Whole Foods Hosts Job Fair, EZ Lube Changes Names and a New App to Quit Smoking

From a smartphone application that helps you quit smoking to a job fair hosted by an upcoming grocery chain, and a new name for a lube franchise, business happenings in Laguna Niguel abound this week.

New Name For EZ Lube 

Valvoline Instant Oil Change has completed its purchase of all EZ Lube locations in Southern California. This is the largest acquisition ever in the lube industry with the purchase of all 72 EZ Lube stores. There are three locations in the Laguna Niguel area: 26921 and 24281 Moulton Pkwy., and 34242 Doheny Park Road, Dana Point. 

VIOC plans to hire at the stores to bring up staffing levels to meet its operations needs to deliver better customer service and efficiency than EZ Lube had.

The stores, located predominantly in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, will be re-branded under the Valvoline Instant Oil Change banner over the next six months. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition marks the company's West Coast affiliate, Henley Enterprises' entry into the California market, which has more registered vehicles than any other state.

“We are delighted to enter this fast-paced market and we look forward to introducing the Valvoline Instant Oil Change industry-leading combination of service, selection and value to Southern California drivers,” said Don Smith, Henley co-founder and chief executive officer. “We intend to work hard every day to earn our customers’ trust through outstanding service. The EZ Lube team members have been extremely welcoming to us, and we’re committed to supporting the teams who work in our stores every day with continued training and development opportunities.”

Whole Foods Hosts Job Fair

Whole Foods conducted a job fair in the vacant building in front of its new location at La Paz and Aliso Creek roads in Laguna Niguel last week for those on the hunt for a new job. Officials report the store could open by early summer and expects to fill a number of jobs for the new store.

A New Quit Smoking App

 has created the "I Can Quit" app, a new health-related smartphone app aimed at providing assistance and tracking for person's effort to cease habits like smoking.

"When I was in the U.S. Marine Corps, I was summoned back to central Florida to attend the funeral of my grandmother, after she had died from very sad, distressing and ugly struggle with emphysema.  I was her oldest grandson, she was so young.  It was one of the most horrible things to see.  I feel awful for those struggling to break the cycle and get off of the road leading them to such live-ending illnesses, and wish them all the strength in the world to quit if they so desire," said Iconosys co-founder and CEO Wayne Irving II.

While the "I Can Quit" smartphone app does not currently provide two-way text support, that is a support personnel to respond immediately at your request—as present in the study—its design would enable that capability to be added in the future and Iconosys is seeking a partner that may wish to handle this. In the meantime, the app does send supportive texts to the user throughout the day, motivating the quitter to continue his or her efforts toward a habit-free day.

The messages that are transmitted to the user come in at pre-programmed intervals, or can be customized in terms of content and/or frequency of transmission by the user/quitter, a loved one or a care-provider as it is requested or required. In particular, a timer and a quota can be set as to how many and the recurrence or frequency of messages that the quitter may get throughout the day.

Currently, there are 10 pre-programmed messages inside the app, which the app will send the user via SMS text message; these would include encouraging words to the effect of "doing a good job" or "keep up the good work." A congratulatory timer is included that keeps track of the quitter's daily victories in remaining habit free and showing the quitter their daily and weekly progress.

The app is available now for download from Amazon AppStore, Android Marketplace, GetJar, and the AppHysteria Appstore. While  Iconosys plans to sell the app and provide a portion of the resulting funds to non-profits in support of programs aimed at helping quitters quit, at the present time the app is free of charge.

For business related news tips and announcements in Laguna Niguel, please send information to Debbie.Sklar@Patch.com