A Chick-fil-A restaurant in Hendersonville, North Carolina made the headlines in late July. At an outlet owned by an individual, not by Chick-fil-A, the store advertised for “Volunteers for our new Drive Thru Express!”
Yes, that’s right. Volunteers. At least the store was upfront about not wishing to pay its drive-through workers. Instead of rewarding these workers with money, the store was offering five free entrees for each one-hour shift worked.
After ridicule and protest, the advertisement was yanked.
“Most [Chick-fil-A] restaurants are individually owned and operated, and it was a program at an individually owned restaurant,” said a Chick-fil-A spokesperson.
In other words, a company-owned store would not have done this. But an individually owned store has that extra latitude. And the Hendersonville outlet is owned by a franchisee.
A franchisee is someone who pays a huge fee to the chain store (whether it be a restaurant, gas station, card shop, whatever) to set up an outlet using that store’s name and logo and adhering to that store’s rules of operation. But the ownership belongs to the person who has made that payment. Not to the chain corporation itself.
The mega-corporation does not have total control over every little detail in an outlet. Yes, the mega-corporation controls many of the menu items, can dictate what suppliers must be used, what seating configuration must be used, even the store’s color schemes.
But a few things can vary from store to store. Even advertising and wages. But only in stores owned by franchisees.
As happened in Hendersonville, a franchisee-owned store might have an owner who bends over backward to exploit, not help, the customers or staff.
I learned about franchisee-owned stores a generation ago when I went for breakfast at an International House of Pancakes. (Since then, they’ve shortened their name to IHOP, but to folks my age they’ll always be the Pancake House.)
I waved aside the menu offered by the waitress and said, “I know what I want. Buckwheat pancakes and coffee.”
“We don’t make buckwheat pancakes.” So I unhappily settled for something else.
At the cash register on the way out, I spoke to the manager, who agreed their store did not, could not, and would not, prepare buckwheat pancakes.
“But I always order buckwheat pancakes over at the Pancake House in Williston Park,” I explained.
“Ah, that one’s privately owned. They’re allowed to alter the menu.”
So I vowed to give my future Pancake House business to the privately owned outlet.
Once, at the Pancake House in Williston Park, as I happily munched my buckwheat pancakes, my date admired the coffee mug. “Can I keep it?” she asked.
“No, that would be stealing. I’ll see what I can do.”
When I later paid, I told the chap behind the cash register that my date had admired the coffee mugs – and how well they retained the coffee’s heat – and asked if maybe the store could sell us one.
He smiled, said no sale would happen, but he happily gave me a mug to take home. For free.
“Won’t you get in trouble with the owner?” I asked.
“I am the owner,” he explained.
At a company-owned store, no one on the restaurant floor would dare make such a decision. But at a franchisee-owned store, the owner had some say.
Which is nice.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.