If he owned the establishment, I would say bully for him.
He bought the franchise. Sonny’s still sets the rules.
If Sonny’s policy is to sell liquor, then he should abide by the policy. As for the religious shirts, that is not something sanctioned by Sonny’s.
Folks, as Christians we have to be reasonable. When you’re affiliated with a parent organization, you need to abide by that parent organization’s rules.
If this guy had enough money to buy the Sonny’s franchise establishment, he probably had enough money to open his own establishment or buy one where he could set his own policies. IMO, that’s what he should have done.
I don’t think Sonny’s acted improperly here. Sonny’s has a right to establish it’s own polices. A good Christian should abide by them, or avoid situations where they would have to.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you. Still, the owner had the franchise for over 20 years and wasn’t required to sell alcohol. It just came up when he had to renew his franchise license. They wanted him to change. He didn’t want to change. He has never said anything negative about Sonny’s as far as I know. He just stuck to his beliefs and decided to go in a different direction rather than make the changes they required. I admire him for his actions.
He should sell the franchise rights and open his own business (he already has the training from the franchise).
Or, he could open a Chik-Fil-A - they’re a good Christian franchise company and worth supporting, I might add.
Davis said his 20-year license for his Sonny’s franchise expired two years ago. He drove to Orlando to the Sonny’s headquarters in February 2008 to meet with officials there; he said the company offered a new agreement with the stipulation that he sell beer, wine and liquor drinks in the restaurant.
“I just told them we didn’t want to,” Davis said. “They didn’t understand because they acted like that was the future of restaurants.”
Davis also takes issue with Sonny’s disapproval of employees wearing clothing with American flags and Christian logos on them and with such items in the restaurant.
There was also a ‘Jesus’ memento/trinket on the shelf at the cash register. The T-shirts are not an approved uniform along and the ‘Jesus’ memento/trinket are not within Sonny’s System Standards,
Good for Davis! Jesus may not meet Sonny’s standards, but clearly He meets Davis’ standards!
Most franchise conflicts have an exit clause. Those clauses are in place for just this situation. Our local Golden Corral franchisee ditched his franchise with an escape clause and runs the place pretty much the same way but with different food distributors and a new name, of course.