[tikhonj]

Food service has a terrifying reputation as a business sector—restaurants routinely go out of business in their first year. Deep funding would create a buffer and help it grow, of course, but I still wouldn't want to bet on a restaurant.

[timr]

One of the amusing ironies of the food-delivery bubble for me was that you're taking the crappiest part of a crappy industry's economics, and scaling it.

It's all of the costs and logistical pain of running a restaurant, with none of the margins. Brilliant!

[pbreit]

Indie restaurants, maybe. But for franchises, the opposite.

[Fomite]

Depends on the franchise. Subway, for example, is apparently an absolutely brutal franchise to run, whereas Chik-fil-a is super careful about who they give them to.

[treehau5]

Restaurants, not junk fast food chains. He or she was probably referring to corporations like Bloomin' Brands (OSI) and Brinker International.

[Fomite]

I happened to pick two fast food chains because I know they're on polar ends of the "How nice is it to be a franchise" spectrum. The core of the point is that not all franchises are created equal.

[treehau5]

But it matters which franchises you are talking about. A restaurant like Maggiano's, or Bonefish Grill is as far removed from Subway as Subway is as far removed from a 7-Eleven.

[mangeletti]

It's worth noting that Bonefish Grill operates a "managing partner" system, vs an ordinary franchise. The corporation owns 85% of the business, while a location's managing partner (who invests some money to get started) owns 10% (a regional manager owns the other 5%).

IOW, they're not, strictly speaking, a franchise.