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Thursday, June 4, 2009
What Rita's does for Alex's

Since Rita's Franchise Corp. relabeled its original flavor as "Alex's Lemonade" three years ago, I naively assumed the childrens' cancer charity started by the late Alexandra Scott (1996-2004) and her family got a cut of every lemon ice. But that's not how it works.

Rita's raises money for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation exclusively by selling paper lemons at $1 a pop, during the month of June, at 550 stores including its Philadelphia-area outlets.

In 2006 that raised $510,000; in 2007, $530,000; and last year, $520,000. That makes Rita's "the leading corporate donor" for Alex's, according to the company. 

Though the total's been pretty consistent, paper-lemon sales have dropped off, on a per-store basis, since the chain is expanding. Owner Jim Rudolph says he's trying to reverse that. He serves on Alex's board, and he's urging franchisees to help raise this year's donations.

 

Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano @ 1:31 PM  Permalink | 2 comments
Comments   
Posted 10:01 PM, 06/04/2009
shray3
When I was a youg boy livig a few blocks from Shibe Park I had the chance to help make water ice. This was an Italian neighborhood and I occasionally would get the job of turning the handle on the can of water ice in the barrel of ice. I would then get a 3 cent cup free. Like Henry Ford said I had a choice of flavors as long as it was Lemon, Today when I can, I try to buy sugar free @ Ritas.However they don't seem to have sugar free LEMON.
Posted 02:02 PM, 06/05/2009
Laney
so Rita's contributes $0 of its own money, since its "donation" comes from customers? If that's true, suddenly that lemon ice tastes pretty sour...
2 comments
About Joseph N. DiStefano
Joseph N. DiStefano writes this blog to feed his PhillyDeals column, which is printed in the business pages of The Philadelphia Inquirer every Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Joe has worked at the Inquirer, mostly, since 1988. He has also written for Bloomberg and Gannett, authored the book Comcasted, majored in economics at Penn, and fathered six children. Reach Joe at 215-854-5194 and JoeD@phillynews.com

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