Raw, but c*nsored blabbing and blogging of a young journalista
and local news producer in Southern New England.
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Sunday, April 25, 2004

DEVELOPING STORY: Do you, Bess, take Tim to be your lawfully wedded takeover?

I almost logged off without remembering the biggest thing of all to blog about this weekend. Say goodbye to Bess Eaton and hello to Tim Hortons.

Tim Hortons themselves puts it most plainly in their press release: Bess Eaton shops in New England will get a straight takeover treatment, so that not one, but two New England institutions will be changing names, facades, and presumably, menus of services this summer -- the other being Fleet Bank, taken over by Bank of America.

(Also note: This is actually not Tim's first foray into the US. There are more than a hundred stores already in the States with the hockey player's name on them.)

Saturday's Projo had a decent article on the affair too, hinting at though not quite putting plainly the disappearance of Bess Eaton. The Associated Press wrote a wrapup Saturday and then Sunday, featured a bit of history on the beleagured chain. Elizabeth Zuckerman cites court documents in saying that former chief executive and family outsider George Cioe charged Louis Gencarelli with using Bess Eaton as a "personal piggy bank." Nice. I forgot about that in most of my recent VOs which used the same bloody exteriors over and over again with the latest burp in events.

The best article I think that I saw so far was Ellyn Santiago's in The Westerly Sun. She was obviously in the courtroom, and got lots of printed sound bites from the players on scene.

Comments expected to be forthcoming from Bess fans sad to see the donut chain go, while others can say hello to TimBits and IceCaps. That, I'm sure, was worth an MOS pkg somewhere in this weekend's coverage.

The Dunkin Donuts folks, outbidded by the Canucks, ended up gracefully bowing out and saying, "Welcome to the competition."

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/25/2004 02:37:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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