It’s summer. Time to think about great brands of frozen drinks. The history of the frozen ice drink goes back to Roman times or before. But the ubiquitous frozen drink, on every corner, dates from the mid 1960s, and the invention of the ICEE machine. While the ICEE was theMORE HERE
The chain, which had hundreds of stores nationwide, was purchased by Mrs. Paul’s, and later sold. It then went Chapter 11, though the Ohio stores survived. This often happens when franchise chains collapse; individual franchisees continue to use the name, without any support. MORE HERE
OAK BROOK, IL – Ask a group of kids who the Hamburglar is, and they don’t know. Could it be that the Hamburglar was the victim of multiple mandatory sentences? Perhaps he was locked in a private prison, and forgotten? Or is he living the good life in Brazil? NotMORE HERE
The new Starbucks logo has removed the word Starbucks. Many do not get it. We talked to a veteran branding executive, Allen Adamson of the New York office of Landor Associates, to get some insights. BrandlandUSA: What do you think about the changes?Adamson: The changes strengthen Starbucks’ branding. They makeMORE HERE
SARASOTA – A kid threw up last Sunday in the McDonald’s Playplace here. Not that that is a surprise. Stuff like that happens all the time, and it was cleaned up. It could have been me throwing up, however, as my daughter got yet another stinky Strawberry Shortcake Happy MealMORE HERE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yes, it has come to this. A D. C. watchdog group will sue McDonald’s if the fast-food chain continues to use toys to promote Happy Meals. The Center for Science in the Public Interest says using toys to lure small children into McDonald’s is “unfair and deceptiveMORE HERE
ST. PETERSBURG – Across the U.S., you can sometimes find a one-off restaurant that was once a larger chain. Call them the broken chain retailers. When a retail or restaurant chain falls apart, the company infrastructure that at one time enforced the rules and helped promote the chain goes away.MORE HERE
McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) knows what it is doing. How do I know? I saw Ronald McDonald in action, first hand, when Ronald McDonald made a visit to our local Sarasota McDonald’s. It made me again see how a great company controls its brand. And it made me realize how McDonald’sMORE HERE
SARASOTA – Many of us can recall when IHOP wasn’t cool. Somewhere between 1980 and 1990, the chain got into the category of undesirable. It was so much so that the chain became a joke; comedienne Paula Poundstone’s “IHOP: It was a dream, I made it happen” routine about workingMORE HERE
DENVER – Vicorp Restaurants Inc. announced today the sale of the pie restaurant Village Inn to American Blue Ribbon Holdings LLC, a new entity formed by Fidelity National Financial Inc. and Newport Global Advisors. American Blue Ribbon Holdings, LLC will own and operate the Village Inn and Bakers Square restaurantMORE HERE
