page_title: Family Express
section_title: Controversies
hierarchical_section_title: Family Express / Controversies
caption_attribution_description: English: A display of Family Express square donuts at a Family Express location in Laporte County, Indiana.
context_page_description: Family Express is a privately-held United States convenience store chain headquartered in Valparaiso, Indiana, with more than 70 locations across northern and central Indiana.
  Family Express is known for its pursuit of vertical integration, following an approach similar to Kwik Trip. The Family Express logistics model consolidates what would otherwise be 25 direct store deliveries by different vendors to each store weekly into one combined daily delivery by Family Express itself. One result of the company's centralized logistics, according to the company, has been increased freshness.
  The company's use of a centralized commissary has been a core aspect of its approach to logistics. In 2004, the company announced plans for its first centralized commissary and bakery at a former warehouse site in Valparaiso. The commissary opened in late 2006. Prior to the launch of the company's commissary, the bakery products were shipped from a manufacturer in Chicago and cross docked for delivery to stores. In 2010, the company built a new 150,000 square feet distribution center, which includes a bakery.
context_section_description: From 2006 to 2018, Family Express was involved in a trademark dispute with Square Donuts of Terre Haute over Family Express's use of the phrase "square donuts" to describe its square donuts. Square Donuts sent a cease and desist letter to Family Express in 2006, which Family Express opposed on the ground that referring to a square donut as a "square donut" is purely descriptive. Square Donuts obtained state and federal trademark protection in 2012 and 2013, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office subsequently rejected Family Express's own trademark application due to likelihood of confusion with the Square Donuts mark. 
  In 2016, Family Express brought a declaratory judgment action in federal court to have the Square Donuts trademark invalidated on grounds of descriptiveness.  In 2018, Family Express added a new argument, that Square Donuts had abandoned its mark by allowing third parties to use it.  Later in 2018, the parties reached a settlement.
  In 2019, after revelations of severe animal abuse at a confined animal feeding operation operated by Fair Oaks Farms, Family Express discontinued all Fairlife products, replacing them with Organic Valley.  Family Express, which was joined by other companies including Jewel-Osco in withdrawing Fairlife products, issued a statement describing the abuse as "chilling".
caption: Family Express square donuts
exif: {"Image YResolution": "72", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image ImageWidth": "4016", "Image ImageLength": "3008", "Image ImageDescription": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "214", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2020:02:24 17:31:31", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[41, 41, 3796/625]", "GPS GPSAltitude": "201", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSProcessingMethod": "[65, 83, 67, 73, 73, 0, 0, 0, 78, 69, 84, 87, 79, 82, 75, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[23, 31, 19]", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[86, 44, 144067/10000]", "GPS GPSDate": "2020:02:24", "Image GPSInfo": "600", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1017", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "36864", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3008", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2020:02:24 17:31:31", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "46", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "881", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF ExposureTime": "8331/500000", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF SubSecTime": "46", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4016", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "127", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "46", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2020:02:24 17:31:31", "EXIF FocalLength": "191/50", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LightSource": "other light source"}