The Quagmire of Franchising
A bog has no author, and that is the only part of the metaphor that does not apply. Seventeen franchisee bankruptcy filings landed in 2026, from 314 restaurants down to one. Every one states a different cause because cost structures...
An Open Letter To Wendy’s Part 2: Dear Meritage
This is one of three letters. Part 1: Dear Ohio argues what a franchisor owes an operator it recruited — https://hacksterism.jeffreysummers.com/an-open-letter-to-wendys-part-1-dear-ohio/. Part 2: Dear Meritage reads out what the franchisee chose and what those choices cost — https://hacksterism.jeffreysummers.com/an-open-letter-to-wendys-part-2-dear-meritage/. Part 3:...
An Open Letter To Wendy’s Part 1: Dear Ohio
This is one of three letters. Part 1: Dear Ohio argues what a franchisor owes an operator it recruited — https://hacksterism.jeffreysummers.com/an-open-letter-to-wendys-part-1-dear-ohio/. Part 2: Dear Meritage reads out what the franchisee chose and what those choices cost — https://hacksterism.jeffreysummers.com/an-open-letter-to-wendys-part-2-dear-meritage/. Part 3:...
The Subway Closure Committee Is A Debt-Service Extraction Mechanism
Subway has closed over 8,000 units since 2015. The franchisor's response — a 98-hour operating mandate, a 98% delivery uptime requirement, and a committee-gated closure review — is not standard system management. It is designed extraction executed against a captive...
