Yes. The smaller places that chose to open under the Collectivite's current lease arrangement are caught between a rock and a hard place.

On our recent trip, I spoke to 3 of the 4 owners of the places that have opened and 1 of the owners of the places that haven't chosen to sign the agreements.

Their view of the situation is absolutely, completely unprintable here. In fact I haven't even told Jan about some of the comments (which means that I'm probably in trouble when she reads this post.)

I don't see at all how this business model is going to succeed. If the owners do business the way they used to they will go under in a hurry. If they do business in such a way as to actually make money (Heaven forbid) they will completely alienate their current customer base and may not be able to attract a new one.

Since we are an avid member of their current customer base, we aren't very happy now either.

I have no idea where this is going, but just remember when you get irritated with the way that a business owner is tackling this problem (even if they are tackling it badly, which some are), not a single one of the current owners was in favor of what has come to pass.

Ted