Franchising is growing in most countries and most industries worldwide. Some people fear that chain-based businesses, including franchised businesses, will soon eliminate totally independent businesses. However, whatever the industry and the location, a coexistence of both franchised businesses and totally independent businesses is often noted. Our aim is thus to understand how consumers react to retail offers of both types of businesses (i.e., franchised or independent), mainly in terms of the profiles of the entrepreneurs, their retailing mix, and their customer relationship management. Our empirical study is based on a qualitative approach with a series of twenty interviews with customers. Our findings show that consumers have a very different store image of franchised and independent stores. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.