Euless – October 29, 2026 -- Paris Baguette opened its 29th Texas bakery cafe in Euless on October 9, adding to a North American network of more than 300 locations as it targets 1,000 sites across the U.S. and Canada by 2030.

Four-owner franchise group opens at 2920 Rio Grande Blvd

The cafe sits at 2920 Rio Grande Blvd in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It is operated by franchisees Swapna Varala, Sunaina, Anusha and Deepthi, who run the business as a women-owned franchise.

WASHINGTON – October 28, 2026 -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is pairing criminal prosecutions with new filing rules to pursue importers that conceal hazards, after an $8 million fine in April 2026 and prison terms of 38 and 40 months in June 2025. Acting Chairman Peter A. Feldman set out the approach in a keynote at the 19th International Law Enforcement Intellectual Property Crime Conference in Bangkok.

San Francisco – October 28, 2026 -- The RealReal (Nasdaq: REAL) has appointed Alexis Hoopes, who led eBay's $10 billion global fashion business, as Chief Merchandising Officer, handing her control of the luxury resale marketplace's merchandising strategy.

Foothill Ranch – October 28, 2026 -- Gatekeeper Systems has launched a rebuilt version of its FaceFirst facial recognition platform, which alerts retail security teams the moment an enrolled known offender enters a store. The system runs ROC's algorithm, ranked #3 globally in NIST testing.

Klausen-Leopoldsdorf – October 28, 2026 -- Jürgen Bruckner, managing director of Austria's Bruckner Holding GmbH, says most of his organization's more than 22,000 customers buy products repeatedly without joining the sales structure. He names this as the key test separating legitimate direct selling from pyramid schemes.

CHARLOTTE – October 28, 2026 -- Replay Sports Cards won the Franchise Innovation Award for Most Innovative On-Boarding Program at Franchise Update Media's 2026 STAR Awards, and was the only brand honored in that category.

The Franchise Innovation Awards were presented alongside the STAR Awards at the Franchise Leadership & Development Conference in Atlanta, October 5-8. They recognize how franchise brands welcome, train and prepare new franchisees to open their doors.

New York – October 28, 2026 -- The Farmer's Dog has become the official pet food partner of five college athletic departments for the next three years, building the deals around their live dog mascots. The schools are Georgia, Tennessee, UConn, Tulsa and Washington.

The release did not state financial terms. The partnership extends college sports' name, image and likeness (NIL) era to the mascots: Uga of Georgia, Smokey of Tennessee, Jonathan of UConn, Goldie of Tulsa and Dubs of Washington. The company will supply the dogs with human-grade meals and treats.

Dublin – October 28, 2026 -- Temu plans to invest about $200 million in compliance and quality assurance worldwide in 2026, twice its 2025 spending, as it adds in-house product testing laboratories inside its logistics partners' warehouses.

Bureau Veritas confirms the labs can run defined European-standard tests

Bureau Veritas audited the labs' testing equipment, premises, technical staff, workflows and quality assurance systems. It confirmed the labs meet the technical requirements for the intended tests under selected European standards.

HOUSTON – October 28, 2026 -- Group 1 Automotive (NYSE: GPI) posted third-quarter diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $8.59, up from $1.02 a year earlier. Adjusted diluted EPS, a non-GAAP measure, fell to $9.36 from $10.45 as the retailer closed a $1.7 billion-revenue Atlanta acquisition and pushed ahead with disposals to cut leverage.

MILTON KEYNES – October 28, 2026 -- CookieYes, a consent management platform used by more than 2 million websites, has won Shopify's Built for Shopify badge for its cookie consent app, with daily installs up 59% since a 23 September update.

Shopify awarded the badge on 9 October 2026. It goes to apps that meet the platform's highest standards for performance, design and integration, including storefront speed and ease of use. More than 8,600 Shopify stores have installed the app to date.