I know that my opinions are biased here and the majority of Grumblers are not franchisees so please do not be offended here, these are my opinions on some of the things that have been said here.
Franchises are impersonal... I can not speak for all but, if all of them are, why do they keep on selling them???
Franchise owners are more business oriented than independants...Sorry to burst bubbles here but franchise owners are independants as well. I also have seen franchise owners that are not business oriented, and many non franchise owners that are business oriented.
Franchise owners get into a franchise for some assurance that they will make some money...Show me a franchise that will tel you that you will make any amount of money and I will buy in. There is no franchise out there that will make any such promise. Whe selling a franchise, by law the franchisor has to tell you the good, bad, and ugly.
There are many assumptions that when you buy a franchise, you do not have any decision making abilities at all, you must follow everything that a corporat office tells everyone to do.....Go to 10 different McDonalds in a couple different states, they do not look alike and they do not have the same prices, many times they may not even have the same menu. A franchise sells a concept and a brand name. Of the top 5 DTW stores in the country I can guarantee you that they are all different sizes(sqft), have different products, have different prices, use diferent marketing concepts, use different colors on their walls, different carpet, and it goes on and on, yet they all do at least 5 times the industry average.
Independants may be swayed by emotion...any business owner can be swayed by emotion, it does not matter if you are an independant or franchise owner.
To answer your queston Cliff...It is not just the system or that owners are business people, it is a combination of both and other factors.
As I said in an earlier post, there are pros and cons..to each their own