Fast food can make you broke, fast
Quiznos has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At their peak, about seven years ago, the chain had 5,000 locations. Today they're down to less than 2,200 and many of those aren't making money. Unlike McDonald's, where 19% of the stores are still company owned, only seven Quiznos locations are owned by the company. Seven stores, not seven percent.
In this bankruptcy, lenders are trading $444 million in debt for all of the equity in the company. The revamped entity will emerge from bankruptcy in its "prepackaged" deal with $200 million in new debt. The big question is, how long will this new version of Quiznos last?
Inability to service their debt was one of the major factors in the need to file for bankruptcy. Paying out tens of millions to its franchisees in lawsuits filed within the last eight years (actually it may be more than $200 million) isn't helping.
Why are the franchisees so unhappy? Because the corporate bigwigs were making it nearly impossible for them to make any money. It's one of the dirty secrets of being a franchisee in almost any business. You may be the "independent owner/operator" of the business, but you must obtain all of your supplies from a corporate owned or approved supplier.
A few years ago, I noticed that the real V8 juice had disappeared from the shelves of my local 7-11. It had been replaced by a 7-11 branded vegetable juice. The 7-11 brand wasn't as good as the real V-8, so I ignored it. I'm guessing others felt like me, because that product disappeared from their shelves in short order. However, it is an excellent example of the control corporations exert over their franchisees in many areas.
Ever notice those disclaimers on coupons and commercials. "Only available at participating locations" appears there, in an effort to allow franchisees to opt out of company sponsored special deals. But that didn't stop Quiznos corporate from sending out more and more coupons that the franchise owners did have to offer. Their profit margins shrank and their need to buy larger quantities of supplies from that company approved supplier would only grow.
Competition in the sandwich market isn't helping Quiznos either. They are shrinking while Subway, Jersey Mike's and other chains are expanding.
For what it's worth, my favorite subway sandwich shop was Blimpie, but there isn't one within fifteen miles of me these days. But my second favorite is Togo's and in researching this piece, I found one within five minutes of me. I may still patronize the local Subway for convenience, but knowing there's a Togo's so close will be tempting.
* * *
0.000000004042523429850330000000%. What does this tiny percentage represent? It's the percentage of the world's population that was aboard Malaysian Flight 370. I get that the disappearance of a jumbo jet with nearly 300 people aboard is a big story. But it's led the news for a week now. Russia is about to hold a sham referendum in the Crimea that may lead to another Cold War. The House of Representatives just voted to delay the individual mandate under Obamacare for ten years. It probably will die a quiet death in the Senate, but the clever Republicans attached it to a critical piece of legislation regarding Medicare. If the Medicare "doc fix" doesn't become law, many doctors will stop treating Medicare patients. Prosecutors in Utah are claiming the Department of Justice (controlled by the Obama Administration) blocked efforts to investigate allegations against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
I'm not saying the missing aircraft isn't big news. I'm saying it isn't the only news, but the cable news networks seem to act like it is. Hour after hour of reexamining the latest conjecture. It's boring and gets useless. Lead with the story if you must, but give us more of what's going on in our world. Local newscasts don't get far afield of the locality in reporting the news.
* * *
It had just been revealed that the elderly man who shot another theater goer over texting in the auditorium had just received and sent texts himself moments before the shooting.
Knowing that just eliminated what little sympathy I had for this guy. It bothers me when people text in theaters and I won't do it again. Once the film begins I will get up and go out into the lobby if something is that important. Whatever it is can almost always wait.
It isn't just unfair for someone to get violently angry at another for doing what they themselves just did. It is the height of hypocrisy. It's like someone who just lit a cigarette inside a bar telling someone else that THEY can't smoke in the bar. "Don't do as I do, do as I say" just doesn't fly.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Chris Brown is finally going to jail after countless second chances. I have a message for him. It's at the two minute mark of this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I_GYgGjxFM (in case you didn't want to watch the clip, the character says "Enjoy prison").
Remember the guy who had the scrotum that weighed over 130 pounds? He's died of some other health problem. Sad. I thought he'd be okay once they fixed that...little problem.
Not only would I date Emmy Rossum even though she's gluten-free, if it were a requirement, I'd go sans gluten myself.
Give Billy Joel points for honesty after he ripped "We Didn't Start the Fire" for being the "...worst thing I've ever written."
There are four baby mamas who have had a child with Lil Booser (so far). Now they're getting their own reality show. I wonder if the baby mamas of Shawn Kemp have heard about this.
The guy who founded Pinkberry just got a sentence of seven years in prison, without parole. That's the maximum. I'm wagering that prison overcrowding will result in his early release.
I just read through a list of 14 TV shows that are likely to be cancelled and I haven't seen a single minute of any of them. Maybe that's part of why they're being cancelled.
Hal Douglas has died. I've always wanted his job. Don't recognize his name? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lHHOMmkMyA
One of the best jokes in my very lengthy list is about an adulterous pastor who is criticizing adultery within his congregation and is among those impacted when at his request, God makes the tongue of every adulterer in the church cleave to the "woof of his moof." Now I just read about a pastor who collapsed and died of a heart attack after confessing his adultery to his congregation. That joke just went on hiatus for awhile.
The trend of judges ordering states that don't allow same-sex marriages within their borders to recognize such marriages that were performed legally in other states seems to be the next step in the end of banning same-sex marriage. Sooner rather than later, please.
I'm hoping that the claims singer Marc Cohn had an affair while his wife, ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas was in rehab, are false.
While I agree fast-food workers are underpaid, and that the allegations in lawsuits filed against McDonald's involving illegally depriving workers of their pay are awful, the lawyer for one set of plaintiffs saying "it isn't fair for McDonald's to make the employees clean their uniforms, it drives their pay below minimum wage" is ridiculous. Having worked in fast food, I know all it takes is to add the uniforms to your own regular load of wash to clean them.
* * *
March 14th in History:
44 BC – Casca and Cassius decide, on the night before the Assassination of Julius Caesar, that Mark Antony should stay alive.
313 – Emperor Jin Huidi is executed by Liu Cong, ruler of the Xiongnu state (Han Zhao).
1381 – Chioggia concludes an alliance with Zadar and Trogir against Venice, which becomes changed in 1412 in Šibenik.
1489 – The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.
1590 – Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne during the French Wars of Religion.
1647 – Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
1757 – Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish forces capture Fort Charlotte in Mobile, Alabama, the last British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans in Spanish Louisiana.
1782 – Battle of Wuchale: Emperor Tekle Giyorgis pacifies a group of Oromo near Wuchale.
1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
1885 – The Mikado, a light opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, receives its first public performance in London.
1900 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.
1903 – The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty.
1903 – The Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge is established by US President Theodore Roosevelt.
1910 – Lakeview Gusher, the largest U.S. oil well gusher near Bakersfield, California, vents to atmosphere.
1915 – World War I: Cornered off the coast of Chile by the Royal Navy after fleeing the Battle of the Falkland Islands, the German light cruiser SMS Dresden is abandoned and scuttled by her crew.
1926 – El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica: A train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás. 248 are killed and 93 wounded.
1931 – Alam Ara, India's first talking film, is released.
1936 – The first all-sound film version of Show Boat opens at Radio City Music Hall. (There had been a part-talkie, part-silent version of Show Boat in 1929.)
1939 – Slovakia declares independence under German pressure.
1942 – Orvan Hess and John Bumstead became the first in the United States successfully to treat a patient, Anne Miller, using penicillin.
1943 – World War II: The Kraków Ghetto is "liquidated".
1945 – World War II: The R.A.F.'s first operational use of the Grand Slam bomb, Bielefeld, Germany.
1951 – Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.
1964 – A jury in Dallas finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of John F. Kennedy.
1967 – The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.
1972 – Italian publisher and former partisan Giangiacomo Feltrinelli is killed by an explosion near Segrate.
1978 – The Israeli Defense Force invades and occupies southern Lebanon, in Operation Litani.
1979 – In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200.
1980 – In Poland, a plane crashes during final approach near Warsaw, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.
1984 – Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in central Belfast.
1988 – Johnson South Reef Skirmish: Chinese forces defeat Vietnamese forces in Johnson South Reef, disputed Spratly Islands.
1994 – Timeline of Linux development: Linux kernel version 1.0.0 is released.
1995 – Space Exploration: Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle.
2006 – Members of the Chadian military fail in an attempted coup d'état.
2007 – The Left Front government of West Bengal sends at least 3,000 police to Nandigram in an attempt to break Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee resistance there; the resulting clash leaves 14 dead.
2008 – A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupt in Lhasa and elsewhere in Tibet.
Famous Folk Born on March 14th:
Johann Strauss I
Joseph P. Bradley
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
Thomas R. Marshall
Albert Einstein
Lee Hays (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heIyz6_pqac)
Les Brown
Hank Ketcham (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vymcyEoOYgc yes, people will put almost anything on youtube)
Frank Borman
Michael Caine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pys1zBR5jX8 sadly, his wig fell off)
Quincy Jones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc-rhEwinJo)
Eugene Cernan
Raymond J. Barry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsJkL2zwdDQ)
Wolfgang Peterson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq3ylauoRIM)
Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBkVV9xxCHE)
Anita Morris
Michael Martin Murphey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3OnSQc48s)
Steve Kanaly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BCmFId5Rlg)
Wes Unseld (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgWkBiEy7AQ)
Billy Crystal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDjJDTs_Ug)
Rick Dees (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgPgavmY99U)
Jerry Greenfield
Albert II, Prince of Monaco
Tamara Tunie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnFxS6a2aPU)
Kirby Puckett
Kiana Tom (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRC74lL2_Eo)
Melissa Reeves
Michael Bland (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXd0Eiq4gMg)
Larry Johnson
Grace Park (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYtBpad9y34)
Merlin Santana (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvBUrcP5MCQ)
Chris Klein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mWKZEEzjYI)
In this bankruptcy, lenders are trading $444 million in debt for all of the equity in the company. The revamped entity will emerge from bankruptcy in its "prepackaged" deal with $200 million in new debt. The big question is, how long will this new version of Quiznos last?
Inability to service their debt was one of the major factors in the need to file for bankruptcy. Paying out tens of millions to its franchisees in lawsuits filed within the last eight years (actually it may be more than $200 million) isn't helping.
Why are the franchisees so unhappy? Because the corporate bigwigs were making it nearly impossible for them to make any money. It's one of the dirty secrets of being a franchisee in almost any business. You may be the "independent owner/operator" of the business, but you must obtain all of your supplies from a corporate owned or approved supplier.
A few years ago, I noticed that the real V8 juice had disappeared from the shelves of my local 7-11. It had been replaced by a 7-11 branded vegetable juice. The 7-11 brand wasn't as good as the real V-8, so I ignored it. I'm guessing others felt like me, because that product disappeared from their shelves in short order. However, it is an excellent example of the control corporations exert over their franchisees in many areas.
Ever notice those disclaimers on coupons and commercials. "Only available at participating locations" appears there, in an effort to allow franchisees to opt out of company sponsored special deals. But that didn't stop Quiznos corporate from sending out more and more coupons that the franchise owners did have to offer. Their profit margins shrank and their need to buy larger quantities of supplies from that company approved supplier would only grow.
Competition in the sandwich market isn't helping Quiznos either. They are shrinking while Subway, Jersey Mike's and other chains are expanding.
For what it's worth, my favorite subway sandwich shop was Blimpie, but there isn't one within fifteen miles of me these days. But my second favorite is Togo's and in researching this piece, I found one within five minutes of me. I may still patronize the local Subway for convenience, but knowing there's a Togo's so close will be tempting.
* * *
0.000000004042523429850330000000%. What does this tiny percentage represent? It's the percentage of the world's population that was aboard Malaysian Flight 370. I get that the disappearance of a jumbo jet with nearly 300 people aboard is a big story. But it's led the news for a week now. Russia is about to hold a sham referendum in the Crimea that may lead to another Cold War. The House of Representatives just voted to delay the individual mandate under Obamacare for ten years. It probably will die a quiet death in the Senate, but the clever Republicans attached it to a critical piece of legislation regarding Medicare. If the Medicare "doc fix" doesn't become law, many doctors will stop treating Medicare patients. Prosecutors in Utah are claiming the Department of Justice (controlled by the Obama Administration) blocked efforts to investigate allegations against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
I'm not saying the missing aircraft isn't big news. I'm saying it isn't the only news, but the cable news networks seem to act like it is. Hour after hour of reexamining the latest conjecture. It's boring and gets useless. Lead with the story if you must, but give us more of what's going on in our world. Local newscasts don't get far afield of the locality in reporting the news.
* * *
It had just been revealed that the elderly man who shot another theater goer over texting in the auditorium had just received and sent texts himself moments before the shooting.
Knowing that just eliminated what little sympathy I had for this guy. It bothers me when people text in theaters and I won't do it again. Once the film begins I will get up and go out into the lobby if something is that important. Whatever it is can almost always wait.
It isn't just unfair for someone to get violently angry at another for doing what they themselves just did. It is the height of hypocrisy. It's like someone who just lit a cigarette inside a bar telling someone else that THEY can't smoke in the bar. "Don't do as I do, do as I say" just doesn't fly.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Chris Brown is finally going to jail after countless second chances. I have a message for him. It's at the two minute mark of this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I_GYgGjxFM (in case you didn't want to watch the clip, the character says "Enjoy prison").
Remember the guy who had the scrotum that weighed over 130 pounds? He's died of some other health problem. Sad. I thought he'd be okay once they fixed that...little problem.
Not only would I date Emmy Rossum even though she's gluten-free, if it were a requirement, I'd go sans gluten myself.
Give Billy Joel points for honesty after he ripped "We Didn't Start the Fire" for being the "...worst thing I've ever written."
There are four baby mamas who have had a child with Lil Booser (so far). Now they're getting their own reality show. I wonder if the baby mamas of Shawn Kemp have heard about this.
The guy who founded Pinkberry just got a sentence of seven years in prison, without parole. That's the maximum. I'm wagering that prison overcrowding will result in his early release.
I just read through a list of 14 TV shows that are likely to be cancelled and I haven't seen a single minute of any of them. Maybe that's part of why they're being cancelled.
Hal Douglas has died. I've always wanted his job. Don't recognize his name? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lHHOMmkMyA
One of the best jokes in my very lengthy list is about an adulterous pastor who is criticizing adultery within his congregation and is among those impacted when at his request, God makes the tongue of every adulterer in the church cleave to the "woof of his moof." Now I just read about a pastor who collapsed and died of a heart attack after confessing his adultery to his congregation. That joke just went on hiatus for awhile.
The trend of judges ordering states that don't allow same-sex marriages within their borders to recognize such marriages that were performed legally in other states seems to be the next step in the end of banning same-sex marriage. Sooner rather than later, please.
I'm hoping that the claims singer Marc Cohn had an affair while his wife, ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas was in rehab, are false.
While I agree fast-food workers are underpaid, and that the allegations in lawsuits filed against McDonald's involving illegally depriving workers of their pay are awful, the lawyer for one set of plaintiffs saying "it isn't fair for McDonald's to make the employees clean their uniforms, it drives their pay below minimum wage" is ridiculous. Having worked in fast food, I know all it takes is to add the uniforms to your own regular load of wash to clean them.
* * *
March 14th in History:
44 BC – Casca and Cassius decide, on the night before the Assassination of Julius Caesar, that Mark Antony should stay alive.
313 – Emperor Jin Huidi is executed by Liu Cong, ruler of the Xiongnu state (Han Zhao).
1381 – Chioggia concludes an alliance with Zadar and Trogir against Venice, which becomes changed in 1412 in Šibenik.
1489 – The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.
1590 – Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne during the French Wars of Religion.
1647 – Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
1757 – Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish forces capture Fort Charlotte in Mobile, Alabama, the last British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans in Spanish Louisiana.
1782 – Battle of Wuchale: Emperor Tekle Giyorgis pacifies a group of Oromo near Wuchale.
1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
1885 – The Mikado, a light opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, receives its first public performance in London.
1900 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.
1903 – The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty.
1903 – The Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge is established by US President Theodore Roosevelt.
1910 – Lakeview Gusher, the largest U.S. oil well gusher near Bakersfield, California, vents to atmosphere.
1915 – World War I: Cornered off the coast of Chile by the Royal Navy after fleeing the Battle of the Falkland Islands, the German light cruiser SMS Dresden is abandoned and scuttled by her crew.
1926 – El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica: A train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás. 248 are killed and 93 wounded.
1931 – Alam Ara, India's first talking film, is released.
1936 – The first all-sound film version of Show Boat opens at Radio City Music Hall. (There had been a part-talkie, part-silent version of Show Boat in 1929.)
1939 – Slovakia declares independence under German pressure.
1942 – Orvan Hess and John Bumstead became the first in the United States successfully to treat a patient, Anne Miller, using penicillin.
1943 – World War II: The Kraków Ghetto is "liquidated".
1945 – World War II: The R.A.F.'s first operational use of the Grand Slam bomb, Bielefeld, Germany.
1951 – Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.
1964 – A jury in Dallas finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of John F. Kennedy.
1967 – The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.
1972 – Italian publisher and former partisan Giangiacomo Feltrinelli is killed by an explosion near Segrate.
1978 – The Israeli Defense Force invades and occupies southern Lebanon, in Operation Litani.
1979 – In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200.
1980 – In Poland, a plane crashes during final approach near Warsaw, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.
1984 – Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in central Belfast.
1988 – Johnson South Reef Skirmish: Chinese forces defeat Vietnamese forces in Johnson South Reef, disputed Spratly Islands.
1994 – Timeline of Linux development: Linux kernel version 1.0.0 is released.
1995 – Space Exploration: Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle.
2006 – Members of the Chadian military fail in an attempted coup d'état.
2007 – The Left Front government of West Bengal sends at least 3,000 police to Nandigram in an attempt to break Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee resistance there; the resulting clash leaves 14 dead.
2008 – A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupt in Lhasa and elsewhere in Tibet.
Famous Folk Born on March 14th:
Johann Strauss I
Joseph P. Bradley
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
Thomas R. Marshall
Albert Einstein
Lee Hays (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heIyz6_pqac)
Les Brown
Hank Ketcham (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vymcyEoOYgc yes, people will put almost anything on youtube)
Frank Borman
Michael Caine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pys1zBR5jX8 sadly, his wig fell off)
Quincy Jones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc-rhEwinJo)
Eugene Cernan
Raymond J. Barry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsJkL2zwdDQ)
Wolfgang Peterson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq3ylauoRIM)
Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBkVV9xxCHE)
Anita Morris
Michael Martin Murphey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3OnSQc48s)
Steve Kanaly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BCmFId5Rlg)
Wes Unseld (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgWkBiEy7AQ)
Billy Crystal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDjJDTs_Ug)
Rick Dees (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgPgavmY99U)
Jerry Greenfield
Albert II, Prince of Monaco
Tamara Tunie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnFxS6a2aPU)
Kirby Puckett
Kiana Tom (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRC74lL2_Eo)
Melissa Reeves
Michael Bland (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXd0Eiq4gMg)
Larry Johnson
Grace Park (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYtBpad9y34)
Merlin Santana (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvBUrcP5MCQ)
Chris Klein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mWKZEEzjYI)
posted by me at 8:33 PM
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