BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - The word “local” is evolving. According to independent franchise owners in Bryan College Station, the term should not just apply to family-owned and operated small businesses.
February 6, 2021, marked one year since the first coronavirus death in the United States. The pandemic has sadly taken thousands of lives and majorly impacted businesses from coast to coast. One of those business groups has been franchises.
According to areport conducted by the International Franchise Association, an estimated 32,700 franchise businesses closed their doors within the first six months of the COVID-19 outbreak (August 2020).
“The restaurant industry experienced the highest number of closed franchise businesses at 14,200, of which 10,100 restaurant closures were temporary, and the remaining 4,100 restaurants were permanent,” according to the International Franchise Association’s report.
Jared Steffen, who was born in Brenham and is the franchise owner of two College Station Jersey Mike’s Subs, hopes he won’t add to that number.
In 2020 from March to August, restaurant franchises in the U.S. lost approximately $73.7 billion in sales, according to the International Franchise Association’s report.
Even though Steffen’s business is under a national name, the success relies on him.
“We are independent franchisees,” said Steffen. “Our business model depends on us thriving and getting out here grinding and getting the business in the doors, just like all the other business here.”
Holly Johnston and her husband graduated from Texas A&M and she is the franchise owner of Costa Vida in College Station. She believes the misconception is a misunderstanding.
“[Franchises] are a little different to how some of them can be structured, but at the end of the day, it is my restaurant,” said Johnston. “We don’t get paid to do what we do. We actually pay the franchisor in order to have this restaurant. “
It’s restaurants like Steffen’s and Johnston’s that are causing the definition of local to evolve. Something the Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce recognizes.
Change is slow and these franchisees still feel like they aren’t seen by the community as local businesses.
“I posted my class of ’04, ’05 on both my businesses to show that we are former students, and it certainly makes it difficult to get the word out that we are locally-owned and operated without shoving it down everybody’s throats,” said Steffen.
Not only are the owners local, but so are the employees. Both Steffen and Johnston also believe it’s important to support other businesses outside of their own to help boost the local economy.
“We employ local people. We spend here in the local economy as customers in other places,” said Johnston. “I think that to be successful as a city and as a county and beyond, everyone needs to remember that everything breaths back into the Bryan-College Station area.”
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Defining local: BCS franchise owners say the term applies them, too - KBTX
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