Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 October 19

= October 19 =

Child Support
Can the Child Support agency give a 72A notice to a company that a self employed person cleans for? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.230.0.149 (talk) 08:48, 19 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Which one? Child Support Agency is the UK agency.  Child Support Agency (Australia) is ... in another place.  --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  09:05, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * The House of Lords?--Wehwalt (talk) 13:36, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * LOL. Members of the Australian Parliament always used to refer to the house of which they were not a member as "the other place" or "another place", based on British parliamentary tradition. But they don't seem to do it any more.  Now it's "that unrepresentative swill" or similar.  --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  19:12, 20 October 2012 (UTC)


 * In any case, we cannot give legal advice here (as it says at the top of the page). Sorry. --ColinFine (talk) 13:56, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * That sounds very much like a request for information, not advice, to me. --Viennese Waltz 14:21, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

The term "72A notice" seems to refer to Section 72A of the Australian Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988 which says; "Registrar may collect child support related debts from a third person". I think anything else is going to fall into "legal advice". Alansplodge (talk) 16:04, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * (ec) Since the IP address suggest the OP is in Australia, the starting point to find relevant information would seem to be onthis page. However, that page doesn't explicitly mention self employed people.  Maybe that is covered under a different section, maybe it depends on the precise nature of your contract with company where you clean.  Whatever the case, you are probably better seeking the advice of your lawyer rather then random strangers on the internet who are probably not familiar with Australian law.  Astronaut (talk) 16:17, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Page Creation
How Do I check the pending status of a page creation I submitted? — Preceding unsignedcomment added by RobertB 12th (talk • contribs) 09:21, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Do you have a link to your contribution or perhaps the IP address you were using when you created it? It looks like this is the first edit you have ever made. For the future though, you will want to ask questions about editing Wikipedia at the help desk. Livewireo (talk) 14:52, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Chick-fil-A and international expansion
Hopefully this will be the last in a series of questions I ask about American restaurants. This time, the question is focused on a specific restaurant, in this case Chick-fil-A. As mentioned in my previous question, many regional chains don't expand internationally, although many of the largest do (I'm not sure if Applebee's is a regional chain, but they do have branches overseas). Chick-fil-A is one of the most prominent examples of a regional chain in the US, best known for being Christian conservative and aggressively protecting their intellectual property, but only has branches in the United States. My question is, have they ever made statements about expanding into Canada or any other international market? The article states that they will first expand nationally, but have they ruled out international expansion in the near future? Even White Castle once had an international presence, although they failed. Chick-fil-A, on the other hand, appears to have never ever tried opening a branch abroad. Is their being Christian conservative a major factor in their decision to not expand internationally? And is their being aggressive in protecting their intellectual property a major reason why they are only in the US? Or is the reason why they haven't expanded an economic one? Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 09:58, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * I haven't got a definitive answer, but to me as a Brit, the idea that major businesses even have religious stances is weird. I get my coffee from a coffee shop, not a revivalist meeting. AlexTiefling (talk) 10:09, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * As another briton, I don't think it's that weird. Companies have stances on moral issues, and have mission statements and all sorts. Larger chains, like Costa Coffee, have stated beliefs and guiding principles, such as positions on Fairtrade and the Rainforest Alliance, and moral positions such as things about how customers should feel, how employees should be treated, etc. Smaller businesses often have religious or spiritual beliefs as part of that, although it is less common (nowadays) to see that in larger companies. Mostly because the companies that were most successful with it (such as the Quaker chocolate companies) got very big, then got bought up by more ruthlessly businesslike people. Chik-fil-A appears to be an evangelical fried chicken equivalent to Fry, Cadbury, and Rowntree, although as far as I know they haven't yet built a village for their workers with good quality housing and no alcohol.


 * Beyond that, it makes marketing sense. What do you think McDonald's is doing with their softly-spoken ads showing a wide variety of people meeting and bonding wholesomely in McDonald's? They're positioning themselves as being associated with certain values and sorts of people. In an area with a dominant religion actively practiced by most of the people there, it would make sense to link themselves to that.86.159.77.170 (talk) 12:20, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * As a third Brit, I do think it's weird. The kind of ethical practices of places like Costa Coffee are generally things that everyone will agree are a good idea (although some may conclude they aren't worth the cost) and are things directly related to their business. Linking your business to religion is a different matter entirely. That said, Chick-fil-A doesn't seem to be particularly religious. Other than not opening on Sundays, they don't seem to do anything based directly on the religious beliefs of their owners. The owner of a business having a religious stance isn't the same as the business having one. --Tango (talk) 16:10, 20 October 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm from the US and I avoid going to Chick-Fil-A due to their stated stances. While I wouldn't say "being nice" is a religious trait per-se I would say that when I've went to many different Chick-Fil-As in the past they have been exceedingly nice and helpful, significantly moreso then any other place I've ever ordered from a drive through.  Chris M. (talk) 14:42, 23 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Quick question: since you're so interested in this did have you done any research of your own? Because a quick search for 'Chick-fil-A international expansion' finds 2 directly relevent links. from 2006 mentions possible expansion in to Puerto Rico and Mexico within 10 years. I can't say whether the 10 year plan is still under consideration but another source from the search  mentions 'Canada and Mexico' while the 'company considers future growth in non-domestic markets.' It mentions another interesting thing, it sound like you're mistake, Chick-fil-A did in fact try to expand in to South Africa but failed. A search for this finds (indirectly via, warning blog may be offensive to some) which seems to confirm the South Africa bit noting:
 * "After the failure of the chain's three South Africa stores last summer, Cathy is more cautious about opening stores abroad. If and when the company expands internationally again, it will go to European or perhaps Japanese cities where other American chains have already established an infrastructure and customer base. "In South Africa, we were competing with street vendors," he said."


 * Speaking as a South African - If their failure here was really because they couldn't hack it against street traders they were clearly wayyyy out of their depth. In this country the bottom end of the fast food chain sector is occupied by McDonalds. Below McD there are only independent "greasy spoon" joints and then the informal sector street vendors. Roger (talk) 17:54, 20 October 2012 (UTC)
 * It also mentions the owners considered selling stock in the mid 1990s to go international. (BTW taking these sources together, they suggest that even if we ignore the religious issues, the owners business views perhaps mean international expansion could be slow such as an apparent reluctance to use loans or involve investors and the involvement and control they would potentially expect.)
 * Another interesting tidbit, mentions several international jurisdictions where they won't offer you a franchise licence until they've complied with local legal requirements (because those jurisdictions regulate the offer and sale of franchises). This suggests two things. 1) They've looked in to this enough to be aware of those jurisdictions which probably is not that hard to do and may even be fairly standard for franchise lawyers; 2) If you are from another country, they may not completely ignore you if you if you want to bring Chick-fil-a to your location (this isn't that surprising given the other sources)
 * Nil Einne (talk) 12:07, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * P.S. Also forgot to mention from my first search which while not really related to this question does mention several US chains which are not present in Canada. Nil Einne(talk) 12:18, 19 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Chick-fil-a is still working on expanding from a regional to a national U.S. chain. Even in the best circumstances, that kind of expansion requires a lot of time and effort. It's not just setting up stores, it's also arranging the supply chain without costs going through the roof. One thing that might work against them is their stance on closing on Sundays. If someone wants chicken on a Sunday, there are any number of other places that will accommodate them. Oddly enough, it might work better in the parts of Europe where stores are customarily closed on Sundays (assuming that's still done). ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc?carrots→ 04:45, 20 October 2012 (UTC)