What restricts rural towns from getting franchised stores?

Question

Im a senior and doing a geography spatial inquiry about my area and plans for new developments in it etc. I live in a town in south australia called kadina which is the largest town in the copper coast and unofficial capital of the yorke peninsula, a popular tourist location.We have a permanent population of over 6000 people but the yorke peninsula's population DOUBLES in holidays. We have a few stores such as Subway and Target and Cheap as Chips, but that's about where it ends. There has been talk about new developments and of making the town into a "shopping precinct" for the yorke peninsula, but i was wondering why it is so difficult to bring the more popular shops to the town. We're only an hour and a half out of Adelaide, and places that are further like Pt. Pirie have KFC and K-mart, and other things we apparently can't get. I was wondering if anyone knows anything specific about franchises branching out to towns like mine and that sort of thing.. Any information would be helpful

Answer 1

My opinion - each franchise is independently owned and operated, meaning that someone in your area has to have an interest in setting up a particular franchise there.

The reasons they may not want to:

* Competition with the other already-established franchises

* The set-up costs out-weigh the predicted income of the store (ie the owners would research the turn-over of other franchises inside and outside the area to determine whether their business idea is a viable option)

But basically all you need is someone with the money willing to take the risk and go for it...

Answer 2

The main thing I would say would be that many small towns can't support too much "big business" regardless of whether they are serving one town or seven or eight towns.  I also live in a town of around 6000 residents (in rural NSW).  We are only 90-100 minutes from Canberra and we have McDonald's, KFC, Subway, Woolies, IGA, Big W, Harvey Norman, and Joyce Maine.  I know at least one or two of these big businesses are struggling because there is just not enough support from our town and visitors to our town to keep the business financially viable in the town.  Any more big business and there'd be store closures.  Many of the people I know in town are more than happy to travel to Canberra, or to other larger towns (20-40 thousand residents) that exist within 1.5-2 hours from us to do anything more major than grocery shopping.  It's part of country life, and is the norm.  It's the best way for the economies of all country towns to survive.  I'd put it all down to finances of the businesses and of individuals.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

I think the answer is in the words "an hour and a half out of Adelaide".  That is quite close in the scheme of things, and people are able to get to Adelaide for major shops.  

Tourists do not provide the necessary steady income.  An interesting corollary is Jindabyne, near the NSW ski fields.  There would be lots of custom for the 3 months of the ski season but little for the rest of the year.  There are no fast food franchises in Jindabyne.

Answer 4

The answer to your question is the population of the area. Why move a big business into a small town, when the amount of people that live in the surrounding area is only small?. Can you see that business surviving on thin air? no.

Answer 5

The answer to your actual question in one word :Economics

Answer 6

From what I was told by the then mayor when i lived in Moonta 8 years ago. The main reason we didnt get franchises in was to do with putting the little people out of business. As you would know the marina has opened up jobs yes but there is a high unemployment rate in the Copper Triangle. So places like the fish and chip shops pizza bars wouldnt be able to cope with the competition  as the prices would be markedly different due to bulk buying by head office.

                  Cheers Davina