CURVES: Franchise Award Question

rogers7808 writes:

I was interested in purchasing a Curves until I read some of the posts.

If Curves is such a bad deal, why has it been named “Franchisor of the Year for 2009?

Rogers7808:
There are no valid franchise awards/rankings that I know of (Though FranSurvey.Com at one time seemed to be useful and well-intentioned.  I’m not sure of its status currently). All are somehow driven by a self-serving motive. For Entrepreneur magazine, the 800 lb. gorilla of franchise rankings, it is ad sales and perpetuation of the franchise myth of great opportunities galore.

The 2009 Franchisor of the Year award was given by the AAFD (American Association of Franchisees & Dealers). This is the same organization that gave Cuppy’s Coffee – an outright scam organization – its highest accreditation and defended it despite tons of warning signs that they were pirates. Why? Because Cuppy’s was paying the AAFD. Once they stopped paying, AAFD “got religion.”

From what I understand, Curves International made a commitment to spend $250K or so funding the AAFD-sanctioned Curves franchisee association. Think that might have had something to do with it?

http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-aafd-names-curves-franchisor-of-the-year/

Keep in mind that the very name of the award is deceptive. Since their awards are solely for AAFD member organizations, shouldn’t it be designated as “Franchisor AAFD Member of the Year”? The award implies they evaluated all franchisors and designated the winner as the best. In fact, the number of franchisors involved with the AAFD is quite small.

Be sure to also check out:
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-overview/
http://www.bizzia.com/franchisepick/curves-is-franchisor-of-year-say-what/
http://www.bizzia.com/franchisepick/aafd-quietly-suspends-cuppys-franchisor-accreditation/

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