One of My Sources

In order to continue my ethnographic study, I will need to both conduct an interview with two employees at Rita's, as well as create an annotated bibliography in order to list my sources and describe their importance. One of the sources that I intent to use is a website known as "The Franchise Mall." Apparently its intent is to show people how to buy a popular franchise, but it also has numerous articles from the past six years or so talking about numerous things, from business information and statistics to articles talking about the newest store opening, or the first Rita's opened in a particular state. The first article posted on this website was posted on March 17, 2004, and gave a brief history about the store from the first shop which was opened in 1984. These articles will aid me, because I believe it will be important to give some history and/or background information about the franchise before the interview. I might be able to ask the manager some questions about either the history of the entire establishment or the history about the Rita's on College Avenue.
It says that the founder was a fireman who felt like starting a small business for fun. So he bought a used Italian ice maker from someone who advertised it in the newspaper and set up shop in Bensalem, PA. He didn't expect to make a whole lot of money, but his business was popular enough to make 3.5 times more than what he expected for his first year. I wondered how well the sugar-free Italian ice sold for, and apparently it only accounts for 1 to two percent of Rita's sales.
This article will give me great information about the humble beginnings of Rita's, and should help me compare the success Rita's knew in the beginning to the success it experiences now.

http://www.thefranchisemall.com

more specifically:
http://www.thefranchisemall.com/news/articles/10593-0.htm

Possible Subjects for Secondary Research

In order to obtain more information for my ethnographic study on Rita's, a frozen custard and Italian ice shop on College Avenue in Blacksburg, VA, I need to do some secondary research. For those of you who don't know what the difference between primary and secondary research is, primary research in this case would be gathering information either directly from Rita's or from Rita's own website. Secondary research would include gathering information about more general topics related to Rita's, such as dairy treats in general, and what specific attributes makes each brand successful in the eyes (and stomachs) of the consumers. That's one topic I'm considering looking into; I'm also thinking about conducting research about the competition that Rita's has in Blacksburg like Ben and Jerry's and Cold Stone Creamery, among others. Perhaps I can talk about the relationship between ice cream shops and the small locations they choose to sell their goods. After all, almost every ice cream joint I know of conducts business in a small location. Not many other topics have come to mind yet, but as architect Edmund Bacon has put it, "It's in the doing that the idea comes."

Helpful (hopefully) websites:

http://www.ritas.com

http://www.benjerry.com

http://www.coldstonecreamery.com

http://www.serving-ice-cream.com/ice_cream_facts.html

http://www.brighthub.com/health/diet-nutrition/articles/64189.aspx

My new website

I also posted a website which will further display my progress as a writer in this class.

Here's the URL:

http://aaronpayne.weebly.com