YARMOUTH, N.S. — Pierre Jacoub and Pierre Marois are making good use of their time.
The businessmen moved from Montreal to Yarmouth in January 2018 to own and operate the McDonald’s franchises in Yarmouth and Barrington Passage.
Three months before moving, they visited the region to see if they would like it here.
“It was an instant yes for us,” said Jacoub.
Living so close to the sea was a huge plus.
“For us it’s like being on vacation because we used to travel to Maine for that,” added Marois.
On Aug. 1 they acquired the Liverpool McDonald’s, Bridgewater McDonald’s and also the Walmart McDonald’s in that town. Former owners Glen and Donna Stitt retired after 48 years with the Bridgewater and Liverpool McDonald’s.
The first part of the month, Marois and Jacoub drove 4,000 kilometres in 10 days.
“It’s the beginning, so we wanted to spend time with the new teams,” said Marois.
He says what helps with the acquisitions is a very experienced, seasoned, management team at each location.
Between the five restaurants they now employ 250 staff. Upcoming in October, a renovation is planned for the Barrington Passage restaurant.
Both men are partners in the operation of the restaurants and are equally involved in the marketing/administration part of the work. It’s not unusual to see both of them on the floor, greeting and thanking guests for their patronage. Both try to spend as many hours possible doing this in the restaurants they own.
Community involvement is important to them and they’ve become involved in many local organizations.
Both are members of the 100 Guys Who Share - Yarmouth County. They participate in the annual radiothon in support of the Yarmouth Hospital Foundation, also the Rucksack March, the Camp Peniel auction, Communities in Bloom, the Yarmouth and Area Chamber of Commerce and Gay Pride.
They supply the Hope Centre Dial-A-Ride morning coffee program for those who want to come in and chat.
They also act as ambassadors at the Mayor’s Tea at the Visitors Information Centre in Yarmouth on Thursday afternoons in the summer.
“We chat with whatever visitor comes through the doors. It’s important for as many visitors as possible to feel welcome in Yarmouth, especially given this year with the ferry not sailing,” says Jacoub.
“We tell them, ‘tell everybody you know about Yarmouth.’”
Several people have expressed surprise to Jacoub when they hear the couple is not planning on leaving soon.
“Well of course we’re staying,” laughs Jacoub. “Where’d you think we were going? This isn’t transient for us.”
Part of the appeal is that they have faster internet just outside the Town of Yarmouth than they did in Montreal.
But one of the biggest reasons for staying is the future environment for their twins Justin and Nora.
“What resonated among many things was that complete strangers were saying hi to us on the street. We thought this was a comfortable, happy, safe place with very welcoming people,” said Jacoub.
The twins were born in 2015 through surrogacy. Jacoub, who speaks to his children exclusively in English, is referred to as daddy. Marois (Papa) talks to them exclusively in French. Their children are perfectly bilingual.
“It was important to us that they be bilingual as much as possible because it opens up as many doors in life as possible,” he said.
Their children are starting a pre-school program in two weeks and the whole family is excited about that.
“I want to take them to get some nice lunch boxes and little containers for vegetables to go inside,” said Jacoub, his eyes lighting up with excitement.
“The kids are growing up by the sea. How blessed are we to be within 10 minutes of the beach!”
McDonald’s trivia
(from Reader’s Digest)
It took nine years for fries to appear on the restaurant menu (they debuted in 1949) before that, only potato chips were available.
McDonald’s is the world’s largest distributor of toys. It gives away around 1.5 billion toys each year with Happy Meals.
One in eight U.S. workers has been employed by McDonald’s at some point in their careers
Scientists studying McDonald’s patrons found that female diners ate less when they were eating in mixed-sex groups rather than in same-sex groups, while male diners ate more in mixed-sex groups than in mixed-sex pairs, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Health Psychology.
McDonald's feeds 68 million people per day, that's about one per cent of the world's population.
