After a 40-year reign, the king is retiring

At 4 a.m. on a late June day, the kitchen lights of the Morganton Burger King are flicked on. The store’s general manager, John Konst, pours himself a Diet Coke and is ready to start what he calls “the most productive hour of the day.”

The doors to the restaurant won’t swing open to the public for another two hours, but there’s work to be done.

Switches in the office start the heating system, the fry station is assembled, buns are rotated by freshness, eggs and croissants are brought out to cook, and the equipment gets a close inspection.

After 40 years of serving as the general manager of the Burger King in Morganton, the 67-year-old has perfected his opening routine. Now he’s ready to take off his crown and retire.

The shaded glasses Konst wears barely covers the smiling face he dons on a regular basis. His full gray mustache and seasoned, athletic build add to his approachable demeanor, matching the energy he brings to the store every day.

To stay anywhere for 40 years takes a specific type of character, let alone the fast food service industry, in which jobs turn over more frequently than the burgers do. But to Konst the field can be, and usually is, a lot of fun.

He said that he’s seen a lot of miserable people in the field, but approaching everything with a smile has kept him going.

That and anticipating that somewhere along the line something will go wrong, either with people or equipment, have been his go-to reminders as he’s stayed in this line of work.

His reign started with a Burger King blitz, having been asked to move through stores in Niagara Falls, then Cleveland, before a promise to a hiring/district manager position where he would plant his feet for at least 20 years secured him a job in Morganton.

The transition to the South was smooth. Konst said that trading his usual workday trek through 12 inches of snow for the moderate climate of Western North Carolina was an undeniable perk.

The success of Morganton’s Burger King however, was not as immediate.

“When I got here we made $630,000 and lost the company $40,000,” he said.

The store opened in 1988 as one of only 50 Burger King training stores in the United States, meaning up-and-coming managers from across the nation would travel here to learn the skills they would need to run their own restaurants.

For the first few years, Konst, to the annoyance of his superiors, refused to hire and train anyone that would not be working with him in his store. He had to make sure his kingdom was stable first.

Now, under Konst’s management, the Morganton Burger King is one of the most successful stores in his district, earning a profit of $1.25 million last year alone.

But financial success is not the only thing proving that he knows a thing or two about management. His repertoire was also built by seeking to fill a seat at any table Burger King would let him fit in.

Throughout his 40 years in Morganton, Konst has helped to redesign the entire Burger King Corporation training programs.

“Most of the reason I stayed as long as I have is because they let me train the new managers that were coming in,” Konst said. “That made quite a difference as far as my interest and abilities.”

Konst has won General Manager of the Year twice in his career, a recognition given to him by the Burger King Corporation.

He’s been asked, and consequently declined, to take a Burger King corporate job three separate times. His quickest turn-down was in December 1990, when he was asked over the phone to pack up and go to Kalamazoo, Mich., in two weeks.

“If I go home and ask my wife if she wants to be in a U-Haul truck driving up to Kalamazoo, two weeks before Christmas, I know exactly what she’s going to say,” Konst said.

The real reason he’s stayed, however, is simple.

“I can’t ask people to do something I wouldn’t do myself,” he said. “I’m just not that kind of person.”

In the corporate world, that’s what it is all about. Konst, who still carries out his own trash, sweeps his own parking lot, and washes his own windows … wasn’t willing to compromise.

Several of Konst’s staff have worked for him for over 10 years and they say it’s his down-to-earth mentality that has kept them around.

“He’s very wholesome and good-hearted,” said Myra Moore, a longtime employee of Konst. Moore worked for Konst when she was in high school. Several years later, upon returning to Morganton to take care of her mother, she ran into Konst, shared her need for a job, and was told to come back and start the next day.

Konst’s caring heart extends to his community, too. When a group of men were searching for a spot to hold their social hour, Konst opened the Burger King doors to welcome them. Now the group, who call themselves the Coffee Club, have been meeting daily for over 30 years.

“It’s kind of bittersweet, his retirement,” a teary-eyed Moore said. “It’s not going to be the same without him and his little jokes.”

So, what does a man who has kept a similar routine for nearly half a century do with the freedom of retirement? Konst and his wife, Mary-Jo, will take to the Greek islands, continuing their retirement travel before settling down in their brand-new South Carolina home.