Week 3: Sticking to The Script

Hello!

It’s me again! Over the past week, I’ve worked on some of the questions I’ll potentially ask in my interviews. With the help of my advisor, Mr. Tejada, I’ve given more consideration to the topics I want to ask about. Doing so has admittedly been a bit tricky. On one hand, I want to ensure that I collect enough information to draw parallels and patterns. On the other hand, however, I don’t want to stretch the range of my topics too far. If I were to do so, I could end up with a bunch of different information that doesn’t tie together very well. Another thing is that it’s difficult to ascertain how much a business would be willing to share.

Because of these factors, I’ve decided to categorize my questions by the following subjects: taxes, employment, location, brand deals, and bills. For quantifiable answers, I’ll graph them to show how they vary between chain and local businesses. Examples of such answers include the number of employees hired per year, the number of locations owned, etc. As for unquantifiable answers, they will be evaluated separately.

Another thing is that I may interview multiple locations within a single chain, depending on the details of an individual location’s response. As I stated earlier, I want to ensure that the data sources are varied enough to provide accurate information. I will also consult pre-existing resources, such as a business’s online store, 10-K reports, and 10-Q reports. Doing so will allow me to develop data that is missing or incomplete.

I look forward to getting into the more in-depth parts of this project. Seemingly, they’re right around the corner! I hope you guys are excited for it as well.