About the Walla Organization

The Walla Organization owns and operates the four McDonald’s Rapid City restaurants as well as our newest addition in Box Elder. Our organization is recognized nationally for our incredible volume and service metrics – in large part due to our focus on our people. We are consistently well-staffed to accommodate the high volume, which we attribute to the loyalty our amazing employees have for us.

Our owner Wendy lives in Rapid City and began her career as a crew member for McDonald’s Rapid City and worked her way up to become one of the most decorated and successful owner/operators in the country.

Our Director of Operations and Supervisor both began as crew members while in high school, almost 30 years ago, working their way up to where they are now.

All four of our General Managers began their careers as 15 year old crew members, and have grown in our company and helped us achieve the level of excellence we are known for.

We have 26 managers on salary in our organization – all who began their careers as crew members and worked their way up through the ranks, and now consider McDonald’s a career that allows them to enjoy benefits: including up to four weeks of paid vacation, two more weeks of personal and holiday days, a sabbatical program offering eight additional consecutive weeks of paid time off and a lucrative bonus program.

Our organization has 69 employees that have worked here over five years, 39 of those employees have been with us over 10 years, and 16 over 20 years. You don’t have that kind of longevity and loyalty without being a great place to work.

During the height of the COVID pandemic, when many businesses were laying off employees, we ensured all employees worked whatever hours they desired. Wendy, our franchise owner, paid every single employee an additional week of pay on top of their regular salary to help during the stressful times. We began offering free food to every employee versus discounting to further assist. We truly put our people first during uncertain times by making it clear that our employees had a place to work and could get the hours they needed to live comfortably.

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The History of McDonald’s Rapid City

1959: West Main McDonald's built- first McDonald's in all of South Dakota

1960: Original Cleveland McDonald's built

1966: Original East North McDonald's built

1976: Rapid City McDonald's opened for breakfast

1980: First Drive Thru added to Rapid City restaurants

1988: James Klinefelter becomes the Owner/operator of the Rapid City McDonald's

1989: Original Box Elder McDonald's built

1995: Wal-Mart McDonald's opened

1995: East North rebuilt in adjacent lot

2001: Wendy Walla becomes the Owner/Operator of East North & Wal-Mart

2003: The first double lane Drive Thru added in at East North St

2003: Elk Vale McDonald's built

2005: Cleveland McDonald's torn down and rebuilt

2005: West Main McDonald's torn down and rebuilt

2011: Wendy becomes the Owner operator of all Rapid City McDonald's

2020: Quarter Pounder Statue (22,000 lbs of bronze and granite) gifted to our organization by McDonald's corporation for recognition and placed at the Elk Vale location.

2021: Wal-Mart McDonald's closed to focus on free standing restaurants

2021: Wendy wins the Ronald award (gifted to top 1% of Owner/operators in the country for excellence in operations and people)