Perhaps a bit late to join in on the debate, however, for what it's worth I'll give my opinion.
I joined Cartridge World as a franchisee just after their launch in the UK, at that time we had a unique selling point which was that we could provide a cheaper alternative to buying an original manufacturers cartridge (at that time you were limited to PC World, Office World and a few high street computer shops for your cartridges). The principle was sound we would save the customer up to half of the cost of buying a new cartridge and profit margins, in relation to the cost of ink, labour and packaging, were high.
For some years the franchise performed well and the number of stores in the UK grew to around 300 in 2005. However, technology never stands still and the original manufacturers began to make refilling more of a challenge - producing awkward, less robust cartridges which, in most cases had an embedded microchip. The microchips were a real pain; printers wouldn't accept cartridges without a replacement chip. Initially it would take the remanufacturing industry months to release a replacement chip, latterly, because of the increasing complexity of the chips, the solution could take years to develop and during this time you could only sell the original product at a much lower margin. Often the replacement chips, because of the R&D involved in producing them cost almost as much as a new cartridge. The cost of chips as well as the astronomical cost of buying in empty cartridges had a negative effect on profit margin.
However, the biggest impact on the business was the decline in high street retail and the move towards internet shopping. The customers we appealed to were, by and large, those who were looking to save money - these customers could see the real savings by buying on-line and that's where they went. Cartridge World just can't compete on that basis, a franchise retail presence is expensive; rent, rates, staff, utility costs, royalty fees etc.
Cartridge World now has around 170 stores in the UK, almost half the number it had 8 years ago. And the original manufacturers aren't making their cartridges any easier to refill - in not in their interest to do so. According to wikipedia, Epson have prevented Cartridge World selling their own brand of compatible Epson cartridge because of breach of patent and/or intellectual property; if true this could have far reaching consequences for the business.
In conclusion it was a business which would have been a good, short term investment a decade ago, but now, in my opinion, has had its day.
