The Consumer Affairs Committee of the Pennsylvania General Assembly held their hearing this week on HB 1620, a fair franchising proposal sponsored by state representative Peter Dailey, a former Quiznos franchisee. About 2 dozen franchisees from a broad array of brands listened as DDIFO and CFA Chairman Keith Miller supported passage of the initiative. As…
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Massachusetts’ State Senate this week overwhelmingly passed a measure that would increase the state minimum wage to the highest level in the country by 2016! The bill would hike the current $8 wage by $1 on July 1st for the next 3 years, culminating at $11/hour in July 2016. The bill also increases the current…
Read More »It seems each week is full of news, issues – and changes – involving the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obama Care, and this week is no exception. First as you no doubt have read, in response to the outcry of policy cancellations, the President again announced a change in the implementation schedule, now…
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The difficulties we’ve seen with the development and roll-out of the ACA are having an impact and now in a study published by Mercer, as many as 1/3 of small business respondents report they expect to terminate their health insurance for employees within the next five years. And the medical profession isn’t much more friendly…
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DDIFO sponsor Ovation Payroll advises that the United States is phasing out its old Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) format and will now use the UN standard for the labeling of chemicals, the international Safety Data Sheet (SDS) format. OSHA‘s shift will take place over a three year period (12/13 to 6/16). If employees have…
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A family-owned New Hampshire coffee roaster has prevailed in an 11 year old case of alleged trademark violation. In Starbucks Corp et al v. Wolfe’s Borough Coffee d/b/a Black Bear Micro Roastery, the New York based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Starbucks failed to prove that consumers would be confused by a…
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Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, looking to solidify its market share in home brewed coffee, has developed Keurig 2.0 brewers as the vehicle to do so. Keurig 2.0 brewers, according to GMCR president and CEO Brian Kelley, will not work with K-cups produced by unlicensed manufacturers. Speaking of the Keurig Brewing machine, GMCR opened its first…
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The second restaurant concept in a week has stepped into the single-serve coffee market, with Panera Bread (PNRA) announcing four K-cup coffee flavors will be marketed through the grocery store channel. This follows McDonald’s announcing its new coffee push last week.
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The House Consumer Affairs Committee of the Pennsylvania Legislature will hear public testimony next Tuesday, November 19 at 9:30 AM on HB 1620 in Room 140 of the Main Capital Building in Harrisburg. Click here to write to the committee members and to ask their support of HB 1620. If any franchise owners would be available…
Read More »Members will recall some months ago when President Obama announced his support for increasing the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25/hour to $9.00. Well, last week it appeared that administration officials and their allies were signaling that Obama would be supportive of bumping the federal minimum up to “at least” $10.10! In a New…
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