A Pennsylvania man, George Freeman, decided that he was going to try to test the market in an unusual way and put up his franchise for sale on Craigslist.
(prHWY.com) August 27, 2012 - Seattle, WA -- A Pennsylvania man, George Freeman, decided that he was going to try to test the market in an unusual way and put up his franchise for sale on Craigslist.
"I've done all sorts of shopping around on places like E-bay and Craigslist in the last 20 years or so, because I like the idea that there is no specific middle man that you have to deal with," said Freeman. "No fancy advertisements, no brokers, no storefronts, no outlets, no messing around with things like taxes and tariffs. And I've actually been kicking around the idea for selling my franchise for quite some time now. So I just married the concepts together and this is what I came up with."
People who check
Craigslist in
Pennsylvania can find his listing, and from there contact him if they are interested. Freeman decided that he wasn't even going to put a picture up in the listing, so that the type of folks who only look at stuff if it has a picture would immediately be turned off by the idea that they would be expected to read at least some text, without being able to judge the book by its cover.
But here is where the story takes an even more interesting turn - Mr. Freeman is not even telling people what his franchise is.
"I'll tell you where I got the idea," he says in a way of explaining. "Do you know those mystery boxes that they sell at toy stores? The ones where you don't know exactly which toy you are going to get inside? I've seen people by those things by the dozen just because they are obsessively curious. So I wanted to see what would happen if I took that idea to a new scale."
Thus, Freeman has a franchise for sale. But you don't know what it is until after you purchase it.
"As soon as we sign the paperwork," says Freeman, "you get a license and a certificate telling your what you've purchased. Until then, you just have to assume that it's going to be the best deal that you've ever been a part of. You have to imagine that all of your dreams and hopes are going to be answered, for whatever price tag I put on it."
George has had a few nibbles after the first few days of the ad being up, but no full bites yet.
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