Yep, McDonald's has begun purchasing franchises back as well. I think you're right, that this distributed ownership model is an artifact of an earlier time. I m

Yep, McDonald's has begun purchasing franchises back as well. I think you're right, that this distributed ownership model is an artifact of an earlier time. I might attribute this to better communication abilities. It made sense to have autonomous dealers; it was hard for everyone to communicate with each other using telephones and snail mail. With the internet, companies can run advanced inventory databases, run prediction algorithms to shift inventory to areas with expected demand, have regional managers focus on local communities, instantly update pricing across the country etc. etc.