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Well, around here there is no competition for them to set up next to. The competition here is a really crappy cafe 4 miles away, where I would never go in the first place. For beans, the competition is the supermarkets, who don't know what they're selling and don't give a damn.
The whole question is really whether franchises are what people want. If you hate Starbucks for being a franchise and acting competitively, there are an awful lot of other chains you have to hate as well, in my opinion.
But I think the franchises have had an easy time of it because the mom and pop places in the world have no sense for business. While developing web sites, I tried to deal with both independent bookstores in the Philly area; one went out of business while the other owners were a terrible pain to deal with and could not even make basic decisions.
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