# The low column and the high column

Two columns sit side by side in Item 7, and they are not two versions of the
same project. The high column is an estimate of exposure under the
franchisor's stated assumptions. The low column is a stack of individually
favourable endpoints, each resting on an assumption the filing may or may not
name, added together into a figure that no single restaurant necessarily
matches. The columns look symmetrical on the page and are asymmetrical in what
they claim.

The practical consequence is that the low total is the harder of the two to
use. A buyer can at least ask whether the high column contemplated the site in
question. Asking the same of the low column means asking twenty separate
questions, one per row, because the low figure was assembled row by row.

## The low column is added, not observed

German Doner Kebab's 2024 low of $690,500 is the sum of twenty low cells. One
of those cells, **Leasehold Improvements**, is $0. Three others in the same
construction group are not: **Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing** is
$150,000–$175,000, **Fit Out Materials & Installation** is $175,000–$205,000,
and **Architects and Project Manager Fees** are $30,000–$50,000. A premises
that genuinely required no leasehold improvements would be a very particular
kind of room, and nothing in the table says that same room also produces the
low end of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing work. The
[second-generation versus shell](/second-generation-vs-shell/) chapter tests
that assumption physically. The point here is arithmetical: the low total
assumes every favourable condition holds at once.

That is why the low column so rarely describes anything a contractor would
recognise. It is a column of best cases, not a bid on a cheap version of the
restaurant. The [construction](/construction/) chapter shows the same
structure in five different label schemes.

## Four kinds of cell, only one of which is a range

Reading a column means reading what each cell is doing. Four patterns appear in
the itemised filings here, and they carry different information.

| Pattern | Example from the filings | What it states |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A true range | Shah's Halal Food, Build-Out/Construction, $80,000–$160,000 (2024) | The cost varies with the site and the franchisor has bracketed it |
| A fixed amount | Mad for Chicken, Grand Opening Advertising, $15,000–$15,000 (2025) | One figure, disclosed twice |
| A zero low on a substantial row | German Doner Kebab, Leasehold Improvements, $0–$250,000 (2024) | Under some site assumption the cost does not arise |
| A zero at both ends | German Doner Kebab, Property Agent, $0–$0 (2024) | The franchisor expects no payment on this row |

Great Greek's 2023 **Real Estate Service Charge** of $0–$3,500 is the third
pattern at a small scale: a genuine range whose floor happens to be nothing, as
is Döner Haus's 2026 **Pre-opening Travel Expense** of $0–$3,000. Neither is the
fourth pattern, and the difference matters when a reader is deciding
which rows to carry onto a project budget. A row that can be zero has to be
priced anyway. A row that is zero at both ends has been disclosed as not
applicable under the franchisor's assumptions, which is still worth a question
about whose service the row would have paid for.

None of these is the same as a row that is absent. Great Greek's 2023 table has
no signage row and no technology row; Mad for Chicken's 2025 table and 375°'s
2024 table have no miscellaneous row. Silence is not a zero, and the
[what the range hides](/what-the-range-hides/) chapter treats that distinction
as the central discipline of the whole exercise.

## A fixed amount usually means the franchisor set the price

Look at which rows collapse to a single figure. Every itemised filing here
fixes its initial franchise fee: $30,000 at German Doner Kebab and Shah's,
$35,000 at Mad for Chicken and Döner Haus, $40,000 at 375°. Great Greek's fee is
the exception at $35,550–$39,500, and the [franchise fee](/franchise-fee/) chapter explains
why — the low end is a discount available to owners of affiliated brands, so
that band describes two classes of buyer rather than two prices for the same
buyer.

Mad for Chicken fixes **Grand Opening Advertising** at $15,000 and 375° fixes
it at $10,000, both amounts a franchisor can specify because a launch programme
is a defined deliverable. Great Greek fixes its **Design and Project Management
Fee** at $10,000 for the same reason, while leaving leasehold improvements to
run $250,000–$650,000. The pattern is not a rule, though. Mad for Chicken's
2024 **Insurance** row is fixed at $2,500, and insurance is a third-party
premium that varies with carrier, jurisdiction, coverage limits, and the
landlord's requirements. A single figure there is an estimate presented without
a band, which the [insurance](/insurance/) chapter treats as the reason not to
read $2,500 as a quote.

## Width is not risk, and the widest cells are not the largest

The widest single cell here is Great Greek's 2023 **Leasehold
Improvements** at $250,000–$650,000, a disclosed swing of $400,000 — within
$5,000 of Shah's entire 2024 printed high total of $405,000. German Doner Kebab's
leasehold row swings $250,000 from a zero floor. Mad for Chicken's **Leasehold
Improvements, Construction and/or Remodeling** swings $160,000.

Proportionally the picture inverts. 375°'s 2024 **Your Training Expenses** runs
$100–$5,000, a fifty-fold band, and it is one of the smallest rows in the
table. Shah's **Travel Expenses to Attend Training** runs $2,000–$20,000. Wide
bands on small rows usually mean the franchisor cannot know something about the
buyer — where they live, how many people travel, how long they stay — rather
than that the cost is volatile. The [training costs](/training-costs/) chapter
reads those rows as travel, not tuition.

Meanwhile German Doner Kebab's **Hardware and Software** at $27,500–$30,000 is
a narrow band on a substantial row, which is what a specified package looks
like when the franchisor controls the specification. Narrow is not safe and
wide is not dangerous. Both describe how much the franchisor knows.

## Check the columns separately

Add the low column. Add the high column. Compare each with the printed total
before comparing anything with another filing. The columns can fail
independently: Shah's fifteen 2024 low cells sum to $197,000, which is the
printed low, while the same fifteen high cells sum to $410,000 against a
printed high of $405,000. One column adds and one does not, and the
generated [Shah's cost page](/costs/shahs-halal/) reports both figures rather
than adjusting a row to close the gap. That $5,000 is a fact about the
document.

A column-level check also catches the more common reader error, which is
building a "likely case" by taking some rows at their low and others at their
high. There is nothing wrong with doing that on a project budget — it is what a
project budget is — but the result is not an Item 7 figure and should not be
presented as one, and it should not be compared with another brand's printed
total.

## Reading both columns without averaging them

1. Write the format statement and filing year above both columns.
2. For each low cell, note the assumption that produces it: a reusable
   premises, a discount, a shorter travel, a landlord contribution, a
   franchisor-specified package.
3. Mark every fixed cell and ask who set the price.
4. Mark every zero and classify it: zero floor on a real range, zero at both
   ends, or an absent row.
5. Sum each column and write the printed total beside it. If they disagree,
   keep both.
6. Carry the high column into the cash plan and the assumptions into the
   questions you still have to ask, then replace both with quotes as
   [from Item 7 to a site budget](/from-item-7-to-a-site-budget/) describes.
7. Never present a midpoint as a typical project, and never build one by
   averaging the two totals.

The [how to read Item 7](/how-to-read-item-7/) sequence puts this step fourth,
after the labels and the footnotes, because a column cannot be interpreted
before the rows are understood. The low column is the franchisor's most
optimistic reading of its own assumptions. The high column is the number to
plan against. Neither is a budget, and the space between them is not a
probability.

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HTML: https://donerhandbook.com/low-column-and-high-column/