Archive for Author 'John Santiago', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.
One of the many tasks performed during our quarterly National Coalition Board meetings is to gather information from Board members about the concerns and issues affecting their FOA members so they can be brought to SEI’s attention via the NCASEF or through the National Business Leadership Council (NBLC), of which I am a franchisee […]
Dear Joe: Congratulations on your election as chairman of the National Coalition—or should I say, you have my sympathies. Having served as general counsel for the Coalition for six years, I know all too well the many challenges that you will be facing as the point person for the Coalition, and particularly the difficult […]
Most of our stores carry different types of pre-paid load cards, re-chargeable phone cards, and gift cards. From our phone card business we receive a decent gross profit and repeat customers, while with gift cards we only get a set fee with a heavy risk attached if a transaction turns into a fraudulent load. […]
The vendor community has a very tight relationship with franchisee leadership, and many times will talk about their frustrations with our franchisor and even ask for our help with SEI. Our vendor partners are charged by their bosses to achieve sales goals and execute promotions with assigned retailers. Only the largest suppliers have a […]
The national elections are over, but our work has just begun. It has been a hard and grueling season of hope and promise. Each of the candidates who stood for an executive office, from chairman to executive vice chair to treasurer, was motivated by a sincere desire to see the day-to-day burdens of franchisees […]
It is election time again at the National Coalition, and it’s a good time to think about where we are and where we are going. Every two years the National Coalition Board elects half of its executive team. Last year we held elections for the three vice chairman positions, and by the time you […]
Historically, Asset Protection has been part of our operation, but they’ve usually been in the background and normally not that involved in the daily operations of our stores. Recently, however, all of that has changed. For about a year now Asset Protection has been a very active part of store operations, and this has […]
To those franchisees who attended my presentation on avoiding employment mistakes at the last NCASEF Convention in Las Vegas, please forgive me because you may have already heard all of this. Any Avanti readers who missed my presentation can benefit from the information below. Most of you may already know much of this basic […]
A few months back, SEI decided to check compliance on one more part of our store operations and named it “Sales Plan Verification Assessment.” As you are all aware, the Merchandising Department—with the cooperation of other SEI departments—puts in place the sales plan for a particular month to be rolled out in all of […]
SEI has recently taken a very aggressive stance towards out-of-date products in our stores, issuing Letters of Notifications (LONs) and breaches even for out-of-date goods that are in the back room and not readily available for purchase by a customer. Has paranoia run rampant within SEI? Franchisees are NOT trying to poison our customers. […]
