Disenfranchised: Why Are Americans Still Buying Into the Franchise Dream?

This really hits home, having grown up working at a franchise. We were acquaintances with another Mcdonald's franchisee who got equally screwed by corporate when they convinced him to spend a quarter of a million dollars renovating his store, which happened to be located in a terrible neighborhood. They also asked him to make it open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As a franchisee, he was not able to tell Mcdonald's corporate no, and sure enough a year later he was broke, having spent all that money and seen no return. He hung himself shortly thereafter.

Interesting article. I'm kinda fascinated by the hidden life of small storefront businesses.

There was a little cafe that I used to patronize on the weekend because it about the only place within walking distance that I could get a decent cup of coffee.

When I first started going there, I would find myself worrying over the fate of the place, as it never seemed to be busy enough and I really wanted it to succeed. Then, after about a year, when it seemed it had just gotten over the hump and was regularly busy and had amassed some positive reviews on Yelp, it closed up all of the sudden.

I ran into one of the workers there at another nearby restaurant a few weeks later and asked him what happened. He said the sheriff had come by a couple times for non-payment of rent or something. Finally, one afternoon, deputies came in, shut the place down, and put up an eviction notice. While they were still open for business serving customers.

Apparently the owners, a chef who seemed to always be working there and his partner who I'd often see in there with his son, just disappeared into the night, without paying any of the staff for the last three weeks they worked there.

This puts my old boss in a new light. It gives a reason as to why he was running two brands of franchises (Hardee's and Quiznos, how ironic), along with owning who knows how many rental houses. It also explains why everything was broken, and if it wasn't, shitty.