Grex Aaypsi Conference

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Grex Aaypsi Item 26: The Belknaps and Domino's Pizza
Entered by srw on Thu Feb 3 08:18:19 UTC 1994:

There is an article in the AA News about how the Belknaps, who own
the local Ann Arbor franchises for Domino's Pizza, are being forced
out so that Domino's will wind up with corporate owned franchises
here in Domino's home city.

I admit that I don't know much about the history of this.
I do know that the Belknaps have taken some serious abuse from people
who disapprove of Monaghan's politics and were clueless about who
really owned those stores.

Katie made an announcement in the announcements item of Agora about this
and I thought that perhaps it warranted more discussion than would
be possible in the announcements item.

13 responses total.

#1 of 13 by kami on Thu Feb 3 17:48:58 1994:

sorry, you're right, that discussion doesn't belong there. Could someone who
knows how please link it here?

#2 of 13 by remmers on Thu Feb 3 19:06:36 1994:

No easy way to link part of an item to another.  Why don't we just
start discussing it from scratch?

#3 of 13 by srw on Fri Feb 4 00:01:49 1994:

There's not much discussion there, I wanted to short-cicuit further
discussion in Announcements, by providing this item for it.
It sounds like some people feel pretty strongly about the treatment.

#4 of 13 by kami on Fri Feb 4 04:52:44 1994:

I've met Becky.  She was on the board of an organization for which I volunteere
and I found her to be pleasant, caring, sincere and unassuming.  She also 
expressed frustration that people punished the store owners for views they may
not hold-- the Belknaps, I believe, have been in the practice of donating
money to Planned Parenthood which is opposite the attitude of Tom Monahan that
sparked the boycott in the first place.  I can't help feeling that this differ
ence in politics might be behind the takeover- an embarrassment to his views,
perhaps?  Just my conjecture.

#5 of 13 by katie on Fri Feb 4 19:26:03 1994:

 I imagine it's a money thing. Gene and becky have put 25 years and tons
of money into the Ann Arbor stores; they have high gross sales; their
people are trained; they have a huge customer base; and the Corp gets to
walk into a turnkey operation and profit from all the Belknaps' hard work,
expense, and *lifetime cimmit er, commitment.* I have no doubt that the
Belknaps were paid well for their operation, but the disloyalty thing
really bothers me. They bailed Mr. Monaghan out of big trouble morte er,
mot er, more than once. And they were totally blindsided by this-- of 
course they knew their contract was coming up, but apper er, apparently
they didn't see this coming at all.

#6 of 13 by vidar on Sat Feb 5 02:37:42 1994:

Tom Monahan (sp?) is a jerk.  Boycott Domino's Pizza!

#7 of 13 by gregc on Sat Feb 5 06:38:50 1994:

What do you know? Vidar and I actually agree on something. Pass the smelling
salts.

#8 of 13 by kami on Mon Feb 7 02:00:52 1994:

everyone I know boycotts domino's cardboard because of its CEO.

#9 of 13 by vidar on Mon Feb 7 02:48:04 1994:

I boycott Domino's 'cause the pizza is poor quality, and because of that
traffic light at an intersection that doesn't need it Tom had put up.

#10 of 13 by polygon on Mon Feb 7 04:23:39 1994:

The Domino's Pizza owners in Ithaca NY made large and very well publicized
donations to local pro-choice organizations.  This led to some interesting
arguments among people of various views, since you could argue pro- or
anti- boycott views as being either pro-choice or pro-life.

#11 of 13 by srw on Mon Feb 7 06:14:35 1994:

I liked Domino's Pizza for years. Then came the NOW boycott.  Since
some of the Domino's profits was used to support Operation Rescue, I
felt I had to honor the boycott. I then rediscovered Cottage Inn
and found I preferred it anywway.

I know the Belknap's didn't agree with Monaghan's politics regarding
reproductive rights, but I felt I still couldn't in good conscience
do business with them because of their association with Monaghan.
I don't think even a large donation could have changed my mind.

Of course there's no more dilemma here in AA.

#12 of 13 by kami on Mon Feb 7 17:12:30 1994:

Now, if they were to open a Cottage Inn franchise...

#13 of 13 by fj40 on Fri Dec 30 05:25:08 1994:

Just eat it because it's good pizza, I'd say...I am personally conservative
and buy Reeboks (Reebok spends mucho $ on liberal causes), Ben & Jerry's,
Apple (liberal policies too), etc, etc...I don't agree with them, I just
like their product. Sellout? Don't think so. Look at it more as disagreeing
with the owners of the company. Sorta like a GM employee not buying Domino's
because he's afraid the chef will use his salary to buy a Toyota.

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