When you run a business, you choose a location. If the landlord does something that causes a noxious smell, it's on you to fix it. We don't say, "Well, that's the landlord's fault." Your business, your leasing arrangements.

When you run a business, you choose employees. If an employee does something noxious, it's on you to fix it. We don't say, "Well, that's the employee's fault." Your business, your employee hiring, firing, and training.

In conclusion:

When you run a business, you choose franchisees and set standards of behaviour. If a franchise does something noxious, it's on you to fix it. We don't say, "Well, that's the franchisee's fault." Your business, your franchisee selection, training, and standards enforcement.

There's no weaseling out. You run a business, the buck stops at your desk. If you don't like that, don't run a business. It's 100% on you to choose your vendors, landlords, employees, franchisees, contractors, &c.

All your responsibility. In exchange for which, you enjoy the benefits when you get it right.

p.s. Your conclusion is speculation. It's fine to speculate, but I reject the claim that your conclusion follows from your argument. Your speculation could be correct, maybe Chillis bribed the manager to send a bad email, or heard about the ruckus and put their PR machine into high gear to publicize it. All possible, but it doesn't follow in any way from the relationship between franchisor and employee of a franchisee.

I've worked with so many businesses, especially rental businesses, that don't understand that their business model - that every business model - is that they provide consistency and indemnification in exchange for more money than their other services are objectively worth.

It's not that I'm paying you for a bacon cheeseburger, it's that when I got chewed out by my boss about some work issue, and I'm telling myself I just need to keep my shit together to the end of the day, and then I'm going to go home and get that cheeseburger from my favorite place, and somehow that's the glue that is going to help me keep my shit together, that your store is open, and you haven't run out of bacon because the manager you sexually harassed was the only one good at keeping on top of ordering.

I, the average preoccupied customer, don't need to hear the sad story of the bacon supply, and frankly the idea of offering it shouldn't even cross your mind, let alone find my ears. It's one thing if I pull the whole story of a broken freezer or a burst pipe out of you, I've done that any number of times, but don't open with it. You're paid not to open with an excuse. Open with an apology, a discount, and possibly a recommendation another customer favorite that's good even without the bacon.

If you can't keep your doors open without a stream of excuses, then you fail at logistics and you should throw money at someone to solve that problem for you, or go back to working for someone else, or someone might send Gordon Ramsay to explain it to you with a lot more swearing and a lot less empathy.

This is a stretch. The corporate office may or may not have the contractual ability to intervene; they can't just cancel franchisees because they feel like it.

More importantly, it's up to journalists and even randos on HN to avoid trying to confuse the relationships involved. If some McD's manager said something stupid and offensive, we can't indict the whole chain. Individual humans have agency.

The parent company doesn't get a blank check though. That's the risk with franchising. Some franchisee may do something stupid and it reflects poorly on the parent. That's why most franchise agreements are very one-sided.

Here's a perfect example of how a franchisor can play hardball. I worked for a McD's that was a dominant store in our region. Located right off the Interstate and got tons of consistent traffic. Just an excellent, very profitable store. But our owner/operator was a dick to Corporate. So they opened a new store at the next offramp. "Offered" it to our operator, but the terms were ridiculous, so he passed on it. Found someone to take it, and we dropped 30% in sales. Back in the 80's that cost our owner $80K in lost PROFIT. He was pissed.

Probably depends on the franchise. I know the one I worked for in high school seemed unusually obsessed with the notion that a secret shopper from corporate would catch us on a bad day and they never went into what the consequences of such a thing were.

As some franchises also involve loans, if they don't like how you're running your store they can call in your loans. I'm not saying you have to close, but unless you know where a sunken treasure is, good luck avoiding bankruptcy.

No, they may not have the contractual opportunity to intervene, just as if I leave a location on unfavourable terms, I may not be able to compel the landlord to solve a noxious odour smell. But that's the risk I willingly take when I negotiate that lease.

And where franchises are concerned, I have little empathy for the franchisor. They chose franchising as a business model for its advantages, such as making franchisees finance their growth, and having a captive market for products and services they compel the franchisees to resell.

I think when you choose to be a franchisor, you're willingly accepting the inherent tradeoff of growth in exchange for the risk that your reputation and brand will suffer if franchisees behave badly.

I'm sure Ford isn't happy that some of its independent dealers take a hot seller like the new Bronco and mark it up $10,000 or $20,000 above MSRP for customers who ordered one thinking they'd pay MSRP.

But the headlines in the newspapers rarely say "Reggie's Westchester Ford-Lincoln is ripping customers off," the headlines say "Ford Dealers are ripping customers off," and the public rarely gives a lot of thought as to whether Ford can do anything about it, they think, "Ford ought to do something about it."