Is there a Target nearby? I'd assume you'll have similar clients. If there's one, it will tell you what you need to know.

Mentone thinks Orla is the middle of nowhere.

My son in law invests in fast food joints, has a partial interest in about 10 Fuzzy's, 6 CSC's and 2 Dave's Hot Chickens with options on 8 more in the DFW area. He's cleaning up in the free cash flow department.

Most franchise restaurants are a legal means of transferring the wealth of the franchisee to the franchisor. I learned the hard way. If a person has the wealth to start one, simply invest in blue chip companies and let folks like Tim Cook and Warren Buffett run their businesses and grow your weakth

Son should buy and operate a food truck for a couple years first, and then look again at the franchise concept.

Someone mentioned being surprised Cork and Pig made it in Midland. C&P makes more revenue on alcohol than food.

Name a restaurant or chain that has done well in Midland that does not serve one or a combination of the following: fried food, pizza, cheese burgers, alcohol. Hell, even Murray's Deli serves pizza, beer and fries, and has an incredible location.

The coffee and tea chains survive because people get their sugar and caffeine fix. Jason's Deli and McAllisters serve sweet tea by the gallon. Don't get me started on the HTOh franchise scam.

The only one competing with Bobby Cox's empire (Taco Villa, Rosas and Texas Burger) in Midland are Chick-Fil-A or places with A++ locations.

Gambling with location and competing with oil field wages is a terrible idea. Open up a mobile home dealership instead.

MIL has poor judgement, at best.

CaptnCarl said:

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Don't get me started on the HTeaO franchise scam.

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Please. Get started on it as I'd like to hear your thoughts. I've followed them since they started with Texas Tea and the tea concept has blown up with Nobilitea, as well. We know a few folks with some Nobilitea locations. Our small town has one Nobilitea with a HTeaO location being built out right now. I'd never consider opening one of these businesses but the growth explosion is unreal.

From what I'm told, the entry fees beyond the franchise purchase are extremely high. A huge amount of revenue goes back to the franshiser in the form of marketing and product supply.

As another poster mentioned it's all about shifting revenue to the franchiser. The franchiser has no risk. The franchisee is playing against the house.

They sale RO water and cups at a huge margin. It's all about transactions per minute.

Great locations can make a killing, but then it's a real estate play of purchasing a great location. So you invest/borrow a million in a new store buildout, only to finding yourself working 6 days a week. Like others have said, you're buying yourself an expensive job.

If I'm investing a huge chunk of money into real estate, I don't want the associated risk of the food and beverage industry.

Understand 100%. I think their franchise fee and buildout costs are around $500,000. Gotta give Justin credit as he's built a monster over the course of less than a decade.

Mark Fairchild said:

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THANK YOU EVERYONE THAT RESPONDED! I was unhappy with this idea before, and after reading the responses I am now totally sick at my stomach!

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Gotta learn how to let him make his own mistakes without taking on the stress yourself.

Ouch. OP would have been better off going the Los Pollos Hermanos route!

I do hope the OP comes back here for the occasional updates for us.

Remember Krispy Kreme? 80% of all the franchisees were bought back by corporate. Corporate required purchasing everything from them at rediculous prices.

Are we sure this is his grandson's operation?

I have no clue.
Maybe that could be part of the update!

What exactly makes HteaO a scam? Are you saying the % of revenue going back to the Franchisor/Marketing is higher than other franchises? Or is it something else?

At least from what I've read they have 100 stores open with another 100 under construction or about to start. I don't think they've had one store close (yet). As you mentioned, people want their caffeine - and some of their drive through lines rival Dutch bros lines.

You also mentioned a franchisee is just buying themselves a job. I'd agree that's true for some, if the owner chooses to be the operator, they are buying a job, but I wouldn't blanket that statement. There's countless franchises, HTeaO included, where partners own the store(s) but do not operate the store.

I hope they succeed, a Texas born franchise going national, and taking the Texas brand with them.

OP you have any updates on this?

Canyon99 said:

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Understand 100%. I think their franchise fee and buildout costs are around $500,000. Gotta give Justin credit as he's built a monster over the course of less than a decade.

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I went to one in Frisco for the first time. It's chicken salad, a few options. Not bad. What I noticed is that they plowed a lot into the place with crown trim and beaded board to make it look boutique. In other words, it's going to be expensive just to trim it out. I don't see getting your money back on that in less than 5-7 years.

BQ_2010 said:

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Guess it happened

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I'm glad you posted this. I was trying to find it on FB but could not. But I remember at the time that it had a lot of positive response.

If it was me I'd open a Pei Wei.

The only franchises I see that are consistently open for a decade plus are the big pizza or hamburger franchises. I wouldn't consider anything else. (Except maybe a Timmy's anywhere in Atlantic Canada). Of course all those restaurants can be quite expensive to start.

Oh, I hear that some franchise hair salons did very well pre-Covid but I know nothing about them.