Post #364626 by Swanky on Mon, Mar 3, 2008 12:57 PM

I spoke with Sven Koch about opening costs and in particular, decorating costs. Indeed, they consider the cost of decor a very tiny thing. When the head chef is making $100k a year plus, well, let's just say that opening Trader Vic's is not a cheap thing and thes carvings, etc are a tiny part of the budget. $25k. So, they don't have much value to them. I'm sure they would much rather empty a warehouse and get it off the books.

And yes, the franchises own their decor. They own everything. The main things TV does for a franchise is train their top tier staff and supply them with consumables like mugs and rum, etc.