I can't hold a candle to you, Alvie, as I'm a rather immoderate moderator. Besides, I don't have any "insider" connections.
Speaking of names, it looks as though the Australian blokes who franchised a few kiosks have abandoned both the R&I name and the product, but may be keeping the kiosks in use for now, albeit in a very low-key sort of way. It doesn't look as though they are planning their future around those from what I can see. The happy ending may be that they have a better product and a better business plan without VEND. I'm making educated guesses about some of the above, but it all seems to make reason.
As for the surviving franchisees here, I suppose they will continue to eke out what they can from selling froyo and maybe buy a pizza box or two. I suppose the COVID 19 shutdown has hurt most of them, but I had assumed that the hospital-based machines would do well. Surprisingly, I saw that at least one of those had been shut down, and I guess there may be some retrofitting necessary to address the risk of spreading the virus. I wish them the best, but I still don't see what they get that's worth a 12% royalty.
