The Rural Voice, 1989-12, Page 10CLARKHILL FEEDERS LTD.
Time to say Thank You and Best
Wishes for a successful 1990
INNOVATOR
SIYPLY...TNE BEST
VAI MALI
Ouallty Plus
UVESTOCK EOUIPMENT
R.R. 5, Goderich, Ont. N7A 3Y2
Phil Clark
519-524-4367
', MERRY — �1-e —ice
E+IRI5TMA! /1
May all your days ,
shine with o bright-
ness that fills your
heart with joy and
contentment on this
holiest of holidays'
COURTNEY
FARM SUPPLIES
RIPLEY 519-395-2915
Durham Welding Supplies Ltd.
• Canadian Liquid Air
cutting & welding
equipment
• Miller arc welders
• Gases
• Wires
• Electrodes
for Dependable Weekly Delivery
Call:
Durham Welding
Supplies Ltd.
Durham. Ont
519-369-3546
1-800-265-3885
Serving the welding industry since 1952
8 THE RURAL VOICE
SUPPLY MANAGEMENT:
FREEDOM IS RELATIVE
11161,1 Keith Roulston, a newspaper publisher
and playwright who lives near Blyth,
is the originator and past publisher of
The Rural Voice.
While some farmers still reject
supply management because they
would lose some of their traditional
freedom, perhaps they should look at
what's happening in the rest of the
business world.
If the world is changing rapidly on
the farm, it's changing just as fast in
the main street hardware store, at the
lumber yard, at the grocery store, and
possibly even at the local restaurant.
Some businessmen are buying
franchises. Many more, often owners
of family businesses who once valued
their independence, have been forced
into joining buying groups to get any
buying power with suppliers. A few
probably think they've made a bargain
with the devil, as more and more of
the decision-making is taken out of
their hands.
A family I know recently had their
store redone in the corporate colours
of their buying group. They didn't
have much choice. They were told to
do it or there were other people who
would gladly take over their franchise.
Then the company announced that
the store's advertising flyers would no
longer be distributed through the local
newspaper but would be mailed from
head office, thanks to a deal with Can-
ada Post. The family was happy with
the results through the local paper, but
the head office decision was final.
The business would be billed for the
cost of the program they didn't want.
In many buying groups there is an
automatic checkoff, a certain percent-
age added to cover promotion costs.
Some head offices are starting to say
what must be stocked in the stores.
If buying groups are a long way
from the independent merchant, fran-
chises are a world apart. In his book
Roadside Empires: How the Chains
Franchised America, Stan Luxemberg
deals with the burgeoning franchise
empires across the continent.
Franchisers discovered that when
they want to build a new fast food
restaurant, they don't have to come
up with the cash; they find somebody
who dreams of being "independent"
to make the investment. Then they sit
back and tell him how to do it, making
money if he succeeds and risking
nothing if he doesn't.
The theory is that any fool can run
a franchise. McDonald's has its Ham-
burger University where new franchis-
ees are sent to learn how to run a fran-
chise by the book. It literally is by the
book with many franchises. A manual
covers just about every eventuality,
and the franchisee is expected to use
it. Sometimes inspectors travel the
circuit making sure the formula is be-
ing followed and that no franchisee is
freelancing with his or her own ideas.
The big bonus for the franchising
company is that everything that goes
into running the franchise must be
purchased from the franchiser. You
think you can get paper towels cheap-
er locally? Sorry. Your contract says
you buy it from the company. And of
course the company makes a profit on
each towel, just as it makes money
putting a mark-up on flyers.
What this is doing, besides turning
independent businessmen into slaves
who pay to be told what to do (and
often, admittedly, for the privilege of
making a good profit), is sapping the
economic vitality of our small com-
munities. The supplies a restaurant
might have bought locally come from
a big supplier in the city that sells to
the parent company. The advertising
dollars that might have helped keep
alive a local newspaper (or magazine)
are siphoned off to big -city television
stations or printers of flyers.
Most of the formerly independent
businessmen didn't join these groups
for the pleasure of it; they joined for
survival. Many might envy the dairy
or poultry farmers who some say have
surrendered too much freedom.°