Some Dunkin Donuts franchisees have created a PAC.
A robust PAC means contributions to candidates who understand small business issues and who will promote a legislative and regulatory climate favorable to small business operators.
Supporting DDFO MassPAC ensures that we can help elect candidates who support free enterprise, expand Dunkin’ Donuts Franchise Owners allies and supporters on Beacon Hill by building relationships with pro-business candidates, enhance the visibility of Dunkin’ Donuts Franchise Owners on Beacon Hill, promote awareness of Dunkin’ Donuts Franchise Owners, and educate the legislature about the critical role of small businesses in our state economy.
That’s basically code for supporting anti-labor policies, bad tax policy, and ways to weaken the MA health care program.
Now Dunkin Donuts has a crappy PAC to go with their crappy doughnuts.
Their bagels, however, are still excellent. And the coffee? That, too, is not as good as it used to be when you were actually encouraged to sit at a counter and drink the stuff from a mug. Now it’s all about rapid turnover of customer sales and drive-up window business. As for the things that you mention, I think your concerns are valid. Maybe those are the negaives that come with franchising–I don’t know.
are made on site, which is why they’re not bad (so long as they’re fresh). The donuts are made off site, which is why they’re not very good…
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p>As for their coffee… I actually like it, at least in comparison to Starbucks (and home). I really, really don’t like Starbucks beverages.
They could just be spending as much as they want, on basically whatever they want, given Citizens United.
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p>/sigh
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p>But, yeah, I do agree with you… pretty low.
Washington (State) Restaurant Assn.
National Beer Wholsesalers Assn.
Red, White & Food PAC (wine retailers)
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p>All these people support candidates sympathetic to their industries.
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p>Why are you so convinced that small businesses are so antithetical to Democrats? Or do you know something I don’t?
it does turn out that, in general, the alcohol industry historically leans GOP. I’m not just talking about the Hensley & Co (Cindy McCain) folks, but aggregate donations by dollars. Beer, wine, and restaurants tend to favor the GOP. I don’t know about doughnaught shops though.
In MHO.
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p>Republicans are first and formost the party of giant corporations. Small businesses get the crumbs.
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p>Democrats, by contrast, have tended in recent years to produce more broadly based economic success, which helps smaller businesses.
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p>Dunkin Donuts, in any event, is hardly a small business no matter how much the corporation and its franchisees want to play that role. Franchisees of big companies, in my book, are just elements of the larger corporation they depend on for their success.
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p>Feel free to disagree đŸ˜‰
Locally, small business carries a huge amount of the load to pay for the Romneycare program, because larger businesses have greater buying power, and therefore already offered much of what is required. Again, locally, small businesses get hammered by our high unemployment insurance rates, and in cities like Worcester, get to bear most of the local tax burden as well thanks to the dual tax rate. Lastly, Dems, along with larger businesses, tend to favor extensive regulation over business, which tends to entrench the existing big businesses by raising barriers to entry. Those big businesses make anti-regulation noises, but it is really only lip service. GM and Ford don’t want to make it easy for Tesla to sell cars.
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p>On the other hand, Republicans like to make small business owners the policemen of various things, like immigration, drug abuse, etc., and don’t ever offer to pay for these police services.
Small businesses are often re-defined by Dems as big, as politically necessary, as Bob did above, defining a single guy who owns a single DD store and a dozen or two employees as “hardly” small, which phenomenon is similar to that of the middle class finding itself redefined as “rich” when it comes to tax relief for the middle class by raising taxes on the __.
As for the insurance angle, this sounds an awful lot like a cry for a public option… allowing small businesses to bundle. Interesting. Don’t forget that “small business” is actually probably closer to “not large business”.
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p>For example, a “limited service restaurant” is considered a small business if it takes in less than $7M/yr in receipts. A coal mine with fewer than 500 employees is considered a small business (despite requiring many many millions in capital costs and a payroll of hundreds of thousands of dollars a week). Want to make rubber or leather footwear? Expand to be huge and you’re still a small business — why under 1000 employees and you still count as “small”.
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p>My point is that the technical legal definition of small business(pdf) has almost nothing to do with what Jane Q Citizen thinks of as a small business.
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p>So, when we’re talking about “small business” in this context, are we talking about a mom & pop diner? How about a landscaper with 12 crews, totaling about 50 employees? What about that mining company with 475 employees or the aircraft manufacturing company with 1480 employees?
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p>And, what about franchises? They’re sort of a hybrid. On the one hand, each store is owned by a franchisee who’s name is on the lease and all the accounts. On the other hand, that small businessman isn’t free to make decisions — just about the entire process is dictated by the mother ship. He’s in some senses a lifetime indentured servant. Do we count him as a small business owner despite the fact that his very business relies on a network of identical businesses who, in aggregate, make up enough size to be considered a large business? Surely you see both the similarities and the difference between 100 DD franchise owners and 100 indie coffee shop owners.
man do I have a problem.
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p>Ideally, franchisees would recognize that their interests are not always aligned with the larger corporate interests. Let’s face it, stimulus spending puts money in donut shop cash registers. But will the franchisees see it that way?
makes dumbed down coffee. I drink it every day, it’s convenient, but that’s all. In order to appeal to the broadest range of consumers, they have removed all the edges of flavor that would make it good. Then, in order to produce a roast that would make a uniform coffee, no matter where it is brewed, or by whom, they blended it down further. Lastly, in order to make it profitable and affordable, they diminished it even more. People who drink it often, and swear that DD makes a great coffee, have lost the ability to recognize a great cup of coffee. They’ve become accustomed to mediocrity. Do I drink it every day? Yes, but only because it’s more convenient, and much less expensive than Starbucks, or some other local coffee shop. BTW, how much does my explanation sound like what happened the the health reform bill?
I don’t drink coffee, and bagels made outside Montreal and NYC shouldn’t be called “bagels”.
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p>Their donuts may not be Ma’s Donuts quality, but I still think they’re pretty good. I’m no Rockefeller.
Would it be safe to bet that they’ll send Joe Malone a donation if he runs for the 10th Congressional in November? After all, he sure had a hefty “doughnut fund” as state treasurer, must have sent a good deal of business towards Dunkies.