Late last month Dunkin' Brands, owner of Dunkin' Donuts, a snack-bar chain, raised $1.7 billion by selling bonds backed by, among other things, the royalties it will receive from its franchisees.
Tied to health problems including heart disease, they have been banished by national restaurant chains, snack brands and New York City, which forbids restaurants to use them in food preparation.
istanbulsweethome.com, €540 (£439) a week for Bohemian Rhapsody (contact via internet/email only) These six apartments are located within a few minutes' stroll of the teen shopping heaven that is Istiklal Caddesi (imagine a pedestrianised Oxford Street lined with a smattering of the usual chains and snack shacks, plus street stalls selling cheap highstreet knock-offs).
The component of the neighborhood observation related to dietary intake involved observation of the food retail outlets (baker's shops, snack bars, fast-food chains, supermarkets, kiosks, gas stations, tobacco shops, chemist's shops) that were visible from the schoolyards and that were present in the neighborhood around schools.
Sharp lessons like these were learned decades ago by American fast-food chains and snack-food companies.
Milton had barely unpacked his embossed handkerchiefs but already the entrepreneurial Coronation Street newcomer was turning Sylvia's knees to soup and Roy's transfat snack shack into a chain of railway-themed steakhouses.
For lunch, I pieced together a cheap meal by snacking at two mediocre chains, 100 Montaditos, a beer spot that serves tiny sandwiches for a pittance, and the Museo del Jamón, which is not a "ham museum" but a chain of luncheonette-style bars, where bready sandwiches light on meat start at 1 euro.
Thomas, a sullen former soldier who served in Afghanistan before receiving a dishonorable discharge, finds work harvesting cucumbers before fate takes him to Ali Hilmi Sözerr), a prosperous entrepreneur with a chain of snack bars and, of course, a bored, beautiful wife (Nina Hoss, who played the title role in "Yella").
He defended his choice after it emerged the £10 snack was from restaurant chain Byron, rather than a cheaper takeaway.
Snack Time Chicken nuggets and chain restaurants can be found anywhere.
