Tim Horton’s hasn’t given up the fight with its own franchise owners notwithstanding that their sales have continued to fall in the US as well as across Canada. Earlier this month, parent Restaurant Brands International advised franchisees in a conference call that franchise owners would be expected to remodel and update their restaurants to the tune of about $450,000! The chain just reported its 5^th consecutive quarter of sluggish sales in mid-February. Starbucks just recently made a couple of announcements on a number of broader subjects. The company boasted earlier this month that after a 10 year effort, it had achieved 100% gender and racial pay equity amongst its employees. In addition, it announced this week that it was launching an invitation-only happy hour with selected drinks selling at 50% between the hours of 3PM – 6 PM. And lastly a few weeks ago, the Seattle-based coffee chaing announced a $10 Million grant program to solicit designs for a new more environmentally-friendly coffee cup that is easier to recycle. As we know, Dunkin’ announced last month that it would eliminate polystyrene plastic foam cups by this spring and rid itself of all foam cups by the year 2020.