What assistance does Potbelly Sandwich Works provide in site selection?
Potbelly_Sandwich_Works Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
2. SITE SELECTION/SHOP CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT.
A. SITE SELECTION.
If you have not yet secured a location for the Site as of the Effective Date, then within one hundred eighty (180) days after the Effective Date, you agree to purchase, or sign a lease or sublease for, a suitable location for the Shop within the following non-exclusive geographic area: . You
agree to obtain our written acceptance of the Shop's proposed location before signing any lease, sublease, or other document for the site. We will use reasonable efforts to help analyze your market area, to help determine site feasibility, and to assist in designating the location, although we will not conduct site selection activities for you. It is your responsibility to find a Site that satisfies our site selection criteria, unless we waive those criteria in a particular situation. We will not unreasonably withhold our acceptance of a Site that meets our criteria for demographic characteristics; traffic patterns; parking; character of neighborhood; competition from, proximity to, and nature of nearby businesses; other commercial characteristics; and size, appearance, and other physical characteristics. We will spend the time and effort, and incur the expense, reasonably required to consider sites you propose. We will accept or refuse your proposed Site within thirty (30) days after we receive the complete site report and other materials we request. After you find and secure the location, we will insert its address into Subsection 1.D. above, and it will be the Site.
If no Site is found by you and accepted by us within one hundred eighty (180) days after the Effective Date, then either we or you may terminate this Agreement upon written notice.
Source: Item 22 — CONTRACTS (FDD page 79)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Potbelly Sandwich Works' 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, if a franchisee has not secured a location for their shop by the effective date of the agreement, they have 180 days to find a suitable location within a non-exclusive geographic area. Potbelly Sandwich Works will offer reasonable efforts to help analyze the market area and determine site feasibility, as well as assist in designating the location. However, the FDD states that Potbelly Sandwich Works will not conduct site selection activities for the franchisee.
It is the franchisee's responsibility to find a site that satisfies Potbelly Sandwich Works' site selection criteria, unless those criteria are waived in a particular situation. Potbelly Sandwich Works will not unreasonably withhold acceptance of a site that meets their criteria for demographic characteristics, traffic patterns, parking, character of neighborhood, competition, proximity to nearby businesses, commercial characteristics, and physical characteristics.
Potbelly Sandwich Works will spend the time, effort, and expense reasonably required to consider sites proposed by the franchisee. They will either accept or refuse the proposed site within 30 days after receiving the complete site report and other requested materials. If a site is not found and accepted within 180 days after the effective date, either Potbelly Sandwich Works or the franchisee may terminate the agreement with written notice.