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Journeys of Discovery: Pal’s Sudden Service—raising the fast food bar since 1956

Thomas Wilmer
The original Pal's Sudden Service diner opened in 1956.

Correspondent Tom Wilmer visits with Thomas Crosby, CEO of Pal’s restaurant chain, at the firm’s first diner in Kingsport, Tennessee. Today there are 29 Pal’s throughout northeast Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. Crosby shares insights into Pal’s corporate model, via which he says employees earn a living wage. Annual employee retention at Pal’s is approximately 76 percent—while the national fast food industry annual turnover is close to 100 percent.

You are invited to subscribe to the Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel show podcast, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer, featured on the NPR Podcast DirectoryApple Podcast, the NPR One App & Stitcher.com. Twitter: TomCWilmer. Instagram: Thomas.Wilmer. Member of the National Press Club in Washington D.C. Underwriting support provided by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcasts feature the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts--everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.
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