Sunday, August 2, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Act now or it will be too late!
Hi All,
With what I have learned so far unless you guys get your acts together and unit in a single voice, it would be very difficult to achieve your goals of profitability and any return on your investments. The under cutting of your shop(s) profits and creating a parallel market to compete with you was not accidental, the sale of discounted pints in direct competition with your shops is very much a deliberate act. There is no way the corporate would link the supermarket sales to the scoop shops as some of you have hoped, it is the other way around! How many of you were aware that your own distributor is in direct competition with you, very shops they supply offer catering services? Have you checked the distributor’s website recently? They (at least our local one) offer catering events with 5-6 brands including that of your brand and the equipments with it!! That’s right, any corporate, private, public, cities, large and small, could book and request the ever growing pre-packed items and the equipment including ice cream cart with it, the distributor would drop it off and pick it up, therefore they bypass the scoop shops, and increase their profit, it is win win for the distributor and the corporate and only loser in this cycle are the franchisees. You develop the market with your customer service, community works, all that free samples and free cones and scooping at the events, but the corporate wants your clients and their buck (market share). Within few years, you are out, corporate need to protect their market then you become dispensible, your investment is gone, years of your hardship is gone and corporate does not give a dam about what you did and how much you have lost. To them, you are just casualty of doing business. I would have started a boycott. Tell your customer to stop buying Supermarket products in support of their neighbourhood scoop shops and to keep scoop shops alive campaign. Keep records of shortages, lighted tubs, when products texture is not what they used to be, when the chunks are gone, test and look different and customer complains record all that and let the corporate know, not just by a passive posting but by shouting and demanding it to be right. It is after all your investment down the drain!
Do it before time run out. If I were you guys and still wearing the corporate hat, I would think about myself and my family first, forget all the feel good promises and false self-serving marketing campaigns and premium products nonsense. With what I have learned, I am not sure if the super premium products as we used to know still exist. I found myself defending the integrity of very same products that I never owned, I just had a pleasure of serving it! The argument put forth is that, the corporate owns the brand, the formula and the goodwill and they can very much do anything that they are dam pleased. If they want to change their formula and come down with anything they come down with, you are obligated to serve, and there is not much you can argue. Forget that at one point we were promised super premium products, premium ingredient and company that supported social justices. None of that exists today. I am seeing them with their gloves off and I am horrified with how expose you and you investments are.
Anyhow, forgive me, I was busy keeping up with all the stuff that I had to respond and or produce in the past few months and could not keep you up to date. In the coming days or as soon as I could, I would list my witnesses for the trial, and those of you that have any concerns and or would not be able to attend the trial, can call me direct to discuss your concerns and or scheduling. The trial is currently schedule for December 7, 2009. It may change, we are still waiting to hear with the possible scheduling changes.
Mehrdad
xshops@aol.com
With what I have learned so far unless you guys get your acts together and unit in a single voice, it would be very difficult to achieve your goals of profitability and any return on your investments. The under cutting of your shop(s) profits and creating a parallel market to compete with you was not accidental, the sale of discounted pints in direct competition with your shops is very much a deliberate act. There is no way the corporate would link the supermarket sales to the scoop shops as some of you have hoped, it is the other way around! How many of you were aware that your own distributor is in direct competition with you, very shops they supply offer catering services? Have you checked the distributor’s website recently? They (at least our local one) offer catering events with 5-6 brands including that of your brand and the equipments with it!! That’s right, any corporate, private, public, cities, large and small, could book and request the ever growing pre-packed items and the equipment including ice cream cart with it, the distributor would drop it off and pick it up, therefore they bypass the scoop shops, and increase their profit, it is win win for the distributor and the corporate and only loser in this cycle are the franchisees. You develop the market with your customer service, community works, all that free samples and free cones and scooping at the events, but the corporate wants your clients and their buck (market share). Within few years, you are out, corporate need to protect their market then you become dispensible, your investment is gone, years of your hardship is gone and corporate does not give a dam about what you did and how much you have lost. To them, you are just casualty of doing business. I would have started a boycott. Tell your customer to stop buying Supermarket products in support of their neighbourhood scoop shops and to keep scoop shops alive campaign. Keep records of shortages, lighted tubs, when products texture is not what they used to be, when the chunks are gone, test and look different and customer complains record all that and let the corporate know, not just by a passive posting but by shouting and demanding it to be right. It is after all your investment down the drain!
Do it before time run out. If I were you guys and still wearing the corporate hat, I would think about myself and my family first, forget all the feel good promises and false self-serving marketing campaigns and premium products nonsense. With what I have learned, I am not sure if the super premium products as we used to know still exist. I found myself defending the integrity of very same products that I never owned, I just had a pleasure of serving it! The argument put forth is that, the corporate owns the brand, the formula and the goodwill and they can very much do anything that they are dam pleased. If they want to change their formula and come down with anything they come down with, you are obligated to serve, and there is not much you can argue. Forget that at one point we were promised super premium products, premium ingredient and company that supported social justices. None of that exists today. I am seeing them with their gloves off and I am horrified with how expose you and you investments are.
Anyhow, forgive me, I was busy keeping up with all the stuff that I had to respond and or produce in the past few months and could not keep you up to date. In the coming days or as soon as I could, I would list my witnesses for the trial, and those of you that have any concerns and or would not be able to attend the trial, can call me direct to discuss your concerns and or scheduling. The trial is currently schedule for December 7, 2009. It may change, we are still waiting to hear with the possible scheduling changes.
Mehrdad
xshops@aol.com
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