The Papa John’s Story on YouTube!
I nearly broke down in tears when watching The Papa John’s Story on YouTube! But those emotions were countermanded with a burst of laughter when Papa John Schnatter utters: “We always take care of our people.” Yea, unless he has to help with their health care cost.
Alright, so try to cut people’s hours to below 30, see what will happen. You’ll go out of business, Papa John! And now we’re hearing of a class-action lawsuit against Papa John’s for unwanted text message spam to recent customers (2010).
Papa John’s attorneys claim the violations to The Telephone Consumer Protection Act were only done by franchisees, who acted on their own, without corporate knowing they were doling out these unwanted solicitations.
Did Some Independent Franchisees Act on Their Own Accord?
Yet I wonder whether some of these independent franchisees can verify they acted on their own accord, without any encouragement from the parent company, Papa John’s? The TCPA requires a customer to give permission to receive these text message hustles.
The sum of money involved is $250 million and the plaintiffs will probably win, since the violations are so obvious. We hear some people were getting 15 or 16 of these unsavory spam beeps in row, and during the night, no less, when they were trying to get some shut-eye (Papa John’s faces $250 million spam lawsuit – CNN Money). If this had happened to me, I would have joined in on the class-action lawsuit.
The company used by PJ owners was OnTime4U, who’s also a defendant in the case (this is an interesting angle to look at – to what extent did OnTime4U accentuate these flagrant consumer abuses?)
Papa John’s Success Story
Well, when we see that $250 million figure, we can’t help but wonder, if these PJ owners had been a little more cautious, that money could’ve gone towards valuable health care benefits for employees, who work so hard to make the Papa John’s Success Story stay real!
This amounts to 4 or 5 years of health care benefits; but now, as a result of wanton carelessness or reckless, aggressive advertising, the money will be flitted away in court fines and hefty legal fees. Back in the day, when I was a Dominoes Pizza driver (late 1980s, the 30 minutes or less days), we’d plaster coupon flyers everywhere.
We’d put them on cars, on apartment doors, slip them in house door crevices, and of course, a coupon was always taped on the trusty pizza box. I see this form of promotion as more innocent, more passive; the customer actually liked it and would use the coupon. But a phone beep is terrible violation of your privacy. A paper coupon is innocuous!
Unsavory Solicitations’ Lawsuit and Anti-Obamacare Rants
While the two problems (unsavory solicitations’ lawsuit and anti-Obamacare rants) are independent of each other, when coupled together, they spell big time troubles for Papa John’s down the pike, which we might characterize as it’s ‘Future Livelihood.’ A Huffington Post piece tells of Romney visiting John Schnatter at his sumptuous mansion in Louisville, Kentucky. Mitt said: “This is a real tribute to America, to entrepreneurship.”
Yet, one has to wonder if this is really the American Dream, fully realized. John’s words come back to haunt him. ‘We always take care of our people.” Is that true? What if your employees need health care? Most people do. Are you going to cut their hours to under 30? They can’t get by then. I did that job for three years, and this was in an affluent neighborhood. Barely got by.
American Dream or American Nightmare?
I guarantee you, Papa John’s will go out of business if they cut anyone’s hours. All eyes are watching these employees. Mitt got away with it at Bain Capital, but he’s been sidelined, permanently! This is definitely not the American Dream, it’s the American Nightmare!
