I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.

[da man]

Maybe this should go in its own thread, but consider this: You have a guy with a high school diploma who was a B/C average in math and English but has a good work ethic and is willing to learn the basics of running your own business, and decides he may want to open a doughnut shop in town...

...he'll need $500,000 to open a Dunkin Donuts franchise!

I work with Dunkin Donuts franchisees every day, and you couldn't be more wrong, or more naive.

Here's the story of Dunkin Donuts in Chicago:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/61686

So many of the franchisees I work with started out as immigrants working as hourly employees, at low wages.

They proved themselves. They became managers. Then they became operating partners.

Family members have pooled money. They've gotten other family members involved. They save all of their money to open up the next franchise.

I really forking wish that some of you would talk to a small business owner sometime.

Dunkin' Donuts has turned hardworking immigrant entrepreneurs into millionaires.

It takes money to open any business. It has always been so and will ever be so.

 

[YankeeFan]

So by writing "no angel", it was read by some people that the author was legitimizing that the got shot?

I am lost.

On the day of his funeral!

This is the journalistic equivalent of going golfing right after holding a press conference regarding the beheading of a journalist.

It's so insensitive.

And, from an African-American no less.

 

[Songbird]

He was no angel but man alive, could he strong-arm a Korean grocer half his size.

 

[YankeeFan]

It takes money to open any business. It has always been so and will ever be so.

Of course it does. (I know you are not arguing with me.)

But, when families pool money, it doesn't take as much per person.

And, businesses need operators.

Amrit Patel can't run every store himself. So, if you prove yourself as good operator and manager, someone like Mr. Patel might be willing to bring you in as a partner.

These stores are open very long hours. They open up very early, or are open 24 hours. Family members, and fellow immigrants make up the majority of the employees.

And, when they make enough money from the first store, they open a second one.

It's not an easy business. It's not glamorous, or prestigious. To act like it's some impossible version of the American dream, when it's the very example of the American dream is insane.

 

[YankeeFan]

American Dream:

"We've all been taught by our families to never forget where you came from and at the same time to know where you are and where you want to go," said Vishal Shah, whose late father, Prabhulal Shah, was a good friend of Amrit Patel's and bought the family's first Chicago-area franchise in 1977.

Globally from East to West, hardships ranging from war to barren economic landscapes often motivated future franchise owners to leave home to seek safety and better opportunities for themselves and their families. And the Dunkin' Donuts franchise rewarded hard work and teamwork even as it offered extended families and immigrant networks a foothold in a new land and a launch pad for their American dreams.

Each immigrant group points to a few pioneers who risked everything they had as well as their family's future when they bought that first franchise.
Shah called it the Pied Piper model: "One or two respected members of the community finds a franchise, likes it and notices it is profitable and thinks it would make a good business."

In the Gujarati community around Chicago, Amrit Patel was leading the way. "People knew Amrit back in the day, and it kind of just grew," said Shah. "It was a good way to create wealth while maintaining a family structure." Siraj Virani wasn't the first member of his Ismaili community to buy a franchise, but he has become one of the best known. His journey started in 1971, during the Indo-Pakistani war, when he traveled by boat, camel and on foot from what is now Bangladesh to join his mother and siblings in Pakistan. Then, armed with a scholarship, he made his way as a 19-year-old to America. In 1985, he succeeded in buying his first Dunkin' Donuts franchise in the Chicago area.

Virani's determination paid off. He now has 13 stores and supplies baked goods for another 18 stores around Chicago, and recently he was honored with the American Dream award by the National Restaurant Association.

http://judyrakowsky.com/east-meets-west-different-cultures-build-dunkin%E2%80%99-donuts-success/

 

[JayFarrar]

I suspect the franchise fee wasn't $500,000 in 1977 or whenever it was when he first opened up.

The reality is, it is much more expensive and a much harder task to open a franchise of anything now.

A high school only graduate might not even make it through the screening that some franchises have for prospective owners or operators.

Pooling money often doesn't meet the franchise expectations either. The point of the article, at least as I read it, is that the franchise operations aren't looking to make a poor or middle class person wealthy, they're looking for someone who already has money and using the franchise operation as a way to diversify and expand their portfolio.

The same way they tell rich athletes to buy a chain restaurant or car dealership in their hometowns as a way to keep the money going once their shoulder or knee decides they can't play sports any more.

 

[YankeeFan]

I suspect the franchise fee wasn't $500,000 in 1977 or whenever it was when he first opened up.

The reality is, it is much more expensive and a much harder task to open a franchise of anything now.

Bullshirt.

You don't know what you're talking about, and I'm guessing you couldn't be bothered to read the article I linked to.

In 1973, the franchise cost $71,500. That's $383,668.36 in today's dollars.

http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

That's not quite what it costs now, but it wasn't cheap. The article says he used his savings, plus $10,000 he borrowed from friends to make a $30,000 down payment.

The numbers are all higher today, but they work the exact same way. And, it's happening today. I know these people.

Also, Dunkin' Donuts is a proven commodity. Dunkin franchisees make money. This is known. It's proven. Of course it takes money to open a Dunkin.

When Mr. Patel bought his first franchise, it wasn't a proven concept outside of New England.

There are hundreds of franchise opportunities today. Not all of them cost $500,000, but cheaper ones come with more risk.

 

[doctorquant]

Give it up YF ... You'd as soon shirt a yellow posthole digger as change some minds (re: this topic) 'round here.

 

[YankeeFan]

And, yes, if you want to take a proven concept into a new area, the company is going to be looking for multi-store operators. They will want you to have lots of money, and a proven track record.

And, you can buy the rights to open stores in an entire state.

This is for proven concepts. Of course they want folks with money and a track record.

Dunkin just opened there first store in California. I would imagine they sold the franchise rights to large areas of the state to folks who have a lot of money, and probably operate other chains already.

But, to cite Dunkin, and to bash them, when they have been the vehicle of wealth for hundreds of hard working immigrants is unfair. And, by partnering with current franchisees, you can still get into the game. But, you have to put in the time and work to form a relationship with these people. You have to work in a donut shop for years. There just aren't that many people who are willing to do that.

And, if you want a franchise at a cheaper price, go with a newer or less proven concept, that needs franchisees.

 

[old_tony]

There are two options here, mutually exclusive:

(1) We have failed African-Americans on a grand scale, policy-wise, from slavery through today;

(2) Shiftless nuggets.

Boy. And I get accused of looking at things as being either black or white.

Is there no shade of gray here?

And, what's your formula for Asian/Indian Subcontinent success:

(1) We have instituted a system on a grand scale, policy-wise, that has catapulted them to success

(2) Super geniuses, combined with an unequaled work ethic, and entrepreneurial drive

Again: One is supplied with a tremendous head start when one is not forcibly brought to the U.S., shackled and packed like a sardine, on a rickety boat.

Care to show me one?

A slave ship?

Is there some question that these existed, and that Africans were brought to the colonies and, later, the United States, inside of them?

Today? Seriously? Even within the last 100 years? Within the last 150?

 

[LongTimeListener]

Dunkin' Donuts sounds like a wonderful opportunity for African-American franchisees. From 2012:

http://nypost.com/2012/08/20/dunkin-sued-over-bias/

A suit filed by a group of former franchisees claims the coffee and doughnut chain routinely discriminates against minority owners, particularly African-Americans, by pushing them to buy in poor, less profitable areas.

The complaint, filed today in New Jersey state court, accuses Dunkin' Brands of giving white franchise developers prime pastry locations, while minorities are left with "economically disadvantaged or marginal areas."

Dunkin' Brands, based in Canton, Mass., operates nearly 7,000 franchises throughout the country, with roughly 50 owned by African-Americans. Of those, the majority are located in "economically less advantageous areas," according to the suit.

The suit says Dunkin' doesn't have any African-American owners in Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island — traditional strongholds for the Northeastern chain.

The complaint also claims that Dunkin' prevents minority owners from expanding with additional stores, making it tougher for them to cut costs and become profitable.

 

[YankeeFan]

Since we're still talking about policy failures, and because I brought up the suburban model as part of it, I submit this, which illustrates the larger problem with Ferguson in general:

http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2014/8/25/stroad-nation.html#.U_tphmO_USw

If you live in Ferguson, you are essentially forced to drive for your employment and your daily needs. That is the way the city was designed. There was no thought given to the notion that people there might not always be prosperous, that they might desire to – or have an urgent need to – get around without an automobile. When you look through the city's planning documents, you see that walking/biking infrastructure still primarily means recreation, not transportation, despite the obvious desperate need for options.

Unfortunately, nothing I've brought up here is really unique to Ferguson. All of our auto-oriented places are somewhere on the predictable trajectory of growth, stagnation and decline.

...

We're entering a really dangerous phase of this Suburban Experiment. While we once believed that the path to prosperity was the "American Dream", a house in the suburbs and an ownership society (FDR saw this as a social equity issue as did GWB), it is now evident that this approach creates poverty. It not only creates it, it locks it into place in a self-reinforcing cycle. Like I've said before, how we respond to this is the social challenge of this generation.

But, isn't this part of the policy failure?

These communities were built around the car. The giant housing communities came later.

Brown apparently lived in one of two big housing communities according to the LA Times:

Brown stayed at Canfield with friends and, earlier this year, with his grandmother at the adjacent Northwinds apartments.

Why are we building low income housing where there aren't jobs, and there isn't a public transportation infrastructure?

And, here's another question:

What if instead of going to school for heating and cooling, Big Mike, Dorian Johnson, uncle Bernard had pooled their money, and bought a beat up old passenger van, and had filled a community need by starting a "Dollar Van" service?

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/10/the-illegal-private-bus-system-that-works/246166/

All day and night, they would drive up and down West Florissant Avenue, and would make stops at Canfield and Northwinds, and other housing communities.

For just a dollar or two, the residents of these communities would have reliable transportation to commercial areas where jobs were.

Do you think the city, with all it's regulations would celebrate, and promote this new service, or do you think they would move to shut it down?

If the government would let/help them, the community could come up with solutions to these problems. But, our public policy often creates roadblocks to these solutions.