As we advised in last week’s issue, a fair franchising bill has also been filed in the New Hampshire legislature for consideration during the 2014 session. Although it is not yet available in print or online, we have discussed the bill with its primary sponsor, Representative Patrick Abrami and will be working with him over…
Read More »Election day this past Tuesday, New Jersey voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative increasing the state minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 effective January, 2014, but more importantly amending the state constitution to index the minimum wage to inflation. A similar bill was vetoed earlier this year by Governor Chris Christie, who interestingly was overwhelmingly…
Read More »
Out on the west coast, voters appear to be passing the so-called “Good Jobs Initiative“, which will mandate a local minimum wage of $15/hour for workers in the tiny city of SeaTac. SeaTac is a 12,000 voter community, the boundaries of which completely envelop Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Consequently, it hosts a large population of minimum…
Read More »The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday published a Federal Register notice that partially hydrogenated oils (P.H.O.s) should no longer be considered safe – the end result of which will be a total ban on artificial trans fats. Notice in the Federal Register constitutes a preliminary determination that PHOs are not “generally recognized…
Read More »
The rollout of the so-called Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as Obama Care continues to have significant difficulties with its initial launch, as do Obama administration officials running the program. This week, two different Congressional Committees – one in the House and one in the Senate – heard HHS Secretary Katherine Sebelius describe the…
Read More »
With abundant harvests from Central America, Columbia and Brazil, the price of Arabica coffee beans hit its lowest price since 2006 this week. Over the past year, Arabica bean prices have plummeted 29%, with coffee for delivery in December falling an additional 1.9% to a price of $1.050 per pound. Arabica beans hit a 14-year…
Read More »
For the fourth consecutive month, the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index dropped again, down another 0.3 percent in September. Despite the declines, NRA was upbeat that the RPI remained above 100 for the seventh consecutive month. Conversely, their Current Situation Index, measuring current trends in same store sales, traffic, labor & capital, dipped below…
Read More »
Dunkin’ Donuts’ expansion continues with news that the second shop in the Golden State of California opened its doors this past Monday in Barstow, California. Dunkin’ has been aggressively signing SDAs with franchisees willing to expand their networks throughout California.
Read More »
The House Consumer Affairs Committee of the Pennsylvania Legislature will be holding an important public hearing on HB 1620 , filed by Representative Peter Daley on Tuesday, November 19. We will be testifying on behalf of DDIFO members along with Coalition of Franchisee Association (CFA) Chairman Keith Miller, but we would encourage many other franchisees…
Read More »
Effective November 1, 2013, QualServ Solutions, LLC will be the new operating entity of QualServ Corporation. The new entity was created as part of a restructuring that assigns substantially all of the assets and liabilities from QualServ Corporation to the operating subsidiary, QualServ Solutions, LLC. President & CEO, EJ Morrow said “It is an exciting…
Read More »