It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

Post by vinniejames » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

adaisadais wrote: post #96

oflannabhra wrote: post #86

I know several CFA owner-operators, and this article is mostly on point. Some of the comments I’ve seen are a bit off. 2 of the 3 owner-operators I know have multiple locations, although this is rare. Income estimates are a bit low for typical stores I’d be surprised if any owner operator of a freestanding unit is below $250k. Also, the estimates of worked hours are a bit high. All the owner operators I know have gre…

Extremely well put. I completely concur. My first cousin is in the process of getting his “own” store now. While it has been a grind (he often worked the mythical 100+ hour week while in the Leadership Development Program) it will pay off handsomely. The best part of Chic-Fil-A (in my opinion) is not the food but their total devotion to the customer. The level of service you receive at a Chic-Fil-A freestanding store…

Post by xwowsersx » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 7:01 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #183

privateSFacct wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting some decades ago I think McDonald's did a study that led to something called the 4 minute McDonald's universe which was a distance they found people would go for spur of the moment purchasing. Obviously impractical, but this idea of optimizing for total revenue has been around for a bit I think.

And it's not limited to mcdonalds. Starbucks is getting notorious for this. Here is an area by me with three starbii: https://goo.gl/maps/qR2XLLVYmqiyrHtLA One in the vons, directly across the street from one in the ralphs, and if you head north on vermont in this street view you will hit a burger king. Today that is a freestanding starbucks. Three starbucks locations in less than a square mile.

Post by pwinnski » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 7:55 PM UTC

lr wrote: post #26

tehlike wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can potentially scale the chickfila to 2-3, though, and you can imagine you can get other franchises eventually.

From the article: In most cases, they aren’t permitted to “own” multiple locations. They aren’t permitted to run any other business.

Post by bnorton916 » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 11:18 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #192

Nextgrid wrote: post #2

I always found franchise initial startup costs to be predatory, as they get paid either way regardless of whether the franchisee actually succeeds. In my opinion they should be abolished and franchisors should only rely on royalties, so that they have an incentive to help the franchisee succeed if they want to make money.

Chick fil a at least can be run pretty passively. I got to know an owner at a local franchise. He owned other franchises and gas stations, had a massive house in a gated community, and had time to lecture at a very good business school in town. He had managers on every shift running day to day so he never really needed to visit the store, but he did a couple times a week anyway to show face with the staff and even st…

Post by jagged-chisel » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 5:15 PM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #206

hinkley wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe I was asking why we hadn't replaced a janky part. I was told the price of the part and expressed incredulity. Grown up me still doesn't understand why the equipment costs that much, except that it's small production runs and captive audience.

There are high demands on reliability: the equipment is expected to run 10-24 hours a day for years, without harming the operator or leaking oil onto customer's food.