If THE FANTASTIC SUCCESS of the two exisiting stores alluded to in the following pages that have been in operation in Rockford, Illinois for almost 5 years (and which, by the way, have both been profitable from day one),whose CONCEPT/PREMISE is based on the fact that THEY SELL EVERYTHING in their stores at THE LOWEST PRICES IN TOWN, is any kind of a fair indicator of their potential success if they were to be expanded on a national scale (and to my knowledge there is no shape, manner, or form of logic, rationale, or common sense that would suggest that this success could even possibly be attributed to anything else but their low prices),then the prospect of nationally franchising these stores (preferably to individual families rather than being owned and operated by a big company or by "absentee investors" who would have "managers" running them), could well be THE ABSOLUTELY BIGGEST "NO-BRAINER" INVESTMENT OPPROTUNITY in the entire history of "low-tech" American business !!!
It takes a special type of astute investor/businessman to recognize, BEFORE OTHERS DO, a good business opprotunity that's not only ahead of it's time but also has long term potential as well.
If you can "read between the lines", everything concerning our economy points to the fact that we are in for some tough times ahead. Governments at the city, county, state, and federal levels, as well as many of the biggest corporations in America, are finding themselves hard pressed to stay solvent in the present economy and will find it much more difficult as time goes by.
Although the outlook for the future of our economy isn't very good for our country as a whole, it almost guarantees that the following investment has the potential to be very successful for the ones with the forsight to see that potential.
In less than 60 years, STARTING FROM NOTHING, Wal-Mart became the biggest corporation on the face of the earth based on the same principle (which, by the way, everyone else in this field is completely ignoring) that can make this investment the biggest in its field in just a fraction of that time: THE LOWEST PRICES IN TOWN, ALL THE TIME.
A very exhaustive search of the internet has conclusively shown that THERE ARE NO RETAIL UNITS / STORES / OUTLETS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD of the type that we are proposing !!!
And so, subsequent to the results of that search, by using as a "benchmark" , or point of referance, if you will, a portion of the VERY SUCCESSFUL "STARBUCKS" BUSINESS MODEL (that portion of it as it relates in helping to determine the maximum number of possible worldwide units / stores that can be profitably sustained by the projected potential market that exists "out there" for those WILLING TO PAY $3.00 OR MORE for a cup of coffee), and then properly "ADJUSTING" it to successfully ascertain the maximum number of possible worldwide units / stores that can be profitably sustained by the projected potential market that exists "out there" for those WANTING TO PAY DISCOUNTED PRICES for convenience store items / merchandise, WE CAME TO THE FOLLOWING, VERY PROFOUND, CONCLUSION / DETERMINATION:
A VERY SIGNIFICANT WORLDWIDE MARKET DEFINATELY DOES INDEED EXIST "OUT THERE" for the type of retail business that we are proposing !!!
Therefore, it is our intention to look for investors / partners to finance the approximately one million dollars (tentative figure) that we feel will be necessary to properly position ourselves in order to have a realistically successful chance to FRANCHISE (preferably to individual families), IN LESS THAN A DECADE, a worldwide chain of 50,000 DISCOUNT CONVENIENCE STORES (doing in the vacinity of 100 billion dollars a year in gross sales), BASED ON THE "BUSINESS MODEL" of the two existing, and VERY SUCCESSFUL, stores that are currently in operation in Rockford, Illinois whose DISCOUNTED PRICING STRUCTURE / FORMAT / PREMISE is the major key to thier phenomenal success.
Our desire to franchise NOBLE'S nationally is just in its infancy state as a business venture. THE BASIC PREMISE / CONCEPT / BUSINESS MODEL BEHIND NOBLES IS TO SELL CIGA�RETTES, POP, SNACKS, A FEW BASIC STAPLE GROCERY ITEMS AND 30 OR 40 OF THE MORE POPULAR "CONVENIENCE STORE" TYPE PRODUCTS AT PERMANENT PRICES THAT ARE LOWER THAN ANYBODY ELSE IN TOWN. And because it is in the very early stages of development, this summary includes no business plan, no financial projection statistics, no facts, no figures or any other kind of information of this nature. However, 'despite the absence of these things, I would ask you to look at the potential of this business venture on the basis/strength of the success of the two existing stores that are currently in operation in Rockford, Illinois. One is located at 321 Seventh Street and the other is located on the northwest corner of Broadway and Ninth Streets. Both stores do business in renovated, inexpensive existing storefront type locations and despite their somewhat shabby / �tacky" interior appearance each store does well in excess of one million dollars a year in sales and produce a very respectable net profit.
We are confident that both the gross and net profits of any future stores will be greatly enhanced with more modern interiors, better management as well as with the addition of a few more products and services that we intend to offer-not the least of which is the implementation of the use of the LINK (food stamp) card.
However, before I go any further, I would like to preface this business proposal with a very important/revealing fact that is the basis upon which we are trying to interest you in this venture in the first place, A recent article in the Wall Street Journal stated that the dollar-type store (i.e.: Dollar Stores, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, etc.) are the fastest growing segment of the retail industry. Although entering into this segment of the retail business is not the point
of this proposal, the principal behind their spectacular growth is: not only in the retail segment of the economy, but in other segments of it as well, CHEAP (as long as it is of "respectable" quality) is "in" and will become more and more "in" as the economy remains stagnant or more predictably, worsens (we at NOBLES believe that for a host of obvious reasons - not the least of which our involvement in Iraq as well as the war on terror - a stagnant economy is the absolute best we can hope for anytime in the foreseeable future).
Based upon our belief that CHEAP (once again, as long as it is of "respectable quality") is "in", we would like to start up a nationwide chain of "NOBLES DISCOUNT CONVE�NIENCE STORES," as briefly described in this business plan/prospectus. The failure of any�one in this country to as yet seize upon the unrecognized opportunity to utilize the buying power and the many other positive benefits of a chain store operation to take this concept to a national level only means that this opportunity is still left out there for someone like us to exploit.
Phil and Alex NOBLE, the father and son team who started these stores are two of the nicest guys you could ever want to meet and have been two of my best friends for many years. However, when it comes to the prospect of opening new stores beyond the limits of their home�town (or. for that matter, even opening other stores in Rockford) their lack of desire to do so is not unlike the initial reluctance that the McDonalds brothers exhibited some 50 years ago when Ray Kroc first approached them with the idea of trying to nationally franchise the very first McDonalds hamburger restaurant that they had conceived, designed, built and were operating in San Bernardino, California. They didn't want any of the financial and numerous other prob�lems and headaches of expanding beyond their hometown as they were perfectly content with the very comfortable lifestyle that their one store was providing them with. I, on the other hand, in one sense, am not unlike Ray Kroc was the first time he encountered that single McDonalds restaurant and saw the number of customers that patronized it - he immediately envisioned the possibility of franchising them allover the country.
So, although they themselves aren't personally interested in opening any more stores, the NOBLES have authorized me to try and find financial investors/partners who may be interested in this kind of business venture. I fully realize, and will be the first to acknowledge, my limita�tions in regard to being the one who should be in charge of trying to take NOBLES to the national level. Therefore, I am searching for one or more investors and / or partners to help us finance (or help us find the financing for) the one million dollars that we estimate it will cost to properly position ourselves in order to have a realistically successful chance of going nation�wide with NOBLES. This investment (and / or to whatever extent your other involvement may be in this venture), can be re-cooped by taking a leadership and / or equity position in the compa�ny, or by a very realistically possible return on an investment of 1000% (or more) in three to five years.
This money will include all of the financing necessary to put together the proper "team" to oversee this venture. It will also include designing and building (remodeling) of a "model" store (upon which all other stores will be modeled after) so that every aspect related to its oper�ation will run as smooth and efficient as a well-oiled machine in anticipation of the large volume
that we expect every store to do. Lastly, this money will be used to do all the final research on the new products and services that we intend to add when we go national in order to positively reconfirm our original assessment of their continued long-term profitability poten�tial.
The following point is so important that it can't be stressed too strong. IF THERE WAS EVER ANY FRANCHISE OPERATION IN EXISTENCE THAT WAS TAILOR MADE TO BE FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED, IT IS WITHOUT A DOUBT NOBLES DIS�COUNT CONVENIENCE STORES. For several important reasons (mostly dealing with issues regarding certain "discount" aspects of the operation), this point is so significant that I believe that the actual difference between NOBLES DISCOUNT CONVENIENCE STORES just becoming a mediocre success rather than the spectacular success that they could be, will depend to a great extent on how many of these franchised stores are family owned and operat�ed, as opposed to being either company owned and operated, and owned and/or operated by "absentee" investors who bought them strictly as an investment opportunity and have managers running them.
The appeal to a family wanting to own and operate a NOBLES' DISCOUNT CONVENIENCE STORE are mostly obvious ones, but there is one that's not quite as obvious, however it is still a very significant one: If a family wants to own and operate a NOBLES' store strictly as a way to make a comfortable living without having to do any of the "extras" that would bring them added income, they can do so by simply keeping to the company's mandatory minimum "basics" as far as operating hours, as well as the products and services that they must have.
However, for the families that want to get more, or the maximum amount of income, out of their store (and possibly even own more than one store), they can extend their hours, procure for their stores some of the products that would otherwise be delivered by "conventional" means (at an added cost), and lastly they can add extra services' to their store's minimum ones THAT DON'T REQUIRE ANY EXTRA SPACE, OR REQUIRE MUCH, IF ANY, ADDED LABOR (such as check cashing, car loans, bill paying, mailboxes, western union, as well as possible "drop-off" locations for UPS, FEDEX, ETC.), but that will add to their stores' gross/net income.
With the outlook for our future economy at one of its lowest levels in our country's history, and with so many people either being laid-off or threatened to be laid-off from their jobs, we feel that now is the exact perfect moment in time to open up a chain of discount stores like NOBLES.
By owning one of these franchises a family can have the peace of mind knowing that they have an economic future from which they can't be "down sized" or laid-off from and that by keeping all of the revenue generated by their store in the family and not having to pay any outside help, they will be afforded the ways and means to provide for themselves a very comfortable living for many years to come.
We realize of course, that the competition in this segment of the retail industry is not asleep at the wheel - as a matter of fact, just the opposite is true as they are very much in proliferation across the country even as we speak. Fortunately for us, however, even though more and more stores of this nature are flooding into this small segment of the retail industry, most of them are young, thinly capitalized independents without the proper concept, resources, experience or inclination to expand on a national scale.
In our endeavor to get NOBLES franchised across the country in the shortest amount of time (as well as to keep the initial start up and long term costs related to this venture to the absolute minimum), it is our intention, rather than to franchise these stores on an individual basis, to use the "territorial" method of franchising instead. In other words, big investors wanting the exclu�sive rights to use the NOBLES name and concept of selling discount cigarettes, pop, snacks and more in a large area (i.e.: country, state or multi-state regions) pay us the up-front franchise fee (as well as a small gross percentage of sales from each store they open) and then they take on the total financial and other responsibilities of opening and operating all the stores in that exclusive area.
If this kind of investment is something you may be interested in, then i would urge you to visit the two NOBLES locations and park your car across the street and watch the parade of customers that go in and out of the store from 7A.M. to 11 P.M., seven days a week. Then park your car across the street from any of the many NOBLES competitors in the area and see how little traffic they have in comparison and you'll come away knowing that NOBLES is on to a concept that begs to go national.
If, after having taken a long, hard look at the premise / concept behind NOBLES you feel that it has the same unlimited potential that we do then by all means let's get together as soon as possible and see what we can do to take this venture to a national level in the shortest amount of time.
Sincerely Yours,
Frederick D. Scanlin
[email protected]