Our lawyers have handled many cases in which franchisees were cheated in joining convenience stores. Many franchisees are attracted by the so-called company support policy, thinking that they can easily open stores and wait for money by spending 20,000 yuan to join the company, 20,000 yuan to decorate and equipment, and then preparing 20,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan of goods. In fact, it happened to fall into the "joining scam" carefully prepared by the company.
1, 50%, 20%, 10% or even 0%.
Many companies use ultra-low franchise fee or even 0 franchise fee as bait to attract franchisees to inspect. However, the franchise fee level is completely determined by the company unilaterally, which fluctuates greatly and is difficult to measure. The discount is meaningless and ultimately depends on the amount to be paid. Moreover, many companies deliberately attract franchisees through ultra-low franchise fees, and then increase their fees in various names.
2. Free site selection service is not free.
When attracting investment, many companies often advertise that they will choose a site for franchisees free of charge, and the "gold medal site selection teacher" will personally choose the site and issue a written site selection report. After the franchisee signs the contract, the company will ask the franchisee to pay the travel expenses (fare+accommodation+meals) of the site teacher in advance. When the franchisee suggested that this was obviously inconsistent with the company's original idea of free site selection, the company claimed that the salary of the site selection teacher was paid by the company without the franchisee, but the travel expenses incurred by the site selection needed to be borne by the franchisee, and the company would only arrange the site selection work after the franchisee paid the travel expenses in advance. Even if franchisees are unwilling to pay this fee, considering that they have signed the franchise contract and paid tens of thousands of yuan for cooperation, they often don't want to confront the company because of the 2000 yuan travel expenses, and finally they pay the fee in advance according to the company's requirements.
Moreover, the so-called "gold medal site selection teacher" is not a professional site selection person, but may be a newly hired floating person or an intermediary agency that cooperates with the company. The location is very random, and we don't investigate and explain the nearby business circle, people flow and consumption level, just to complete the task as soon as possible and persuade franchisees to choose the store address as soon as possible.
3. Decoration service must be provided by the company or a third party designated by the company, and the charging standard of decoration fee is opaque.
In order to earn high decoration expenses, the company basically stipulates in the contract that the franchisee's shop must be decorated by the company or a third party designated by the company, which is also called "ensuring the unity of the brand". Moreover, when signing the contract, the charging standard of the decoration fee will never be disclosed, but the franchisee can only use the excuse that it needs to wait until the franchisee's shop is rented and measured on the spot before quoting. This kind of risk is very great, because the contract stipulates that the company or the third party designated by the company is responsible for the decoration, so no matter how much the decoration fee is quoted, the franchisee has no room for counter-offer.
In fact, the quotation of the company's decoration expenses is often much higher than the market price, even 2-3 times of the market price. A convenience store with an internal area of 30 square meters only needs to paint a big white wall, install the ceiling and distribute water and electricity. The decoration cost is as high as 60 thousand to 70 thousand Note that the decoration here only refers to hard clothes, and does not include the cost of bar, cashier, cabinet, equipment and so on.
4, prepaid equipment costs, equipment prices are extremely high.
The decoration mentioned above is just a hard outfit. In addition to hard clothes, other soft clothes in the store, such as bar, advertising light box, smoke cabinet, wine cabinet, shelf, freezer, etc. , it will be stipulated in the franchise contract that it must be purchased or customized from the company. However, when signing the contract, the company will not inform the charging standard and sample pictures (material, size and time) of each piece of equipment.
Many companies charge franchisees in advance, and then refund more and make up less. When franchisees pay for the equipment in advance, they have no idea what the equipment contains, what the unit price is, what model it is, how good it is, and they have never seen a sample. When they sent the equipment, they found that the things sent by the company were of poor quality and high price, and some even had no products. The so-called "more refund and less compensation" will only make you up, but will not give you a refund. No matter how much you pay for the equipment in advance, the company will tamper with the price list and calculate all the expenses. As for the extremely high price of the above equipment, franchisees often have no hope of defending their rights, because how much equipment is sold is a market behavior, and it is normal for companies to earn the difference, so it is difficult to defend their rights on the grounds of high price.
Global supply chain and 24-hour delivery are just gimmicks.
The supply channel is the lifeblood of a convenience store. If there is a supply channel with good quality, complete categories and favorable prices, franchisees can gain higher market share and higher profit space through this perfect supply chain. If the company doesn't even have a supply chain, what's the difference between joining and not joining?
In order to attract franchisees, many companies often advertise that they have a global supply chain and 24-hour door-to-door delivery, but in fact, they just find a local supplier for franchisees, or directly provide a small program for franchisees to place their own orders and deliver them to their doors after reaching a certain quantity, which is even more impossible. Even the supplier price provided by the company is more expensive than the supplier price in the market (the company draws or takes kickbacks), so it is better not to join. So when you join the company, you must ask clearly what supply channels the company has, how to calculate the delivery fee, how much to order, etc., and write these supply channels and cooperation modes into the contract.
The concept of 24-hour retail is just a concept.
In the cases handled by lawyers, many convenience store companies will publicize their commitment to give away unmanned smart doors and unattended systems for free when attracting investment, so as to attract franchisees with 24-hour unmanned retail. When franchisees opened their stores and asked the company for the unattended system, the company said that the system was given away for free, but they had to pay more than 8,000 to 10000 for installation and purchase corresponding monitoring equipment.
7. Value-added services have no services, and support policies have no support.
Many companies promise to provide the following value-added services and support policies when inviting investment: 1, giving away a full set of cooked food equipment; 2. Give away welfare lottery machines, doll machines, weighing machines and other equipment; 3, three times a month commodity promotion activities planning; 4. The monthly exhibition fee is 500- 1000 yuan; 5. Set up a rookie station express delivery and receiving site for the store free of charge; 6, free docking online applet, beautiful group, hungry, prosperous optimization, etc. After the franchisee's store opens, the company will find various reasons to refuse to provide services and support.
To sum up, franchisees should not trust the company's verbal commitment when inspecting the project, and must write all services into the contract, so as to have a basis for safeguarding rights in the future.