It's very appropriate, at least now I know what brand of ice-cream to never eat again.

I spent 2 years backpacking around the world and have seen this crap sometimes; it's not an India-only thing.

>> "It's very appropriate, at least now I know what brand of ice-cream to never eat again."

There's nothing worse than the silly internet knee jerk reaction. Boycott first, ask questions later. It was a franchise. Jeez. And TBH it's up to them who they serve. Just like Hulu 'bans' non Americans.

It's a pilot franchise, their first in Delhi. Do you know how much coverage remote franchises get at the HQ? I worked for Starbucks as a lowly barista and we received photos of new baristas from every corner on earth. Corporate HQ takes the Delhi franchise very seriously. In business today, you're either in China or India. So I don't buy for a minute that the franchisee's actions are his own. It reflects on the entire brand. If they wanna do business in India they better respect the people there.

its nothing like hulu 'banning' non americans (or spotify 'banning' americans), they are both legally restricted by license holders.

I agree about the knee jerk reaction though

I don't really see why there's an issue with restricting something to tourists only. That's pretty usual. It's often not a popular thing to do, but I can see why companies do it, and I think they should have the right to decide.

Locals should also have the right to setup a competing shop that only serves locals and not tourists :/

And the fact that this was an native Indian's franchise of the brand and not a corporate action:

* Changes your opinion about it in no way, and

* Suggests nothing about whether articles like this are appropriate for HN?

I have read the article, but the noise puts pressure on HD to put the guy in check. I shot them an email with a link to my reply :-) tweeted as well.

Not appropriate. If you want to read how businesses screw people over there are an endless supply of other websites. Unless it's software or hardware related, it doesn't belong here.

It is intellectually interesting that someone would be this stupid.