in my area. There were 3 of them within 30 mins. And then just as quickly, most of them disappeared. One of those 3 in my area did hang on until maybe last year. The one that was closest to me opened and had lines out the door for a few weeks, but within a month it closed down. Yikes. That’s a business that wasn’t capitalized enough to operate.

Saw this in the news today that gives more details of what happened. Basically, it was a pyramid scheme scam. They opened 200 franchise locations within 2 years and had 1300 more signed up because they had zero net worth requirements and only a $50k “refundable” franchise fee. They were expanding unsustainably fast and it was never a profitable business. Their revenue was almost entirely the $50k new franchise fees.

The owner fled back to Israel in 2020 and has since been sued by the FTC and some states for fraud. He took advantage of people wanting to be entrepreneurs and took their franchise fees and then disappeared.