This Saturday will take on a special meaning for local Little Caesars owner Debbie Njai. Not only is it the grand re-opening of the Little Caesars at 3751 Troy Road in Glen Carbon, but the day marks one year since the passing of her father Bab, who was the owner of the pizza shop and five other locations across the Metro East area.
“It just seems like it’s supposed to be this way,” Debbie said. “It’s like ‘How are you celebrating his life?’ We’re celebrating it by doing something he loved to do every single day.
“He loved Little Caesars. He loved working every single day. Little Caesars was his life. To open it back up on that day and to have so much outpour from the community is beautiful.”
The re-opening celebration is slated from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The first 50 guests will receive free pizza for a year. The re-opening will feature giveaways, games, free pizza, face painting and a bounce house.
‘Bab built a foundation’
The celebration and grand re-opening come about 10 months after Debbie closed the store following her father’s death. With Bab’s passing, Debbie was thrust into the owner’s chair.
“I’m definitely sitting in a different seat now,” Debbie said. “When I came back after college, I came to help oversee the stores, but he was still the owner and the boss. So now I sit in a different seat to make the decisions and do things my way.
“He built a foundation. Very successful. I’m just kind of taking it and trying to improve things.”
Bab started working for Little Caesars in 1989 making $5 an hour. He eventually worked his way up to district manager, where he oversaw operations of a handful of stores. In 1997, Bab purchased his first Little Caesars in Troy before the pizza chain was known for Hot-N-Ready.
Soon after, Bab bought multiple stores that were in danger of closing and were losing money.
“He basically poured all of his savings to buy these stores,” Debbie said. “That was around the time too that Little Caesars around the country were shutting down. Little Caesars almost didn’t make it. But he persevered through.”
Once the Hot-N-Ready campaign started in the late 1990s, Little Caesars started to prosper, and Debbie spent her childhood around the pizza chain.
“I basically grew up on Little Caesars,” Debbie said. “I started working in our Granite City and Troy stores. I worked on and off through high school and college.”
Once Debbie graduated from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville with a business degree, she went to work helping oversee the stores owned by Bab, which included locations in Glen Carbon, Troy, Granite City, Collinsville, Shiloh and Alton.
‘His legacy’
Because of decades of Bab being an owner, Debbie said she always knew she’d eventually be a boss.
“My dad did it flawlessly,” Debbie said. “We didn’t know the stores weren’t making money. He just worked day and night and did what he had to do. He would treat every customers like family and built the business up.
“He was a really good businessman. I just feel honored to carry out his legacy and carry on what he’s done.”
After Bab’s death last November, the Njai family needed time to grieve their loss.
Bab was from Gambia, a small country in West Africa, and came to the US when he was 18 years old with just a plane ticket and some money in his pocket.
“He made the American Dream,” Debbie said. “He stayed here and worked hard and built a life for his family.”
Before Bab died, the Njai family had a trip planned back to his home country, where he hadn’t been in about 40 years. When he passed, the Njai’s went on a family trip to Gambia to honor him with a celebration of life.
“That trip was life-changing for a lot of my family members,” Debbie said. “It felt like my dad was still with us when we went. It was something he really wanted to do. For me, I just wanted to be able to do that for the family and continue to plan that.”
Closing was ‘necessary’
Before the family trip, Debbie discovered the challenges at the Glen Carbon Little Caesars. She found out the Little Caesars location had been poorly managed and referred to the location as a “problem store.”
When Debbie returned to the Edwardsville-Glen Carbon area, where she grew up her whole life, she kept the business closed not only due to staffing issues there but also so that she had time to work at the other locations she now owns.
Between the grieving of Bab and the mismanagement of the Glen Carbon location, Debbie saw a temporary closing as the best solution.
“It was kind of embarrassing,” Debbie said. “The store was so mismanaged. Some people just assumed we’d sell all of the stores. For me, that store specifically, there was a lot more meaning to me. It was the town I grew up in.”
“To close a store was kind of a big deal,” Debbie said, “but it was necessary. It was really necessary to take that time off as a family.”
During the closing, Debbie made necessary upgrades to the location.
She added a menu board and speaker box so customers no longer have to wait at the drive-thru window for someone to help them. A second pick-up window was also added for overflow orders.
The upgrades also included new staff and management.
“It’s a whole different vibe and energy,” Debbie said. “It’s exciting. Everyone’s excited. The community is excited to have us back. I actually believe that store is going to be our highest-volume store now.”
Community support
The community excitement was shown about a month ago when Debbie made a post to the Edwardsville Connection Facebook group.
She made a post with complete transparency about the situation and the re-opening plans. The post was met with hundreds of likes and positive comments from community members about how much they missed the location. The comments also included kind words about Bab.
“When I posted it, I wasn’t expecting the outpour of support,” Debbie said. “It was really beautiful to see all of the people talking so positive about my father and about supporting us.”
Debbie said the manager at the Glen Carbon store would consistently run into someone around the community who would praise Bab and the donations he’d made to different organizations in the community.
“He was a big contributor to the community,” Debbie said. “He just gave so much to the Edwardsville-Glen Carbon community.”
Now, Debbie will look to continue the Little Caesars legacy built by Bab.
“It’s going good,” Debbie said about being the owner. “It’s just really busy. There are a million things to do every day.”
For more information about the Glen Carbon Little Caesars, visit the Facebook page Debbie created called We Love GlenEd Pizza.
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