A New Recipe for Denny’s

Denny’s advertises a lot about its Grand Slam breakfast and its birthday promotions, which is the restaurant chain’s right. But the company has been accused of discriminating against black customers, which is not its right. Now Denny’s is touting the announcement that it will improve its hiring and promotions of minorities. That’s something the company should have been doing anyway, without ballyhoo.

Now it has agreed to provide $1 billion in jobs and benefits over seven years in a “fair share” agreement with the NAACP. The agreement includes adding 53 new minority-owned units by 1997. Currently 54 of Denny’s 1,485 restaurants are minority owned; only one, in the Watts area of Los Angeles, is owned by an African-American.

The chain will also hire more black employees and corporate managers, and commit to purchasing media, banking, accounting and legal services from minority-owned firms. Denny’s needs to spread the minority-owned franchises outside of minority areas, too.

Few could argue with the intent of the agreement, announced by Jerome J. Richardson, who heads Denny’s parent company, Flagstar Cos. Inc., and the Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., executive director of the NAACP, but the timing and circumstances of the announcement undercut the goodwill. In an eyebrow-raising move on the very same day, Chavis publicly backed Richardson’s bid to win a National Football League team franchise for Charlotte, N.C. Others in the civil rights movement question whether Flagstar should be allowed to own a team considering the discrimination suits pending against Denny’s, which are not affected by the new agreement.

The restaurant chain appears to be making a good-faith effort to change, but time and Denny’s customers will judge the real difference.