Nothing Bundt Cakes now requires stores to open on Sundays. Some franchisees are furious

When Keith Bussey first opened his Nothing Bundt Cakes location in Northern California in 2019, he exhausted his 401(k) savings, excited to invest in an up-and-coming franchise. And it really helped that the company had a long-standing tradition of offering its franchisees the option to close on Sundays.

When Keith Bussey first opened his Nothing Bundt Cakes location in Northern California in 2019, he exhausted his 401(k) savings, excited to invest in an up-and-coming franchise. And it really helped that the company had a long-standing tradition of offering its franchisees the option to close on Sundays. The whimsical bakery chain reversed that policy in the past year, now requiring that all stores be open a minimum of five hours on Sundays starting February 2. Even if the existing franchise’s contract that didn’t originally mandate Sunday hours, all operating manuals have been updated and the company sent out a mandate, owners said. New franchise contracts include the rule. On Tuesday, Bussey informed corporate that he was putting the bakery up for sale. “When the franchise was presented to us, it felt like a community,” Bussey said. “Once we got that mandate, it just doesn’t fit with our lifestyle.” Store owners from Iowa to Oregon to Florida expressed frustration at the policy change to CNN, saying the option to close on Sundays was a deciding factor in choosing to invest in the franchise. Many of them had poured out their own savings into opening the bakeries. In Utah, where members of the Latter-day Saints movement are a majority of the population, a tense debate has led to the introduction of a state bill that would guarantee that franchisors could not change contracts to mandate Sunday operations due to “religious liberty.”