Bloody Franchise

Hi all, allow me to introduce myself.  I’m Bloody.  My blog is about the dirty little secrets of franchising.  It’s not a site to make money or to show everyone how great a writer I am.  I’m not.  But I am an honest, law abiding citizen that was the victim of a scam that has gone unnoticed and uncovered for way too long.  I was denied due process, had my home, my business and my life destroyed by the greed of a company that operates right under your nose.  I started over and would have gone unnoticed in the mainstream had it not been for a lifelong friend who bought into a totally unrelated franchise program and had the very same thing happen to him.  Being a responsible person, I believe someone must speak up.  Why can’t it be me.  After all, my retirement, my savings, my assets and every physical thing of value was sold to pay off debt.  I have no more to lose, and damned if I’ll lose my dignity and morality by keeping my mouth shut!

So the purpose of this blog is to showcase what goes on behind the scenes in franchising.  Since the days of Henry Ford, franchising has been a treacherous path.  Henry himself knew that when he needed a little extra money, he could simply pinch the franchisees for it.  After all, they had nothing without Henry’s cars to sell.  Henry went so far as to force all of the franchisees (dealerships) to prepay for all their cars.  Then and only then, would Henry deliver their orders on his own sweet schedule. Financing didn’t come about until GM founded GMAC to help finance the high cost of GM cars in order to compete with the low cost Model T.  Fast forward to the present and you’ll see that all of the big three automakers are about shutting dealerships because they have been oversold and underserved and now their only course is to take the food off the table of the middle class so they can fly around in their corporate jets (don’t sound a little bitter here, now do I)?

In most minds, there are some very great brands associated with franchising (McDonalds, KFC, BurgerKing, Dunkin Donuts, etc.), yet these corporations practice the most predatory behaviors allowed by law.  There are some very bad brands associated with franchising, who use the same type of predatory means and they too often go unnoticed (Subway, Quiznos, Curves, Snap-on, Meineke).  I’m not here to write about just the franchisors alone, as there are many others who do a grand job of this whom I will mention in future posts.

But there is an area of focus for this blog that has to do with the recent trends of how franchises are brokered, contracted, leased, sold and otherwise financed.  Here on Bloody Franchise, you’ll get to read about not just the franchisors on this blog, but about their less-than-honest broker partners, 401K (ROBS as the IRS appropriately classifies them), crooked leasing companies who disguise and bury the actual costs of the franchise inside capital equipment leases and other cute little scams which are bilking America out of its retirement and savings.  You won’t be surprised either when you get to meet these shady characters who often have history with subprime mortgage companies, shady business investment firms and secondary investment vehicle-type brokerage firms.

If you have a story, or you’ve had a friend who has been abused by this system, please write me and we’ll showcase the story and let you know what we know about others in the same franchise or same business.  If you have court rulings or knowledge of these companies, drop me an email or comment on a post.  It’s time for the little guys to organize and either do away with franchising altogether or bring reform by displacing the dishonest and bringing pride and innovation back to Main Street as we knew it before franchising fleeced middle-class America.