An owner of the Nothing Bundt Cakes franchise locations in Utah said she received multiple warnings from corporate after closing her bakeries on Sundays for a day of worship.
“On February 5, myself as well as my partners, and then any other bakery owners who didn’t open on that day, received a notice of default from corporate,” Kelsey Hunt, who owns multiple locations of the franchise, said.
After receiving the notice, Hunt still decided to close her St. George location the following Sunday. Two days later, she received another notice.
“You have moments where it’s like, 'I’ve invested everything into this. This is my livelihood.' And that can be taken away,” she said.
According to Hunt, she and other owners now have until March 7 to comply with the mandate to remain open on Sundays or the corporation will terminate their franchise agreement — which was apparently signed in 2018 when owners weren’t required to be open on the holy day.
“We’re getting closer to that March 7 date, less than two weeks away. We’re working with our legal teams to figure out what we’re gonna do next,” explained Hunt.
The mandate ignited a debate earlier this year, leading to Utah Rep. Ken Ivory (R-West Jordan) to introduce a bill focused on protecting franchises from opening on religious holidays or days of worship.
“We do anticipate a possible dispute that may come while the dispute is continuing until we can come to a settlement," Hunt added. "It’s unknown.”
Those that the Scripps News Group spoke to about the mandate appeared to side with the "do what you want" crowd.
“I like when businesses are open on Sundays, but as far as business owners being forced to be open, I feel like they should close their shop up if they want or do what they want," said Sean Hennefer. "With a franchise though, I don’t know. It’s a bit of a gray area.”
“It was weird moving here and realizing places are closed on Sundays," said Theo Sherman. "I think the option whether to be open on a Sunday is nice. In an ideal world, everything would be open 24/7 but that’s not how the world works and people should be able to take the day off.”
Ivory's bill advanced earlier this month by the Utah House Business, Labor and Commerce Committee and is heading to a Senate committee on Wednesday.
This story was originally published by Mya Constantino with the Scripps News Group.
