Wendy's International has asked for a court injunction to stop a franchisee with restaurants in Montana, Oregon and Washington from using its brand. Why does Wendy's want to terminate the agreement and have the franchisee pull down its trademarks? ...a 2008 audit of the Wendy's restaurant in Havre found 265 food safety issues ranging from unclean preparation equipment to employees not washing their hands. Another audit in 2010 found 111 deficiencies, most relating to cleanliness and food safety, which weren't corrected in follow-up audits, prompting Wendy's to terminate the franchise agreement in November. [via Montana Great Falls Tribune] The franchisee's attorney seems to understand the franchisor's concern about a sub-standard operation....

A Honda dealership in Tarrytown, New York Coming off a bad sales year in America and worldwide supply disruptions, Honda is expected to report sharply lower profits for 2011. Motor Trend reports that the company was badly hit by earthquakes in Japan and floods in Thailand. American dealers suffered due to an inability to keep popular models in stock and some lackluster reviews on the recent Civic update; previously released numbers placed Honda domestic sales off by 7 percent and Acura sales off 8 percent for the year. Honda is looking for 2012 to be a rebuilding year, with a move to correct the Civic image and improve the flow of inventory to the US. A wild card remains the strength of the dollar against the yen, with much of Honda's production coming from overseas.

Dunkin ad at Times Square Times Square being the crossroads of New York, it follows that One Times Square is the center of the known universe. This is, after all, the place where they drop the ball to mark the start of each New Year on planet Earth. Half a million people walk through Times Square each and every day, and ten million people see Times Square on television each day. Canton, Dunkin's Donuts' home town, it ain't. It is a place where even staid financial firms have electronic billboards the size of small houses and the ABC television billboard alone is 3700 square feet. Times Square is place where there is a municipal ordinance requiring office buildings to have lighting bright enough to illuminate the streets below. So when legendary Broadway...