Well, hell. Damn. There goes the local Pizza Mia™ and those chocolate dunky things. And 16 jobs.
Donald Davenport, who with his wife Jo Ann owns the Pizza Hut franchise in Eureka, just flashed us a news release saying they’ve closed shop.
The Davenports were embroiled in a fight with Pizza Hut, Inc., of Dallas. Pizza Hut, Inc., according to the release, had sued the Davenports, accusing them of “damaging their corporate image” by not buying and putting into service some new software for coordinating in-shop orders, and for not doing internet ordering. The upgrades would have cost thousands.
“These costs were considered an unreasonable request for an independent, one-store owner in an already troubled economy,” says the release.
On the phone this evening, Donald Davenport, who owns Winco Realty and Development, explained that he and his wife own the building that Pizza Hut’s in, and they took over the franchise in 2006 — the former franchisee owed them money and had been struggling to keep the pizza joint going. They managed to turn the business around in late 2007, said Davenport, but they hadn’t quite made enough money to afford the required updates Pizza Hut, Inc., required of them.
PH Inc sued, they entered mediation, and then, a week ago Monday after nine hours of mediation in Texas, Davenport realized, after talking to the mediator, that while a jury of his peers might see his side, a judge in California might not. He’d be out a half million bucks in litigation fees and a couple of years of time, is what the mediator told him, he said.
So this morning he gathered his employees together and told them the shop was closed, effective immediately. It was devastating, Davenport said — he and his wife had become close to the employees, and had, in fact, intended to distribute all profits to them, once there were some.
“We let them wander through the store and take whatever food they wanted,” he said. “Pizza Hut refused to take our inventory back. So we’ll donate the rest to charity.”
They’re taking down the big Pizza Hut sign tomorrow morning, and the rest of the P.H. images must vanish in short order as well.
This article appears in Survival!.
Avoid arbitration whenever possible. Or, at least try crossing out the arbitration clause when signing a contract with a large corporation that knows the ins and outs of arbitration.
It’s sad any time a pizza parlor closes. Visit the valley and you see dozens of mini-pizza outlets the size of Papa Murphy’s, whether they cook in-house or not. No more sitting down to eat. Grab your pizza after exiting the check-out aisle at Target. (Will they begin selling Pizza Hunt pizza now, as originally planned?)
Pizza Parlors: 0
Parking Lot Eat-and-Runs: 1
I feel sorry for the employees but it is difficult to feel sorry for Davenport. He is the person who built the ugly furniture store on Myrtle and 4th.
I am bummed. I have eaten there a bit.
So a man who cares not for veterans now gives his laid-off employees perishables as a severance package. Just in time for thanksgiving.
Let’s all give thanks to Scrooge McDavenport.
Wow. KEET TV this week auctioned off a lot of Pizza Hut gift certificates that Davenport donated.
So what are you saying bull moose?
KEET will simply refund the money then. That’s what it did when I bid on a certificate for a company that later (?!?) claimed it never issued the certificate. Stuff happens. We survive somehow.
“I feel sorry for the employees but it is difficult to feel sorry for Davenport. He is the person who built the ugly furniture store on Myrtle and 4th.”
Yeah, and furniture is such a hot item during a recession. Sadly, the only things I see surviving that development are the concrete framing of the store and hopefully the 3 large Phoenix palms. They did a hack job on the palms when they transplanted them, and somebody needs to feeds them some fish fertilizer. Anyway…..
I’d boycott Pizza Huts, but I’ve never eaten at one.
The name. Eh!
Surely you mean “meh”?
What I really meant was “ugh!”
snob
Don probably has other plans for the lot.
maybe a pizza parlor?