Upcoming Events
These dates are important, so we wanted to give them to you again! Mark your calendars now for the DDIFO National Conference, October 28-29 at the Foxwoods Casino and Hotel in Connecticut. The National Conference, last year held in New Orleans, is a program highlight of the DDIFO year and an event you don’t want to miss. While you’re at it, you should also plan to join the Coalition of Franchisee Associations (CFA) for the all-important CFA Lobby Day Forum on May 21-22 in Washington DC as well as the 2nd Annual CFA Legal Symposium on November 12 & 13 at a location yet to be confirmed.
DUNKIN' BRANDS & FRANCHISEE NEWS
Starbucks announced this week that it was changing course relative to its upscale Reserve Roasteries and Reserve coffee bars, redirecting its focus on traditional outlets. Under former CEO Howard Schultz, the company had planned to open as many as 1,000 new Reserve coffee bars, but current CEO Kevin Johnson has scrubbed those plans for the foreseeable future. In fact, rather than the 1,000 unit target, Starbucks is now planning to open between 6 and 10 of the Reserve stores before it revisits the plan. In other news from Starbucks, the company announced it was placing needle disposal boxes in restrooms throughout the country in response to complaints of used syringes being discarded in Starbucks bathrooms. You will recall that last May, Starbucks opened its restrooms to anyone wishing to use it in the wake of a problem in Philadelphia relating its prior customer-only policy.
