The bee versus the clown — it’s a fascinating match, really.

The SBA, of course, requires a business plan to guarantee a loan but how can business plans be prepared when franchisors routinely do not disclose unit performance statistics of their systems?

(The SBA subdizes franchisors because a franchisee is actually NOT a small business person in the true sense of rhe word and the SBA acknowledges this fact. A franchisee is merely leasing the brand name of a business as an investment vehicle under a finite contract in which the franchisor owns the gross sales under a binding and usurous contract in which the franchisee produces gross sales by building and operating a business on which to hang the brand name. The SBA and the tax payers subsidize big business through the subsidy of the franchisee who can qualify for a government guaranteed loan, even as his franchisor himself cannot qualify for a guaranteed government loan because legal pyramid sales schemes like franchises are not eligible for government guaranteed loans. In a sense, the franchisees act as collateral on which the franchisors are approved for loans.)

McDonald’s remains a favorite of the public because of its devotion to families and to pricing that families and singles can afford. While the QSR sector is saturated in most markets, McDonald’s maintains its favored position and ever grows market share in times of recession because McDonald’s has become an American and World Standard that is trusted throughout the World for quality and price.

McDonald’s could disclose the unit performance statistics of their system and still recruit new franchisees, no doubt! If McDonald’s can survive the disclosure of unit performance statistics to new buyers of their franchise, why don’t they do this? Wouldn’t this help them to drive out even more of their competitors and grow their market share? Isn’t this the name of the game?

What am I missing here? Are unit performance statistics not considered MATERIAL by the government regulators for new buyers of franchises because the competition between franchisors of the same and similar concepts to recruit franchisees would mean that some competitors would be driven out of the market at a faster pace? — And, this faster pace of elimination through competition would mean that there would be some constraint on the growth of franchising,

While the stockholders of McDonald’s have reason to feel safe, should the stockholders and investors in franchisors who turn and churn and encroach on their own franchisees out of view of the public and the regulators feel safe when franchisors are not mandated to share the unit performance statistics of their systems with the public?