Word: franchisee
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In the last decade, large franchise chains have infiltrated the business niches of the Square, successfully ousting the "mom and pop" shops--long the staples of the streets that surround the University.
Elsie's is typical of many of the smaller shops in the Square which have closed, because their clientele switched to more trendy franchise restaurants like Chili's and Au Bon Pain.
DiGiovanni says he encountered such elitism when he tried to develop the site next to Bruegger's Bagels on Mt. Auburn St. in 1992. He had several offers from businesses who wanted the spot, but he eventually tried to place a Dunkin' Donuts franchise owned by a Portuguese man.
But the defense fund had other ideas. Gifford says fast food places bring "traffic, litter and negative impact on public safety and good." The group had defeated a bid by Boston Chicken to locate a franchise in the Square the year before.
In fact, a Boston Globe feature that ran in the fall suggested that the Defense Fund may have opposed the Dunkin' Donuts franchise on the basis of the proprietor's ethnicity. The article claims that the group has no Portuguese-American, African-American or Italian-American members.