Great brand with great franchisees who help each other. Unfortunately, the franchisor - Winmark - has really taken a toxic turn in the last 5-7 years.

There are about 250-300 individual franchisees, most of them own 1-2 stores and are "operators" in their stores every day. These owners are the strength of the franchise - they have a wealth of experience and are usually willing to help/advise other owners with just about anything.

Over the last 5-7 years, corporate leadership has really gotten terrible. They are disconnected from their franchisees, and make bad decisions that hurt the stores and cost them money. Winmark (the franchisor) seems way more focused on increasing their stock price these days - which is a big part of the compensation package for their executives - rather than doing what's best for their franchisees. 10-20 years ago, the execs at Winmark were like true partners to us franchisees, but most of the "good" / helpful Winmark employees have been fired or have left on their own, presumably because of the toxic culture that has developed. So anyone that is at Winmark now is either inexperienced, or are the creators of that toxic environment.

I think the problem comes from the very top - even if the "workers" want to do the right thing for franchisees, they are handcuffed by top Winmark management. Winmark needs to stop spending so much time trying to market Winmark and their stock value, and refocus on being a partner to their local franchisees. Winmark has lots of VP's and Directors these days, and they seem to have cut down the number of experienced people who actually work closely with franchisees. They are becoming top-heavy, and all those people at the top are disconnected from the stores that support the brand with their royalty payments. Winmark should reduce the executive levels, increase the "worker" levels, and give those workers and managers the freedom to do what's right for their franchisees.