[Ti] who owns the stores?

[Michael Bigley]

>We're talking about a system that is in its infancy. This isn't 
>Sears. Would you rather have a somewhat responsible party, Apple, 
>available for redress, complaints, etc, or any tom, dick or harry 
>that could swing a franchise fee?

Actually franchising works well for small companies who need or want 
to grow rapidly and don't have the physical resources to do it; or in 
some cases, where the business itself is very transitional (a big 
corp like Pepsi may start a franchise of yogurt stores, because the 
business may be a fad and overall exposure is defrayed to a bunch of 
individuals). Apple is actually closer to Sears, who doesn't 
franchise either; with over 14,000 employees  there are lots of 
opportunities to leverage existing resources (marketing, PR, store 
design, regional management, finance, etc.). They are selling mostly 
their own products and those products are "dated". Franchising would 
create a whole new issue of quota inventories as mentioned by someone 
earlier; and would inhibit Apple's ability to keep new product 
launches secret.

When I go into an Apple Store to buy something, they enter my name 
and information from my online user account pops up.  They could 
never combine those sorts of resources with a franchise operation and 
still maintain integrity and security of your personal information 
(and thank goodness Apple takes security seriously).

Bottom line, IMHO, is that not franchising is a good business 
decision by Apple. Forcing other retail distributors out with gestapo 
contractual tactics is a stupid business decision. Not having a 
definitive customer service training and follow up program -- 
including "secret shoppers" who evaluate service, is a slow death of 
a thousand cuts (look at how much bandwidth it has taken up on this 
list of solid Mac users!)
-- 
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Mike Bigley                Maineville, Ohio
       http://www.norbertrunning.com
Please support an American Indian Elder &
Medicine Man by visiting the above link.
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