Meal Prep Franchisor Blames Franchisees…
June 17th, 2008 | 
Author: It’s a touch dated, but it’s an excellent example of the type of people who infest the meal assembly industry. One more class act who blames owners for the downfall of business. And just like Stephanie from Dream Dinners, they’re owners the Franchisor picked themselves.
Why are meal prep franchises failing? According to Michele Bellso in a recent article, the reasons are how much owners pay employees, customer relations, the price of food, and location, but mostly, it seems, greedy franchisees who “think they’ll make a million in the first year.â€
I wouldn’t be surprised if this story ends in lawsuits and jail time. In fact, I think the title of a book based on this industry should be called “Lawsuits and Jail Time”.
Meal Prep Franchisor Blames Franchisees…
Other Articles of Interest:
- Franchisor Attorney Lawsuits Evolve
- Checklist — Assessing the franchisor
- McDonald’s Franchisees, $100k+ in Costs for New Coffee Drinks
- Another Fifteen Franchisees Sue Dream Dinners Attorneys
- Why the Meal Prep / Meal Assembly Kitchen Franchises are Failing. Part 3
- Cash-strapped consumers turning their backs on meal-prep businesses
- Make & Take Gourmet Franchise Lawsuit: Failed Franchise Owners Allege Fraud
- Publix ends its Apron’s Make-Ahead Meals store experiment
- Ready-made dinners make sitting at the table easier
- You have a better chance of long-term success if you make sure your franchisees get rich first.
Posted in Meal Assembly Franchise
Even more devious… while Michele paints a rosy picture of life in the Make and Take world…knowing full well that her ship is sinking… she proposes to her current store owners that they”buy out” their franchise agreements… no future royalties… and her (oh so sucessful) marketing and corporate support will still exist…at least for a few years….all for a price…and, of course, release of liability to protect her against lawsuits….How can she feel entitled to anything more from the people that have already invested too much in her (obviously flawed) concept???? People have invested their life’s savings in her idea…and now are being encouraged to buy their way out??? Typical Bellso style….
Oh wow, so is this the new way Zors plan to get out of the mess they made and keep people from suing them, offering for the owners to “buy out†their franchise agreements? The Zor would make additional money off that sale and get protection from potential legal trouble and the owner gets off the hook for royalties. I hope people aren’t falling for this scam.
Didn’t someone mention Dream Dinners offered this to some of their owners?
So now you can buy that dead horse, lock, stock and barrel…
Unfortunately, this is not a new tactic at all. It’s an old standard, tried and true, and a key part of perpetuating the franchise scam. It’s classic misdirection that would impress David Copperfield.
The key is not the money… that’s incidental. The key, to the franchisor, is getting the waiver signed before the franchisee realizes they have a case against the pouty lipped zor.
You gotta hand it to Mee-shell Ma-Bell for her chutzpah. This is like a fly caught in a web telling the spider if he turns and walks away, the fly won’t have to kick his, um, abdomen.
Not to be mean, but any franchisee who would pay Meeshell Ma-Bell to give up their right to sue her botoxic butt was probably not destined to have any meaningful assets for long. I just wish they had sent their money to mee instead of mee-shell Ma-Bell.
I would have at least sent them a fruit basket and a thank you note. And a postcard from Aruba (or Arugula)
[...] commenter on meal prep discussion site Meal Assembly Watch stated: Even more devious… while Michele paints a rosy picture of life in the Make and Take [...]
Anyone going the “buy out” route or as I prefer to call it, “paying the hush money”?
Unhappy, that was a pretty darn funny little post.
[...] Make & Take owners hinted at the sordid tale some time ago from their franchisor. Not to be outdone there is some talk that Dream Dinners has latched onto the idea and will make it a part of their standard operating procedure, or closing procedure depending on how you look at it. [...]