Terms of Service

Intellectual property

The text, layout, and original reporting on this site are owned by the Journal or used with permission. Brand names, logos, and trademarks referenced on the site, including Shipley Donuts, belong to their respective owners. References to those marks are for identification and reporting purposes and do not imply endorsement or affiliation.

That distinction matters for how you may reuse material from this site. Our own reporting, page layouts, and captions are ours. A company name, a storefront photograph you took yourself, or a product name you are simply mentioning is not. If you want to reuse a photograph from one of our stories, ask first and tell us how you intend to credit it.

User submissions

If you submit a tip, correction, comment, or other content, you confirm that you have the right to share it and that it is accurate to the best of your knowledge. You grant us permission to use, edit, and publish the material in connection with our coverage. We are not obligated to publish any submission.

In practice, most tips we receive are short: a store opening date, a correction to an address, a note that a promotion ended earlier than we reported. We may shorten, reorder, or combine them with other reporting. We may also hold a submission for days while we check it against public records or a second source. If we do not use it, that is not a verdict on you or on the information; it usually means we could not confirm it in time.

Prohibited conduct

You agree not to interfere with the site's operation, attempt to gain unauthorized access to systems or data, submit false or misleading information, or use the site in a way that violates applicable law. Automated scraping that places unreasonable load on the site is not permitted.

• Interfering with the site Anything that slows, breaks, or blocks pages for other readers, including deliberate traffic floods or attacks on the servers that host the site.
• Unauthorized access Trying to reach accounts, editing tools, mailing lists, or files you have not been given access to, whether by guessing credentials or by probing the site for openings.
• False information Sending invented tips, forged documents, or misleading corrections that you know to be untrue when you send them.
• Automated scraping Bulk collection of pages or archives at a volume that puts unreasonable load on the site. Reasonable, occasional requests are fine; persistent crawls are not.

No professional advice

Content on the site is provided for general information. It is not business, legal, financial, or franchise advice, and it should not be relied on as a substitute for professional guidance. Decisions about franchise investment or operations should be made with qualified advisers and the franchisor directly.

We report on franchise agreements, openings, promotions, and community activity as news. Reporting that a deal was signed, or that shops are planned in a market, is not a recommendation to invest, to visit, or to buy anything. Costs, timelines, territory rules, and operator requirements come from the franchisor and from your own advisers, not from us.

Accuracy and availability

We aim to report accurately and to correct errors when they are identified, as described in our Editorial Standards. We do not warrant that all content is complete or current at all times, and we may change or remove content without notice. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability of the site.

Dates in our stories describe what was known when we published them. A promotion listed in a 2023 story may have ended long ago; a planned opening may have moved to a different block or a different year. When a correction changes the substance of a story, we note it on the page rather than quietly rewriting the text.

Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, the Journal is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the site or reliance on its content. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

Read this together with the section above on accuracy. We work to get details right and to publish corrections, but a decision you make after reading a story — about a purchase, a visit, or a business plan — remains yours.

Third-party links

The site may link to external websites, including news outlets and company pages. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content, availability, or practices. Links are provided for reference and do not imply endorsement.

We link out when a reader can check something for themselves: an announcement, a city record, another outlet's coverage of the same deal. Those pages change or disappear without warning, and the privacy and terms rules that apply there are theirs, not ours.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The revised version will be posted on this page. Continued use of the site after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

Most updates are housekeeping: clarifying how we handle submissions, or adding a section for a feature we have launched since the last revision. The date at the top of this page shows when the current version took effect. If a change meaningfully narrows what you may do with our content, we will describe it in the revised text rather than leave you to compare two versions line by line.

Governing terms and contact

If any provision of these terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in effect. For questions about these terms, email RenoGalvez@isaakblackwell.com. Our mailing address is 315 E 28th St, Brooklyn, NY 11226, USA. Phone: +14452322690.

Editorial questions, corrections and tip submissions go to the same inbox. We answer weekday messages Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM Eastern.