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| Shakey's History | ||||||||||||
| In 1954, Sherwood "Shakey" Johnson pooled his funds of $3400 with those of a college friend Ed Plummer to open the first Shakey's®. The building was a remodeled grocery store located at 57th and "J" Street in Sacramento, California. The parlor opened on Friday evening, April 30 with $1.85 in the till and the two owners and their friends to serve. As the ovens were not complete, only beer was sold the first weekend. Johnson played the piano and entertained, and Plummer served beer. With money from the beer sales, the partners bought pizza products and began selling pizzas on Monday. Ten days later, they had fourteen employees, and a month later Dixieland jazz entertainment was added. With the success of the first Sacramento restaurant, Johnson and Plummer opened a second Shakey's® two years later in a remodeled mattress factory on Foster Road in Portland, Oregon. The Shakey's® name and concept were already familiar due to the nightly jazz radio program they sponsored. In 1957 Shakey's® became one of the first food service companies to begin franchising. The franchise units also introduced a standard Shakey's® building design. Prior to this, the restaurants had always been located in existing remodeled structures. Johnson retired a multimillionaire in 1967 (at which time there were 272 Shakey's® restaurants across the United States) when he sold his half of the company to the Colorado Milling and Elevator Company of Denver, Colorado. Shakey's® began to expand outside the United States in 1968 with the opening of restaurants in Winnipeg and Manitoba, Canada in February of 1968. Expansion then went southward with the opening of the Mexico City restaurant in May of 1968. The first Japanese restaurants opened in Osaka, Tokyo in July of 1973. Expansion continued with restaurants opening in Santoloc, Manila and Rizal, Philippines in 1975. A year later (1968) the Colorado Milling and Elevator Company of Denver merged with Great Western Sugar Company to form Great Western United Corporation. In that year, Plummer also sold his half interest to Great Western United Corporation and retired. The chain was then 325 strong. Hunt International Resources acquired Shakey's® Incorporated in 1974. Gary Brown and Jay Halverson, former Shakey's® employees who became franchisees, purchased Shakey's® Incorporated in 1984, and in 1989 sold the chain to a Singapore-based company. A new era for Shakey's began on September 1, 2004 when Shakey's largest and "almost" oldest franchisee, The Jacmar Companies, purchased the rights to Shakey's in the United States. Though this chapter in Shakey's history is just unfolding, we are proud to be associated with our colleagues and friends to help move Shakey's into its second half-century. click here to
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