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Denny's Corporation
Denny's
FormerlyDanny's Donuts
Company typePublic
NasdaqDENN
IndustryRestaurants
GenreFamily dining
Founded1953; 71 years ago (1953) (as Danny's Donuts)
Lakewood, California, U.S.
FoundersHarold Butler
Richard Jezak.
HeadquartersSpartanburg, South Carolina, U.S.
Number of locations
~1,700[1]: 3 
Key people
John Miller, CEO
RevenueIncrease US$ $592.2 million (2017)[1]: 19 
Increase US$70.7 million (2017)[1]: 19 
Increase US$39.6 million (2017)[1]: 19 
Total assetsIncrease US$323.8 million (2017)[1]: 19 
Total equityDecrease US$(-(97.36) million (2017)[1]: F-3 
Websitewww.dennys.com

Denny's (also known as Denny's Diner on some of the locations' signage) is a table service diner-style restaurant chain. There is also a fast-casual restaurant concept created by Denny's Inc. called "The Den." It operates There are over 1,600 Denny's-brand restaurants in the United States (including Puerto Rico and Guam), Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Curaçao, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan (transliterated as デニーズ error: {{nihongo}}: Japanese or romaji text required (help)), New Zealand, Qatar, Philippines and United Arab Emirates.

Denny's is known for always being open, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner around the clock. Denny's does not close on holidays and nights, except where required by law. Many of the restaurants are located in proximity to freeway exits, bars, and in service areas. Denny's started franchising in 1963, and most Denny's restaurants are now franchisee-owned.[2]

Restaurants

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Typically, Denny’s restaurants do approximately equal portions of their sales for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night.[3] A majority of sales are usually for breakfast items, even during lunch and dinner times. [3] Denny’s is known for the “Grand Slam,” which is a breakfast meal that includes two pancakes, two eggs, two sausages, and two strips of bacon.[3][4] In the 2000s, Denny’s began expanding its menu to include burgers, fish, and other dinner items.[3] About 20% of orders are from its $2, $4, $6, $8 menu.[3] In 2015, Denny’s made a spin-off fast-casual brand called “The Den” that is predominantly located on college campuses and intended for young millennials.[5] The Den locations sell burgers, wraps, and burritos, in addition to the Grand Slam and other breakfast items.[5] The Den is a “scaled down” version of Denny’s[6] with a smaller menu.[7]

Controversies

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Discrimination

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Denny's has been involved in a series of discrimination lawsuits involving food servers denying or providing inferior service to racial minorities, especially black customers.[8] In 1994, Denny's settled a class action lawsuit filed by black customers who had been refused service, forced to wait longer, or pay more than white customers. The $54.4 million settlement was the largest to date under federal public-accommodations laws established thirty years earlier.[9]

In 1995, a black Denny's customer in Sacramento, California was told that he and his friends had to pay up front at the counter upon ordering their meals. He questioned the waitress: "We asked the waitress about it and she said some black guys had been in earlier who made a scene and walked out without paying their bill. So the manager now wanted all blacks to pay up front."[10] This citation does have a good summary of the racism problems we had at certain restaurants in the 1990s and the resulting litigation leading up to the 1994 settlement, but the citation does not appear to include any of the content it is cited for. This anecdote also seems unnecessary; it constitutes the third time so far that the racist practices we were sued for are described. A 1993 incident occurred when six black United States Secret Service agents visited a Denny’s restaurant in Annapolis, Maryland. They were forced to wait an hour for service while their white companions were seated immediately.[11][12] <-- can Wikipedia include that Denny's terminated the manager and made a statement against this kind of behavior like The New York Times did? In San Jose, California, in 1994, several black teenagers were refused service unless they agreed to pay in advance.[13][14] In 1997, six Asian-American students from Syracuse University visited a local Denny’s restaurant late at night. They waited for more than half an hour as white patrons were regularly served, seated, and offered more helpings. They complained to management and to their server but were forced to leave the establishment by two security guards called by Denny’s management. Then, according to the students, a group of white men came out of Denny's, attacked them[15] and shouted racial epithets. Several of the students were beaten into unconsciousness.[16][17] After the $54.4 million settlement, Denny's created a racial sensitivity training program for all employees. Denny's has also made efforts at improving its public relations image by featuring African-Americans in their commercials, including one featuring Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford, actors from the popular The Jeffersons television series.[18][19] In 2001, Denny's was chosen by Fortune magazine as the "Best Company for Minorities."[20] In 2006 and 2007, Denny's topped Black Enterprise's "Best 40 Companies for Diversity."[21] In 2014, a Denny's location in Deming, New Mexico became subjected to a discrimination claim by an LGBT group, alleging that wait staff used homophobic slurs and refused to serve a group of gay, lesbian, and transgender customers who were attending a gay pride celebration. One year later, Denny's agreed to donate $13,000 to Deming Pride, pay $3,250 to a female customer who was subjected to the abusive behavior by wait staff, as well as retrain employees regarding discrimination policies.[22] This claim involves a single location (out of 1,700) that was owned and operated by franchisee Jim Mathieu (see here). It was the franchise owner, not Denny's Inc., that was sued and reached a settlement. While it was a very dramatic series of events for the parties involved, to the best of my knowledge it was only covered by local news and did not have a significant impact on the Denny's brand or business. This is not a significant part of our history like the class action lawsuit is. You can see the franchisee's version of events here if you're interested. In 2017, staff at a Denny's in Vancouver were accused of making an Indigenous woman pay for her meal before it was served.[23] After the customer left, restaurant staff called police to report the incident, alleging that the patron had a sharp-metal object in their pocket.[24] Denny's Canada responded stating that the company was conducting an internal review regarding the incident. This is also a situation involving an isolated occurrence at a single franchise restaurant covered by local news.

Sudden closures

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In June 2017, eight Denny's locations in Colorado, including Colorado Springs and Pueblo, abruptly shut down due to a franchise owner failing to pay nearly $200,000 in back taxes as well as over $30,000 in sales tax from the previous year. In addition, several employees claimed there were issues with accounts not being paid, bounced checks and paychecks not arriving on time. As a result of the seizure of the eight Denny's locations by the IRS, numerous employees were left without employment, and claimed that no advanced warning was given regarding the sudden closures. The franchise owner responsible for the closures immediately fled the state of Colorado.[25][26]This is an incident involving a hand-full of locations and a local franchisee, not Denny's Inc. To the best of my knowledge, it was only covered by local news. It seems odd for Wikipedia to cover every local incident involving a franchisee on a national page about Denny's.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Denny's Annual Report (2017)" (PDF). Denny's. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  2. ^ "Home Page - Denny's". Dennys.com. Archived from the original on August 21, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e Kowitt, Beth (January 9, 2014). "Denny's Tries to Move Beyond Breakfast". Fortune. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  4. ^ Harwell, Drew (February 26, 2015). "Why IHOP and Denny's are Leading a Roadisde Diner Revival". Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  5. ^ a b Pham, Peter (March 20, 2015). "'The Den' is Denny's New Restaurant for Millenials, Here's What We Know". Food Beast. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  6. ^ Klara, Robert (February 15, 2017). "Why America's Aging Casual-Dining Chains are Quietly Building Fast-Casual Restaurants". Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  7. ^ Peterson, Hayley (October 28, 2014). "Denny's is Suddenly Cool Again". Business Insider.
  8. ^ "Denny's Restaurants Hit With Discrimination Suit". Jet. April 12, 1993. pp. 4–5. Retrieved January 6, 2012 – via Google News Archive.
  9. ^ "In a Surprising Act of Redemption, Denny's Becomes a Leader in Diversity". Washington Informer. January 20, 1999. Retrieved January 6, 2012 – via HighBeam Research. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Ferraro, Cathleen (December 12, 1995). "Denny's Settles Two Race Suits Sacramentans Share In $46 Million Deal". Sacramento Bee. p. F1. Retrieved August 26, 2015 – via NewsBank. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ "Secret Service accusing Denny's of discrimination". The Robesonian. May 24, 1993. p. A3. Retrieved January 6, 2012 – via Google News Archive.
  12. ^ Fletcher, Michael A. (May 25, 1994). "6 black Secret Service agents to share in settlement of Denny's bias suit". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 31, 2014.
  13. ^ Labaton, Stephen (May 25, 1994). "Denny's Restaurants to Pay $54 Million in Race Bias Suits". New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  14. ^ "Boston.com Local Search - Boston Globe Archives". Docs.newsbank.com. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  15. ^ "Syracuse U. Students Fault Police on Denny's". New York Times. August 22, 1997.
  16. ^ Harlan, Heather (August 22, 1997). "Federal Investigation Finds Fault at Denny's". AsianWeek.
  17. ^ "Bias Alleged at N.Y. Denny's". Washington Post. August 22, 1997. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  18. ^ "'The Jeffersons' come back for another Denny's round". Tampa Bay Business Journal. September 28, 2001.
  19. ^ "Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford". Nation's Restaurant News. September 19, 2001. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007 – via Access My Library.
  20. ^ Dinsmore, Christopher (October 11, 1998). "High Marks for Diversity Fortune's List Of Companies With Best Marks for Hiring And Promoting Minorities Includes Area Shipbuilder". Virginian-Pilot. p. D1. Retrieved August 26, 2015 – via NewsBank. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ "Awards & Recognition". Denny's Diversity Speaks. Denny's. Archived from the original on September 18, 2011. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
  22. ^ Ramirez, Chris & Reed, Elizabeth (June 16, 2015). "LGBT group resolves discrimination complaint with NM Denny's". KOB Eyewitness News 4 Albuquerque. Archived from the original on June 20, 2015. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  23. ^ "'Treated like a criminal': Yukon Indigenous woman accuses Vancouver Denny's of racism". CBC News. 21 November 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  24. ^ Strapagiel, Lauren (21 November 2017). "This Indigenous Couple Says A Denny's Employee Asked Them To Pay For Their Meals Upfront". BuzzFeed Canada. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  25. ^ Morrison, Holly (June 6, 2017). "Employees: 8 Denny's locations shut down after lack of paid taxes". KRDO News 13 Colorado Springs. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  26. ^ Laden, Rich; Bodine, Seth (June 6, 2017). "State seizes Denny's restaurants in Colorado Springs for back taxes". Colorado Springs Gazette. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
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