Bimbo Breads started out as a Mexican company, and now owns Entenmann’s, Sara Lee, and Thomas’. Its headquarters is now in Pennsylvania.
It’s funny to see their big delivery trucks in Southern California with the big BIMBO plastered on the sides.
Ringerhut.
The name is hilarious, it is what you get when you translate “belltower” or “belfrey” apparently.
Then you’ll get a big kick out of the jersey for the Philadelphia Union soccer team.
Moving thread from Cafe Society to IMHO.
What’s interesting is how few British retailers have been able to establish a foothold in the US. Tesco - the world’s ninth largest retailer - failed spectacularly. I didn’t know that Pret a Manger had made it over here, but it looks like Jollibees is going to buy them anyway.
I think the OP is using “franchise” in the sense of “brand name,” rather than the sense of corporate branding overlying local ownership. None of his examples use a franchise ownership model.
Uwajimaya was founded in Seattle and all its locations are in the US, so I don’t think it counts as a “foreign chain”.
I’m a little confused by the crossover points that triggered the change of forum. This was a list of “cafes” and other mainly eating establishments of verifiable international origin and cuisine. What “humble opinions” have been solicited or proffered? If the topic had asked for foreign films or concert albums recorded at foreign venues, would the forum have been changed? For what reason? Besides cafes, what other ventures are excluded from “cafe society” discussion?
I had never heard of, or at least never noticed, Swarovski crystal stores. I went to Europe for three months in 2004 and saw their stores in just about every town I visited, and some of their work (mentioned by name) at a museum in Vienna. When I got back to the States, I started seeing them here, too. It was like they built all those stores while I was gone, or I brought them back with me.
Could say almost the same about Shakey’s Pizza; started in Sacramento, now popular in Japan and the Philippines, according to Wikipedia.
I have a certain sentimental attachment. I owe my life to Shakey’s Pizza, literally.
Post #2, I think… it wasn’t clear when you said “franchise” that you meant “food franchise.” My first thought was British Petroleum, and that’s not tasty at all.
Alimentation Couche-Tard* is kind of an example. The giant Quebec convenience-store corporation owns, among other things, Circle K in the States, and is rebranding all its English-Canadian convenience stores as Circle K.
- Casual translation: “Nite-Owl Foods”
American Idol is the US franchise of the UK-originated Pop Idol. Big Brother is franchised from the Netherlands. The US versions of House of Cards, The Office, Life on Mars and many others are franchised from UK originals.
Television and, to a lesser extent, film may be particularly rich in foreign offerings franchised into the US. While much of the rest of the world is happy to take and rebroadcast US productions, US audiences prefer local productions, so successful foreign productions will often be remade or recreated in the US for US audiences under a franchise arrangement.
Daiso, the Japanese houseware/food/knickknack store, has several locations in California.
“Franchise” doesn’t mean food and quite a few answers are not food starting from post #2.
That’s not what British Petroleum told me.
The bulk of BP’s US operations are the legacy of Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio, Boron), which disappeared in a 1978 merger, not the result of an organic move by BP.
I choked on a hunk of cheese at Shakey’s. My sister gave me the Heimlich. Years later, I worked at one briefly in Las Vegas.
So, what is your story? Sound interesting…
Royal Dutch Shell Oil is a Dutch/British company.
Uniqlo is a Japanese discount department store that’s trying to make a go in the USA. Their target niche is similar to the homegrown US Kohls’. They have a few locations here now and a web presence.
Add me to the list of people who don’t know whether the OP meant “franchise” as “well-known brand” or as “locally owned small scale licensees operating individual locations”
I also don’t know whether the OP meant fast food only, cooked food only, or any sort of product or service whatsoever. Or some other category that’s known only to him.
Muji is another Japanese retail chain now in the United States.
It’s not really a department store. It’s a clothing brand & manufacturer that sells directly through their own stores.
Are we including specialty shops like Godiva (Belgium)? How about T-Mobile (owned by Deutsche Telekom)?