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.