CW writes:


Charlie, you're making far to much sense for this guy. He'll never catch
it.


Well, I watched the retail guys go nuts at Woodcraft when I was there because
they couldn't get a franchisee to carry a strong line of power tools, with
their high ticket, low margin work-up. He claimed that the percentage wasn't
enough to justify, etc., etc., etc. And he has a lot of company, though to as
vociferous. A lot of people would rather sell 1000 $10 blurfls at 65% gross
profit than 2 $1500 blurfls at 17% gross profit, especially if the cheaper
blurfl is a near certain 1000 seller in the period of time the 2 expensive
items might move.

I don't know the final resolution, but there were rumors the company was going
to buy out the franchise. I got let go before it was resolved, or at least
before I heard about it.

Sometimes franchisees can be ballbreakers, and justifiably so, IMO, because
their investment starts around half a mil for a full-sized store.

I haven't seen one yet, but there are smaller market franchises available, with
2 now open, 1 in my old home town of Albany, NY and another in a town near
where I will soon be living, Roanoke, VA.

Anyway, IF the Rockler store is a franchise, that may explain part of the
changes in the line. And, as I recall, I'd be really curious about the sales
associate mentioned earlier. He was going to quit. Did he, or was that more
balm for the customer, who is not always right, but is always the customer,
from whence all profits flow? Or was he a lot like a couple guys I got promises
about years ago: "We'll fire those turkeys today. They can't treat our
customers like that." So the boss fires the guy, in front of the customer, and
a week later, he's back in place, probably never having left.

Charlie Self
"It is not strange... to mistake change for progress." Millard Fillmore