An appeals court has confirmed that Dunkin' Donuts will have to pay off franchisees for lack of support during the wipe-out years that saw the number of franchises dwindle from about 250 to 12 in Quebec.
But the judges recalculated the original award downwards to $10.9 million.
Bit o' history: 30 DD franchisees laid a $7 million lawsuit against the company in 2003 for a lack of support. Their demand rose to $17 million when the case went to trial.
The plaintiffs were eventually rewarded $16.5 million after an exhausting 71 day court case.
Some new calculations revised that sum downwards in the recent decision but it's still a major victory for those who saw their businesses go kaput.
The money will be divided between the 30 former franchise owners
The top benefactor will be Sylvain Charbonneau who owned six franchises, mostly in St. Eustache and Lachute. He will receive $2.6 million.
The owners of the outlet at 7955 Decarie and another on Lacordaire - Ramond Masi and JohnCostini - get almost $1 million.
A duo in St. George de Beauce gets $772,000 and the lowest amount goes to Claude St. Pierre and Lynda Viel of Riviere du Loup, who get $91,000
The judgment might make franchisers skittish about locating in Quebec, which may or may not be a bad thing. I'm told that wrinkles in Quebec law already make franchising a bit of a challenge here, which is why such major U.S. chains as White Castle, Arbys and Taco Bell have little or no presence here.
This judgment won't send them rushing in, probably a relief to mom'n'pop cafes and greasy spoons.
(They could have rechristened Dunkin' Donuts as Terry Harper's, no? - Chimples)
Tim Horton's, which now has about twice as many outlets as DD had at its peak in Quebec, was an unstoppable juggernaut upon its arrival and it's anybody's guess that anything could have been done to stop it in Quebec.
I've theorized that the incessant mockery of Dunkin Donuts laid on by the popular comedy TV show Rock et Belles Oreilles - which frequently showed a police dog sitting on a counter stool - didn't help the brand here.
That theory is supported by the fact that DD survived slightly longer in anglo parts of town, as the NDG branch two years ago and the one on Wellington in Verdun seems to be going strong.
But the judges recalculated the original award downwards to $10.9 million.
Bit o' history: 30 DD franchisees laid a $7 million lawsuit against the company in 2003 for a lack of support. Their demand rose to $17 million when the case went to trial.The plaintiffs were eventually rewarded $16.5 million after an exhausting 71 day court case.
Some new calculations revised that sum downwards in the recent decision but it's still a major victory for those who saw their businesses go kaput.
The money will be divided between the 30 former franchise owners
The top benefactor will be Sylvain Charbonneau who owned six franchises, mostly in St. Eustache and Lachute. He will receive $2.6 million.
The owners of the outlet at 7955 Decarie and another on Lacordaire - Ramond Masi and JohnCostini - get almost $1 million.
A duo in St. George de Beauce gets $772,000 and the lowest amount goes to Claude St. Pierre and Lynda Viel of Riviere du Loup, who get $91,000
The judgment might make franchisers skittish about locating in Quebec, which may or may not be a bad thing. I'm told that wrinkles in Quebec law already make franchising a bit of a challenge here, which is why such major U.S. chains as White Castle, Arbys and Taco Bell have little or no presence here.This judgment won't send them rushing in, probably a relief to mom'n'pop cafes and greasy spoons.
(They could have rechristened Dunkin' Donuts as Terry Harper's, no? - Chimples)
Tim Horton's, which now has about twice as many outlets as DD had at its peak in Quebec, was an unstoppable juggernaut upon its arrival and it's anybody's guess that anything could have been done to stop it in Quebec.
I've theorized that the incessant mockery of Dunkin Donuts laid on by the popular comedy TV show Rock et Belles Oreilles - which frequently showed a police dog sitting on a counter stool - didn't help the brand here.
That theory is supported by the fact that DD survived slightly longer in anglo parts of town, as the NDG branch two years ago and the one on Wellington in Verdun seems to be going strong.
I would welcome a Taco Bell downtown and a Wendy's and a KFC (PFK eye roll) other than that bizarre one in NDG on Sherbrooke that is just a takeout counter. As long as I'm dreaming, let's add a Jack in the Box and an In-N-Out.
ReplyDeleteAnd now, there are only two DD franchises left in Quebec: Place Versailles and Place Ville-Marie... But I agree that the mocking done by RBO didn't help matters, but they didn't help themselves by serving the second worst coffee I've ever drank (after the Flying J in Vaudreuil).
ReplyDeleteThe RBO spoof was in the 1980's. I doubt it had any real impact. The arrival of Tim Hortons in Quebec probably hadmore impact on their fall. Besides I guess the american promotions "spilled" in the rest of Canada while it is less likely to do so in francophone communities.
ReplyDeleteAs a sidebar to advertising promotional techniques, does anyone know why some American websites, including YouTube, are streaming video ads in French, or are these actually being strategically inserted by our local ISPs in order to target Quebec subscribers? That would be my guess, anyway.
ReplyDeleteI do find it strange, for example, to be watching NBC Nightly News and suddenly be jolted out of my chair by a French language ad which all too often (deliberately?) blasts forth at a much higher volume until I can mercifully click the "Skip this Ad" button--which, unfortunately is not always an option in any case!
Another question: who exactly decides which YouTube videos are subjected to what type of ad, by what sponsor, and how many can be inserted? It just seems so arbitrary; often with the same ad repeating itself. Does a video uploader have any say in this? Does an uploader have the right to refuse an ad beforehand or have it removed afterwards?
Of course, television ad-replacement (simultaneous dubbing) over U.S. Network ads has been common practice by Canadian broadcasters for decades; the stated purpose being to promote local business. However, I was not aware that such ad-replacement is now required for the Internet as well, or is this something the CRTC has recently dreamed up and instituted whether we like it or not? Or perhaps it is considered to be a "gesture of courtesy" and not actually mandatory.
Surely this practice is strictly regional in nature, as I somehow cannot imagine someone overseas clicking on the same YouTube video and seeing ads for a Montreal car dealer, for example, whether or not it has English or French dialog.
Furthermore, I don't believe I have ever seen a French language advertisement by a major, brand-name sponsor on an English TV channel, but then I have never specifically monitored television 24 hours a day in order to determine if this does indeed occur. Do English ads appear on French CBC or TVA? I will take a wild guess that they do not.
Understand that I raise this issue not to agitate the "two solitudes", but I was given to understand that Canadian broadcasters are obliged by the rules of their license to transmit their programming in English or French but not both.
How many remember back in the late '70s when CHOM FM radio was criticized by the French media for its ground-breaking bilingual programming, claiming that it "hurt" the French-only competition at the time, although I do not recall if this was statistically proven.
Because of that controversy, CHOM was eventually prohibited from continuing its bilingual programming altogether, although I am not sure exactly what hard-and-fast rules apply today since I have not yet investigated further.
But, returning to the Internet, the most annoying aspect of this ad-streaming intrusiveness is that we ISP subscribers are unable to fast-forward through it despite the language.
For a brief time it was actually possible to skip through the ads on CTV news websites, but they quickly caught on and adjusted their software in order to prevent it.
I suppose some hacker will eventually figure out way to do it, but until that happens, one way would be to record those YouTube videos and news video clips onto VHS tape and then slide through the ads on replay--an admittedly bothersome procedure but effective nonetheless.
If you want to zap those ads, just install AdBlock Plus in your browser. It's free and works on either Firefox or Chrome -- no love for Internet Exploder, though. I've been using it for ages and it works a treat.
ReplyDeleteThere's actually 4 DD franchises left in Quebec (and Canada!): Downtown, Verdun, east-end and south-shore (near Mount St Hilaire).
ReplyDeleteOnly the location in Verdun is a full-fledged store, making donuts fresh on site. The other 3 are just food court counters in shopping malls, who presumably get their donuts delivered from the Verdun store. I expect more of these may close in the near future.
What happened to the DD on Sherbrooke in NDG? Last time I was there, it was open.
ReplyDeleteThis just in:
ReplyDeletehttps://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-confirms-legal-victory-dunkin-donuts-quebec-171635210.html