Quote:
Originally Posted by parafly
Correct, and my point is that consumer choices are the ultimate factor.
He was out of business because too many consumers chose Carvel, Cold Stone, and Ben & Jerry's over his mom and pop local shop. Were start up costs a factor in the business failure? Perhaps, but they wouldn't have put him out of business if he had an adequate number of customers.
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Carvel, Cold Stone etc are mom and pop franchises just like the Tasti Delight my friend opened. None of those stores are corporate owned.
He went out of business because his startup expenses were too high. Nothing else. When he wanted to add sandwiches and soup to the shop there was another slew of regulations and hoops to jump through. The cost was a killer (alongside a poor choice of location IMO).
My point is that back in the 80's anything an entrapreneuer threw money at turned to gold. Real Estate - Gold, Buy a taxi medallian - Gold, Put money in stocks - gold. Gas Station - Gold. Almost every type of investment worked out between 1980 and 2000. For the past 12 years that just hasn't been the case. Real Estate has been a disaster. Stocks are crap. Good luck buying a 1Million dollar taxi medallian and making a profit. Open a restaurant? They have a 90% failure rate. Things are tough today.