Witness The Furious Back-Pedaling

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Remember John Schnatter, CEO of Papa John’s? The guy who threatened massive layoffs and cutting employee hours due to ObamaCare? No, no; you see, he was was just badly misunderstood. From HuffPo:

Many in the media reported that I said Papa John’s is going to close stores and cut jobs because of Obamacare. I never said that. The fact is we are going to open over hundreds of stores this year and next and increase employment by over 5,000 jobs worldwide. And, we have no plans to cut team hours as a result of the Affordable Care Act. Clearly there was some misunderstanding somewhere.

I’ll tell you where the misunderstanding was. His stockholders misunderstood why Papa John’s stock was dropping like a stone.

And remember John Metz, the Denny’s franchise owner who posted signs in his restaurant announcing a 5% surcharge to diner’s checks due to ObamaCare? And when asked about it, he said that displeased diners could just elect to stiff their servers for part of what they would normally tip? Denny’s corporate laid down the smack on him. From HuffPo:

Denny’s Corp. is trying to protect its brand and other franchisees by publicly distancing itself from Metz’s statements. “While we respect the decision of an independent business owner to speak out on this or other topics and express their personal views, his statements do not capture the respect by Denny’s, the Denny’s Franchisee Association or our franchise community at large for our hardworking employees or for our valued customers,” John Miller, CEO of Denny’s Corp., said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the comments of this franchisee, who represents less than 1 percent of our system and who owns restaurants in other concepts, has been portrayed as reflective of the entire Denny’s brand,” Miller said. “I am confident his perspective is not shared by the company or hundreds of franchisees/small business owners who make up the majority of the Denny’s community. Specifically, his comments suggesting that guests might reduce the customary tip provided to their server as an offset to his proposed surcharge are inconsistent with our values and approach to business throughout our brand.”

Yup, the invisible hand of the market economy at work. Don’t strain yourselves back-pedaling, fellers. And wake me up when a decent restaurant complains.