small restaurant in the town of Gallipolis using sausage from his own farm, after he found the sausages sold to him to be dismal. It started mainly as a truck stop, and the truckers would buy huge quantities of his sausages to take with them.
With this success, Evans decided to enter the sausage business full-tilt. As demand grew for his sausages, he formed a business partnership with family and friends in 1953, and the Bob Evans Farms label began selling to a wider area, which today includes over 30 states.
In 1968, the first Bob Evans Restaurant (the first venture was not official) was opened in Chillicothe, Ohio as a fast food restaurant. It quickly evolved into a family restaurant to meet customer demand and began to grow. Today, the company operates in 22 states with over 550 restaurants, and also owns Owens Restaurants, which was acquired in 1987 (then the Owens Country Sausage company in Richardson, Texas).
Bob Evans thinks of itself as a family restaurant. It does not want to be fast food, the stigma attached to chain restaurants notwithstanding. Strict standards are maintained for employee appearance and conduct in order to enhance the image of a safe, family-friendly restaurant being emphasized by the company.
Employees are offered a variety of benefits and compensations in order to encourage them to stay - this sort of business benefits from informed, experienced employees and wishes to retain them. Unfortunately, it is still semiskilled labor and entry-level salaries reflect this fact. As with any job, it is advisable to get a job only if one is willing to put the time and effort into it in order to gain promotions or if one does mind an hourly salary that may be only slightly above minimum wage.
Most customers at Bob Evans restaurants are either with families or are senior citizens. The atmosphere of the restaurants reflects this, and rowdy hooligan types are advised that their antics will most likely be met with stern glares or rapt admiration from 10 year old children who have to pretend that they don't want to be blowing straws across the room at other patrons.
Bob Evans maintains a website at http://www.bobevans.com/ and the corporate office can be reached at 1 (800) 272-7675.
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