Good, Bad, and Other News! – December 2021

Welcome back to our monthly franchise news roundup. Here comes 2022 and the holiday season. But here also comes Omicron.

And with many more people spending time indoors in the coming months, fears of a new Covid surge are growing. Yet, as we always say and history has proven: franchising carries on with growth and expansion, despite all. Here’s your chance to follow the leaders, every third Tuesday of the month!

And if you’re not doing it already, send us your good (and other) news here! POST-COVID – REOPENING & RECOVERY McDonald’s Pledges $250 Million Over 5 Years To Improve Franchisee Diversity Reef’s Ghost Kitchen Expansion Runs into Permit, Health Inspection Infractions Some Restaurants Cut Back on Delivery Among Labor Shortage, Reopenings Fashion Resale Brands Are Booming Among All Generations Gym Franchises Still Face Cash Crunch NYC’s 5-Unit H&H Bagels Launches National Franchising Program Deloitte’s “Restaurant of the Future” Report Square Releases 2nd Annual Future of Commerce Report HIRING & EMPLOYMENT At 1.9%, Nebraska Has the Lowest Unemployment Rate of Any State – Ever!

Restaurants Remain 750,000 Workers Short of Pre-Covid Levels Jack in the Box Invests in Robotics To Mitigate Labor Shortages Why the November Jobs Report Is Better Than It Looks Starbucks’ Buffalo Store Unionizes, a First for the Brand’s 8,000-Plus Stores Improving Restaurant Employee Retention with a Data-Driven Culture How a Midwest Pizza Company Is Beating the Labor Shortage Torchy’s Tacos Partners with DailyPay To Offer On-Demand Pay Benefit to Employees FINANCE/M&A Jack in the Box To Acquire Del Taco for $575 Million Roark Capital Acquires Mathnasium and Its More than 1,000 Locations L Catterton Sells Its Velvet Taco Majority Stake to Leonard Green & Partners Mod Pizza Plans To Go Public 25 Restaurant Mergers & Acquisitions in 2021 Could Fat Brands’ Risky Acquisition Strategy Pay Off? Restaurant-Tech Startup Presto Going Public Through $1 Billion SPAC Merger LEADERSHIP How Much Vulnerability at Work Is Too Much? 4 Tips for Leading During Uncertainty LEGAL FTC Files Amicus Brief in Patel v.