Opportunism
Opportunism: strip cash from the defenseless
- 1,001 ways to make your life miserable
- 101 ways to terminate a contract
- 30 different programs of kickbacks, shelf allowances and inside money
- Accept the new contract or you're terminated
- Advertising fund buys franchisor’s assets
- Advertising fund paid to executives
- Advertising fund put into general franchisor's coffers
- Advertising fund use disagreements
- Bad faith and unfair dealings
- Bank account access by franchisor
- Build up the business so they can take it
- Cannibalization of sales
- Central commissary
- Centralized order taking system problems
- Change in store format
- Close store if staff unionizes
- Company-owned stores given preferential treatment
- Concept is a fad
- Controlling, trapping or defeating the franchisee
- Corporate stores competing with franchisees
- Corporate stores get better deal than franchisees
- Coupon programs (forced) destroy franchisee margins
- Denied expansion for inappropriate reasons
- Deny expansion because of media, political or association involvement
- Different deals for different dealers
- Discount programs destroy retail margins but boost wholesale profits
- Encroachment, internet
- Eviction cheaper and faster than termination
- Exclusive territory endangered
- Expands too quickly
- Expropriation without compensation
- Forced to sell
- Franchised store converted to corporate store
- Franchisee-on-franchisee opportunism
- Franchisees who are related to franchisor have advantage
- Franchisor abandonment
- Franchisor bankruptcy
- Franchisor controls retail prices
- Franchisor has right to buy outlet before anyone else
- Franchisor insolvency
- Franchisor is wholesaler and retailer
- Franchisor keeps best sites for corporate stores
- Franchisor must approve new buyer
- Franchisor overcharges for required products
- Franchisor sells out
- Franchisor sells to competitor
- Franchisor sues candidate franchisee for not taking store
- Franchisor takes back high-volume store
- Franchisor takes franchisee store, gives to relative
- Franchisor takes franchisee store, resells to new dealer
- Franchisor takes franchisee stores
- Franchisor takes store and converts to corporate
- Franchisor trade association confirms franchisor opportunism is appropriate
- Franchisor tries to break franchisee association "union"
- Franchisor tries to take store without legal authority to do so
- Franchisor uses brand ownership to try to bust franchisee association
- I own the assets but the franchisor controls them
- Language shortcomings create a vulnerability
- Lease controlled by franchisor
- Loyalty program
- No franchisor support
- Opportunism Test: If asset ownership were reversed, would decision likely change?
- Pooled money
- Rebranding usually hides real objective
- Refusal to acknowledge independent franchisee association
- Refuses to back loan applications
- Related company transactions
- Relative of franchisor owns construction company
- Resale or transfer store through franchisor to new franchisee
- Resale permission unreasonably withheld
- Resale value set by franchisor
- Resales as a profit center
- Sabotage
- Saturates markets through multiple distribution channels
- Sets up competing distribution channel
- Starts 2nd system from insolvent 1st
- Stock market pressures make franchisor push system sales higher and higher
- Telephone number controlled by franchisor
- Unilateral fines
- Were in default for some time: why terminate now?
