Wilmington man retires after 53 years at McDonald's

By some estimations, Gene Kruzienski has served more McDonald’s customers than anyone on Earth.

The Wilmington resident, who is 69, began working for the fast-food chain at 16 in 1964. On Friday, after 53 years at various McDonald’s restaurants, Kruzienski retired from the Prices Corner store.

Kruzienski held an array of positions over the decades, from shift manager to manning the drive-through intercom. Although he’s worked at multiple restaurants in Delaware and West Chester, Pennsylvania – and even had a stint in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics), McDonald’s is the only job he’s ever had.

For customers at the Prices Corner store on Kirkwood Highway, Kruzienski is “an icon,” said Cathy Garrison, the operations manager for McDonald’s in the region. Kruzienski has spent the past 25 years at the location.

“If 100 people walk into our McDonald’s in an hour, 85 of them know Gene,” said Kristy Suarez, the general manager at Prices Corner.

At his retirement celebration on Friday, this was clear — while former co-workers and representatives from McDonald’s corporate office were in attendance, customers came in and out for hours, stopping to give Kruzienski hugs and to pose for photos.

“I try to take care of people,” Kruzienski said. “I take care of the coffee people in the morning. I’ve been to customers’ weddings and funerals.”

Mark Chandler, a retired general manager at another Wilmington location that has since closed, said Kruzienski is “the most customer-oriented person I’ve ever met, bar none.” He guessed that if someone tallied up all of the customers Kruzienski has served over the years, it’s in the millions, or at least the population of Wilmington several times over. This is why he estimates that Kruzienski may have helped more McDonald’s customers than anyone in the world.

One customer at the celebration, David Skupien, said he’s known Kruzienski for 23 years. They met in the drive-through back when Kruzienski would greet people there in a tuxedo.

“Over the years, I got to know him on an individual level,” Skupien said. “And that’s part of the community aspect at this McDonald’s that you don’t see at most places.”

Suarez said when she thinks about Kruzienski, she thinks about his dedication — both to his customers and his co-workers. In the 15 years she’s worked as his manager, he’s never called out sick, she said, and he’s always willing to take on additional responsibilities when asked.

“They don’t make them like Gene anymore,” Garrison said.

For Kruzienski, retiring is “somewhat overwhelming.” He said he’s going to miss the people — his fellow employees and customers — most of all.

“I’ve made friends with generations of people that come in here,” he said, displaying a gold bracelet on his wrist that he received as a gift from a customer. “I knew people as children, then they have children, and their children have children. And they all come here.”

He hopes to travel during his retirement, though he’ll remain based in Wilmington. While his managers said they wouldn’t turn Kruzienski away if he tried to clock in again on Monday, the 69-year-old, who turns 70 in August, said he is taking a break from McDonald’s for a little while before he returns as a customer.

“I’ve been eating this food for a long time,” he said. “But I’ll definitely be back.”