Maqui, You make some very valid points, for sure. Franchise fees are an important part of the picture. I still hate to see them discounted, or dropped to make a sale. Joel

Ultimately Franchisors have a variety of metrics that they are interested in including income,  growth,  brand development, risk, international opportunities etc  As the external environment changes (e.g. due to macroeconomic changes such as recession) so does the priorities of the franchisor.  Depspite the above metrics there are only a few major items that Franchisors can change that will have an impact on the above metrics, these include the cost to buy into a franchise, the ongoing license fees and the quality criteria that they have when selecting franchisees.  It may be that as demand has dropped, the franchisor has opted to reduce sign up fees rather than the quality of franchisee by being less selective.  The franchise fee alone doesn't tell the full story.  The best people to speak to are existing franchisees (preferably not the ones hand picked by the franchisor as spokespeople).  They will know exactly what is happening, whether it is a good investment and surprisingly most are quite candid with potential franchisees.

A drop in franchisee fees can definately pick up the number of applicants for any business. However, quaility of the franchise may drop in a certain way