Our mission is to Develop, Enhance and Maintain Profitability and Equity for every Pepperidge Farm Owner
POAA Gives Meaning to the Motto: "In Business For Yourself, Not By Yourself."
CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY?
In 1965, Gordon Moore published a paper that predicted the exponential growth in computing power (and a comparable reduction in processing size and costs to manufacturers and consumers) with such staggering accuracy and far-reaching implications that it is now a truism known as Moore's Law. Within 10 years, Marsh Supermarket in Ohio installed the world’s first computer system with a barcode scanner, and a Motorola executive made the first cellular call from a handheld mobile device. By 1982, TIME magazine's Man of the Year was not a person at all - it was a Machine of the Year: the personal computer. In 1989, a British software engineer invented the World Wide Web with free and open source cross platform software - it not only unleashed the network effects of a relatively obscure global information grid known as the Internet, but it also ignited the meteoric rise of the citizen programmer. In 1991, a Finnish computer science student posted a simple Internet message: “I am doing a free operating system” - and Linux was born. Linux now powers the lion’s share of devices, websites and applications that owners use everyday, including every IOS and Android tablet, humongous social media platforms and feature-rich mobile apps.
As computing hardware became more powerful, portable, and affordable, it facilitated the shift to cloud computing. Consequently, mobile hardware devices are less relevant today than the emergence of free, robust and device-independent web-based software solutions and the commensurate decline of expensive device-dependent proprietary software licensing fees. Another likely reason the Campbell Snacks Mobile Transformation Initiative (MTI) remains such a mystery is that it requires owners to pay PF approximately $20 a week to cover only CPB's software license fees and other costs - additional charges will be assessed for PF's superfluous cellular data plan.
Just as there is not a single provision in any version of the existing consignment contracts that authorizes PF or its parent company to mandate that DSD owners buy any equipment from their designated sole source, there is not a single contract provision that requires owners to pay their exclusive supplier to offset its technology infrastructure costs, or any other of its costs.
TeamPOAA is still waiting for CPB and PF executives to publish any meaningful details about the MTI, such as the new benefits to independent owners. Unfortunately, owners already using the new mobile equipment and expensive third-party application are reporting that it lacks any new benefits, or any compelling value proposition. PF apparently believes that cutting edge technology means cutting its own technology costs at the expense of owners.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Every owner needs to be aware that PF regularly treats common business matters like serious legal issues, and serious legal issues like common business matters. Many owners are reporting to POAA that PF is emailing a link to an ECHOSIGN digital signature system apparently to expedite the signing of unspecified documents in the future.
THERE IS NO DOCUMENT THAT PF (OR ANY COMPANY) PRESENTS TO A DSD OWNER THAT SHOULD BE SIGNED (IN INK OR ELECTRONICALLY) WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING WITH THEIR ATTORNEY.
The opinions and beliefs expressed in this newsletter are intended only to spark discussions about serious and ongoing business issues that impact every owner in PF’s distribution network. If you need or want legal advice, you must consult with your attorney.
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You are receiving this email because you own an Exclusive Pepperidge Farm Franchise and/or an Exclusive Pepperidge Farm Distributorship, and you should know that the Pepperidge Farm Owners Association of America is proactively protecting your rights.
