Equipment, furniture, and packages

An equipment row is not one universal basket. One filing may disclose “furniture, fixtures and equipment” as a single range. Another may separate restaurant equipment, smallwares, furniture, technology, signage, and installation. A third may use “restaurant package” for a mixture that cannot be reconstructed from the public table. Comparing the row totals without comparing their scope creates false precision.

The league table at the end of this chapter includes only rows coded here as equipment. Great Greek’s Restaurant Package is grouped as a package, not as equipment, so it will not appear in that table. That is the correct treatment: the filing did not say how to split it. The restaurant package chapter keeps that bundle intact.

Trace the package boundary

Read the Item 7 label and its footnote together. The footnote is where the estimate says whether it includes cooking and holding equipment, refrigeration, warewashing, prep tables, shelving, sinks, water treatment, beverage systems, millwork, customer furniture, office equipment, utensils, freight, tax, installation, startup, and warranty. Then identify which of those costs appear elsewhere in the same table. A separate technology line may contain the POS hardware but not network cabling. A construction line may include equipment connections but not the equipment. “Small wares” may mean the opening utensil set, while replacement smallwares become an operating expense.

Do not split a package just to make a chart look comparable. Minnesota’s public Shah’s Halal filing uses a fixture-package line, while the filed Great Greek table combines equipment, furniture, supplies, and fixtures. The usable comparison is that the bundles differ; a made-up allocation would not improve it.

Worked example: five labels for kitchen hardware

The equipment-adjacent rows look like this when left under the filing’s own names:

Brand	Filing label	Low	High
German Doner Kebab	Restaurant Equipment	$140,000	$175,000
German Doner Kebab	Furniture & Fixtures	$15,500	$20,000
German Doner Kebab	Small Wares	$11,000	$15,000
Shah’s Halal Food	Fixture Package	$30,000	$50,000
The Great Greek	Restaurant Package	$225,964	$248,560
Mad for Chicken	Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment	$85,000	$110,000
375° Chicken ‘n Fries	Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment	$100,000	$120,000
Döner Haus	Equipment	$78,000	$85,000
Döner Haus	Furniture & Fixtures	$6,000	$12,000
Döner Haus	Opening Smallwares	$7,000	$15,000

GDK’s three equipment-bucket rows add to $166,500–$210,000. That addition is allowed because the filing already split them. Adding GDK’s equipment rows to Shah’s fixture package, or subtracting an invented equipment slice from Great Greek’s restaurant package, is not.

GDK also discloses Fit Out Materials & Installation at $175,000–$205,000 in construction. Some of that work will look like “kitchen” on a job site — stainless, millwork, connections — and none of it is in the equipment rows. Shah’s Build-Out/Construction of $80,000–$160,000 sits beside the fixture package; the document does not say whether hoods, sinks, or walk-in boxes live in one line or the other.

Great Greek’s restaurant package is the tightest range in the table ($225,964–$248,560) sitting next to the widest construction range ($250,000–$650,000 leasehold improvements). That pattern is consistent with a specified kit of furniture, equipment, and supplies whose price is more stable than the premises work. It is not evidence that the package contains only equipment. The 2023 Great Greek note that grand-opening marketing is included in the restaurant package is a further reason not to treat the package as a pure FF&E number.

Mad for Chicken and 375° use the same Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment label. Mad for Chicken discloses $85,000–$110,000 for a 2,000–4,000 square-foot full restaurant; 375° discloses $100,000–$120,000 for an 800–1,500 square-foot outlet. The smaller shop has the higher equipment low end. Footprint does not rank equipment cost by itself, and neither row discloses whether freight, tax, or installation are inside the figure.

Purchase price is not installed cost

A quoted appliance can require freight, rigging, assembly, curb or stand hardware, electrical disconnects, plumbing, gas regulation, ventilation, commissioning, and inspection. Those costs may land in construction, equipment, or both depending on the filing. Delivery timing also matters: a low equipment quote is not useful if a long-lead item delays opening and extends pre-opening rent and payroll.

Technology and signage are the two most common neighbors that readers accidentally roll into equipment. GDK’s Hardware and Software line is $27,500–$30,000; Shah’s Computer Hardware, Software, and POS System is $4,000–$6,000; Mad for Chicken’s POS System is $3,000–$15,000; 375° splits POS System ($4,000–$6,000) from Computer Systems ($500–$1,500). Great Greek has no separate technology row in Item 7. Signage is its own row in five of the six itemised filings and is absent as a named line in Great Greek. Those absences are silences, not zeroes.

Utility consumption belongs in the decision even though it is not part of the purchase price. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR commercial food-service directory covers categories including refrigeration, ice machines, dishwashers, ovens, griddles, fryers, holding cabinets, and cooktops. It also offers product and rebate tools. Certification does not answer capacity, menu, ventilation, or service-network questions, but it makes lifetime energy and water cost visible next to the acquisition cost.

Mandatory sources and substitutions

Item 7 says how much. Item 8 says from whom. Equipment that must be bought from the franchisor or a designated supplier is a different cash event from equipment that may be bid. The FTC’s Franchise Rule compliance guide requires the disclosure of required purchases; it does not convert an Item 7 range into a shoppable bill of materials.

Confirm whether the package is mandatory, whether used equipment is permitted, who approves substitutions, who owns leased systems, and what happens when a model is discontinued. A used-equipment low end in a footnote can explain part of a wide range; it does not authorize a substitution the operations manual will reject after the lease is signed.

Recent franchisees are the check on what they actually paid for freight, installation, and opening replacements. The FTC’s FDD review guidance specifically recommends discussing total investment and required purchases with current operators.

Copy the filing’s equipment, fixture, smallwares, and package labels onto a blank sheet before adding any quote. Mark each required function (cook, hold, refrigerate, wash, prep, serve, seat, store) and note which Item 7 row is supposed to cover it. Flag functions that might live in construction, technology, or signage instead. Leave Great Greek’s restaurant package as one line until the franchisor or a franchisee documents its contents. Add freight, tax, installation, startup, and first-year maintenance as separate columns even if the filing bundled them. Record lead times next to amounts: a cheap item that arrives after rent starts is not cheap. Check the matrix against Item 8 restricted sources before treating a third-party quote as a substitute.

Smallwares, furniture, and the opening-week replacements

GDK is the only itemised filing that isolates Small Wares at $11,000–$15,000 and Furniture & Fixtures at $15,500–$20,000 beside restaurant equipment. That split is useful on a job site: pans, ladles, and opening utensils wear out in the first month, while booths and millwork do not. Replacement smallwares then become an operating expense that working capital has to fund. Shah’s fixture package and the two chicken concepts’ FF&E lines do not say whether the first set of tongs is inside the cell. Great Greek’s restaurant package is silent in the same way, and there is no invented smallwares slice to fill the silence.

Freight damage and short shipments are opening-week equipment costs that no Item 7 row is named for. They show up as change orders, rush re-orders, or missing menu items. A buyer who treats the high column as a cap has no line for them. Put a short-shipment allowance on the project budget even when the filing did not.

Where this sits in the cash calendar

Equipment deposits are often due when the order is placed, weeks before delivery and months before sales. GDK’s restaurant-equipment high of $175,000 can require a deposit that dwarfs the $25,000–$30,000 lease-deposit row. Great Greek’s package of up to $248,560 is the same kind of early check, paid to whomever Item 7 names. Those deposits are not construction draws and are not additional funds. They belong on the pre-opening calendar next to the franchise fee and deposits.

Item 7 provides the disclosed opening estimate. A project budget needs a location-specific equipment matrix that matches each required function to its quote, installation scope, utility demand, lead time, and first-year maintenance burden—without assuming that another filing’s package contains the same things.