• Edible Arrangements� parent company controlled by Tariq Farid
• Dipped Fruit (same owners as above)
  

1. A class action lawsuit was filed by store owners regarding major retro-active changes to terms in the franchise agreement, some of those changes include:
1. Religious discrimination, all stores are now required to be open on Sunday, but Muslim owned stores are allowed to be closed on Friday (the  Holy Day for Muslims).
   
2. "Requiring franchisees to buy new computer and software system directly from Edible Arrangements rather than another vendor offering a lower price." (1)
   
3. "Requiring individual franchises to use approved produce vendors, regardless of whether a store owner has a long-standing arrangement with a local vendor. In some cases, the geographic location of a franchisee makes it difficult for them to get fresh produce in a timely manner." (1)
   
4. "Requiring franchisees to share their customer lists with Edible Arrangements." (1)

1. Tariq Farid is of the Muslim faith. He came to the USA from Pakistan at age 11(3),  has current ties to Pakistan and has married and divorced there even though he and his x-wife were residents of Connecticut. (2)(5)
   
2. Mr Farid retroactively changed the franchise agreement mandating that all stores be open seven days a week.
3. An exception was made for Muslim owned stores, they are allowed to be closed on Fridays, but Christians are not allowed the same level of respect and the option to be closed on Sunday or Saturday depending on the version.
4. Stores that do not follow these new mandates can be penalized with withholding of orders from the corporate web site.

Charge #2: Manitory hardware/software purchases from a company with the same ownership.

1. One of the new corporate mandates was to force the store owners to purchase new hardware and computer software from other companies that Mr. Farid owns, even though the same products are available elsewhere for less money. This is just a way to extract more money from the stores.
   

Charge #3: Vendor control

1. Only purchasing from approved vendors is a sign that a corporate level rebate (kickback) may be involved or the vendor also has the same owners (berrydirect.com) and forces the store owners into a single source environment for supplies. Even though the stores may have longstanding agreements with local suppliers, with better availability and quality, this change forces the stores to use suppliers that are further away and may have a lower grade of produce due to the distances and travel time involved.
   

1. Any and all customer information that was once thought limited to the local stores now belongs to the corporate parent.
   
2. Corporate can now sell that information to third party telemarketers or do anything they want with it.
3. This exposes the stores to privacy policy lawsuits if at any time they told the customer that they would not share the information with a third party.
   

1. Dictating terms that favor his religious preference.
2. Dictating terms that favor his financial interests in third party companies.
3. This type of behavior is what you would expect to hear about from the middle east, not from a major US company. 
4. These are only some of the changes being dictated by Mr Farid, others include changing the percentage of funds paid on internet orders and other fees that effect the stores profitability.
5. Intolerance and the lack of respect for others beliefs is what you would expect of a Jihadist, not the CEO of a franchised company.