(FranchisePick.Com)  Read related story:  NYT on the Meal Prep Franchise: Hot Concept Gone Cold?.  Get franchise information and review franchise opportunities at FranBest.com.

Do franchisees of Super Suppers feel like Stupid Suckers?  Has Dream Dinners become the Nightmare on Elm Street?  Will My Girlfriend soon be getting back her Kitchen?  Has time run out for Supper Thyme USA?  Will Pass Your Plate soon be passing THE plate?

Can the “Meal Prep,” or “Meal Assembly Kitchen,” or “Make It & Take It” franchise concept fail before we’ve decided what to call it?  Meal Prep franchise companies such as Entrée Vous!, Entrees Made Easy, Mr. Food, Supper Thyme USA hope not.  They’re launching creative strategies including premade food to go, health and diet meal preparation, and other ideas.

But it’s a bad sign for a food concept when even a woman named Cathy Chew, the Supper Thyme USA franchisee trying to sell her Council Bluffs, IA  location, can’t make it work.  Another bad sign is that, despite the myriad clever names, no seems to be able to craft a succinct explanation of what these places do. 

I hope I’m wrong, but the meal prep franchise concept always hit me as a solution in search of a problem… and my preduction is that you’re going to begin seeing this supposedly “hot concept” turn colder than a Swanson’s TV dinner.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  IS THE MEAL PREP KITCHEN CONCEPT VIABLE?  OR WILL THESE CONCEPTS BE THE NEXT MONUMENTS IN THE FRANCHISE GRAVEYARD?  SHARE A MESSAGE BELOW.

Tags: dream dinners franchise, meal assembly franchises, MEAL PREP franchise, mr girlfriend’s kitchen franchise, super suppers franchise

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(FranchisePick.Com)  Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of comments have been posted on FranchisePick.Com by victimized Pure Weight Loss (until recently LA Weight Loss) members, some of whom lost several thousand dollars when the 400 unit chain closed abruptly last month with seemingly little regard for its members or employees.  While most media attention focuses on the former group, an article posted today in The Times of Northwest Indiana  also describes the plight of the Pure Weight Loss employees who were as surprised as their members at their employer’s abrupt closing.

The Times interviewed Ruth Moton, the former assistant regional manager for 11 Chicago-area stores.  In September, Moton sold her house and moved to Chicago from Pennsylvania at the company’s request.  She signed a lease and incurred thousands of dollars in reimbursable moving and related expenses. 

Then, a few weeks before Christmas, Moton and other employees were told the chain would close January 2, 2008, and they would begin the new year unemployed.  Pure Weight Loss has since filed for bankruptcy protection.  The company and its founder Vahan Karian are being sued by the PA Attorney General for fraud.

According to Moton, the company owes many employees. Some final paychecks bounced, and while some employees have been able to roll their 401(k)s into IRAs, “trying to get her 401(k) savings has become a ‘full-time job,’ she stated.”

Moton stated consumers continue to suffer. Chicago-area stores alone had almost 1,000 active customers who came in each week.  Customers who were excited to sign up during promotions in the final months could be out big sums.

“A lot of my centers had open houses in October and November, a time when prices were reduced and a lot of the clients took advantage of that and purchased more products that apparently (the company) didn’t even have to get to them,” Moton said.

Last month, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Pure Weight Loss and its owner Vahan Karian, also known as Vahan Karabajakian. The lawsuit alleges deceptive marketing and sales of long-term contracts for weight loss supplements, prepackaged food and weight loss counseling services.

In a statement, Corbett stated the company owes more than a half-million dollars to Pennsylvania customers alone.

Tags: franchise scam, LA WEIGHT LOSS, PURE WEIGHT LOSS, vahan karian, weight loss franchise, weight loss scam

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