As Dunkin’ Donuts tests a Next Generation store concept and innovations in coffee products, franchisees must decide how they will make the leap into the next generation themselves. Moving forward in a competitive landscape can be both exciting and challenging. With 70 years of history behind the brand, Dunkin’ Donuts has evolved and diversified to…
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These are the vacation spots that symbolize an idyllic summer: Cape Cod to Mackinac Island; Ogunquit, Maine to Hilton Head. They’re as American as apple pie. But increasingly, these hot spots have relied on foreign workers to do jobs that would otherwise go unfilled. With an unemployment rate hovering around 4 percent and a scarce…
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When Keith Miller, the outgoing Chairman of the Coalition of Franchisee Associations (CFA), posted his farewell address on the franchisee website Blue Mau Mau, he welcomed his successor by stating that he looked forward to “working with new Chairman, John Motta, to elevate the CFA during his term.” Motta, who has been a Dunkin’ Donuts…
Read More »We thought it was resolved for good back in December with the NLRB decision in the Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors case, but the Inspector General’s report on that vote and Bill Emanuel’s participation in it changed that outcome. Now comes a request from the Competitive Enterprise Institute that the same Office of the Inspector General investigate…
Read More »At the state level, states have been actively considering changes in state-mandated minimum wages over the past several weeks with mixed results. Over the course of the past two weeks or so, an Arizona state senate committee advanced legislation amending a voter-approved initiative ($12 minimum wage) by reducing that minimum to $10 if the amendment…
Read More »Well, that wasn’t quite the question that determined control of the Virginia House of Delegates, but it might as well have been. The election for the 94th house district in the Old Dominion state ended in an absolute tie with both candidates – democrat Shelly Simonds and republican David Yancey – collecting 11,608 votes in…
Read More »The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that no advance notice is needed for an employer to fire an at-will employee thereby reaffirming Virginia’s adherence to the traditional at-will employment doctrine. Employers in the Old Dominion state have been guided by a court decision from 1906 (Stonega Coal & Coke Co. v. Louisville & Nashville R.R.…
Read More »While minimum wage and paid sick leave battles steal much of the anti-business limelight of late, we can’t lose sight of the importance of the ongoing efforts to effectively negate the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recasting traditional employer definitions. As the McDonald’s v NLRB joint-employer case continues in a Manhattan courtroom, there’s been plenty…
Read More »As the individual state legislatures begin new sessions, efforts to address the new NLRB definition of a joint employer at the state level are front and center in Wisconsin, Michigan and Virginia. Senate Bill 422 in Wisconsin prohibits a franchisor being considered a joint employer with the franchisee unless the former agrees to the role…
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Some people will do just about anything to get their morning cup of Dunkin’ Donuts brew. Gregory Nigro opened his own shop. And not in an easy location: he opened his Dunkin’ in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a place known for being buffeted by hurricanes, nor’easters and other foul weather that can make…
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