Convergence Part II: Franchise Repair Shops versus a Viable Competitive Repair Shop Model

Yesterday we discussed the idea of convergence, where the customer or vendor today becomes your competitor tomorrow. We gave the example of how Microsoft started out as a vendor to IBM, and then became the “value add” technology leader, only now to face pressure from one of their customers, Google. We also discussed how we felt auction/remarketing companies may eventually become competitors in the used retail/wholetail market, allowing the franchised auto retailers to possibly jettison off this “loss leader” business.

If this ...