Warning! Perimeter alert! Corporate invaders at three o’clock!

Dairy Queen is returning to Vermont.

… “We’d love to see [a franchisee] commit during 2016 and have an opportunity to open the first store in 2016 or early 2017,” [DQ VP Jim] Kerr said. “I think we have a pretty good chance.”

Kerr believes Burlington could support as many as five Dairy Queens, and that there are 15 to 20 potential locations in Vermont as a whole.

“Our goal would be to build throughout Vermont,” Kerr said.

Sigh.

I understand why they think Vermont is a promising market. We do, after all, consume mass quantities of frozen dairylike confections, and Vermont is the only state without an actual, name-brand Dairy Queen.

What they can’t see from their Minneapolis headquarters is the fact that our state is chock full of independent joints that sell Creemees, many of substantially better quality than the corporate splooge on offer at DQ. It’s kind of like Mrs. Butterworth trying to open a “Maple” Flavored Syrup factory in Vermont.

Methinks DQ will find Vermont a tough row to hoe. Many of us are strongly attached to one or more of our local outlets. We all have our favorite spots. DQ will have to offer what they call a “unique value proposition” to gain a lasting foothold here.

I wish them luck… although not enough luck that they’d ever put a local vendor out of business.