# Signage

Signage is one of the few Item 7 rows that sounds like a single object — a
blade, a channel letter, a window vinyl — and still fails as a cross-brand
comparison. The estimate may cover only the primary identity sign, or it may
include interior graphics, menu boards, drive-through signs, monument signs,
permits, engineering, installation, and electrical. A filing that omits the
row has not disclosed $0 of signage; it has put those costs inside another
line or left them unnamed.

The league table at the end of this chapter includes only the brands that
printed a signage-bucket row. Great Greek has no such row. Its restaurant
package of $225,964–$248,560 is the place a reader might look next, and the
filing does not say whether signs live there.

## The four disclosed signage lines

| Brand | Filing label | Low | High | Share of that brand's high total |
| --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| German Doner Kebab | Signage | $20,000 | $35,000 | 3% |
| Shah's Halal Food | Signage | $10,000 | $28,000 | 7% |
| Mad for Chicken | Signage | $5,500 | $9,500 | 1% |
| 375° Chicken 'n Fries | Signage | $10,000 | $12,000 | 2% |

GDK's $20,000–$35,000 is the highest band and still a small slice of a
$690,500–$1,123,000 outlet. Shah's $10,000–$28,000 is the widest relative
spread: the high is 2.8 times the low. That width is the story. A second-generation
space with an existing raceway and landlord-approved blade can sit near the
low end; a mall pylon, a monument on a pad, or a landlord that requires
all-new storefront letters can sit near the high end. The Item 7 cell does not
say which of those projects it priced.

Mad for Chicken's $5,500–$9,500 is the lowest band in the itemised set, on the
largest footprint (2,000–4,000 square feet). 375°'s $10,000–$12,000 is a tight
band on an 800–1,500 square-foot outlet. Neither figure includes the
information a sign contractor actually bids: square footage of letters,
illumination, structural engineering, city sign code, landlord criteria, and
whether the electrical feed already exists at the fascia.

## What usually sits next to the signage row

GDK separates **Furniture & Fixtures** ($15,500–$20,000) from signage.
Interior brand graphics can land in either row depending on how the franchisor
wrote the footnote. Shah's **Marketing Supplies** line of $2,000–$7,000 is
coded as other, not signage; window clings and opening posters may live there,
on the signage line, or on **Grand Opening Campaign** ($1,000–$5,000). The
dataset does not split those labels, so this chapter does not either.

[Technology](/technology/) can overlap when menu boards are digital. GDK's
**Hardware and Software** is $27,500–$30,000; Shah's POS and computer line is
$4,000–$6,000; Mad for Chicken's POS is $3,000–$15,000. A digital menu board
purchased with the POS will not appear in signage. A static menu board
purchased with the identity package will. Ask the footnote, then ask the
vendor list in Item 8.

[Construction](/construction/) overlaps when the storefront itself is the
sign: new glazing, a bulkhead, a raceway, or a landlord-required façade
upgrade. GDK's **Fit Out Materials & Installation** of $175,000–$205,000 and
Shah's **Build-Out/Construction** of $80,000–$160,000 are the rows where that
work can hide. Adding a signage cell to a construction cell double-counts if
the fascia work is already in build-out; omitting both undercounts if the
landlord criteria arrived after the Item 7 estimate was written.

## Permits, landlords, and the unused raceway

A city sign permit is often a separate cash event from the sign itself.
[Licenses and permits](/licenses-and-permits/) may already include it. GDK's
**Business Licenses** are $1,000–$5,000; Shah's **Licenses, Permits** are
$1,000–$3,000; Mad for Chicken's **Business Licenses and Permits** are
$2,500–$5,000; 375°'s are $2,000–$5,000. Great Greek's **Utility
Deposits/Licenses** of $1,000–$3,000 combines two unlike things. None of those
rows is a sign-permit quote, and a monument sign on a state highway can exceed
the entire licenses high end by itself.

Landlord criteria can exceed city code. A shopping center may require
illuminated channel letters in a specified typeface, forbid a blade, or
require the tenant to join a pylon that has no remaining panels. A
second-generation restaurant may have a raceway that cannot accept the new
brand's letter height. Those constraints are lease and criteria-book facts.
They are not visible in the four numbers in the table above.

The [second-generation versus shell](/second-generation-vs-shell/) chapter
covers the broader delivered-condition test. For signage the short version is:
photograph the fascia, the pylon, the interior glass, and the electrical feed
before treating the Item 7 low as the bid.

## Worked example: do not annualize a sign

Shah's high signage figure of $28,000 against a $405,000 printed total is
7 percent of opening investment. GDK's high of $35,000 against $1,123,000 is
3 percent. Ranking those percentages as “Shah's spends more on brand identity”
confuses a one-time installed-cost estimate with a marketing program. Shah's
grand-opening campaign is a separate $1,000–$5,000. GDK's pre-launch and grand
opening marketing is a separate $10,000–$15,000. Mad for Chicken's grand
opening advertising is a fixed $15,000. Those are campaigns. Signage is
hardware and installation, unless the footnote says otherwise.

Minnesota's public [Shah's Halal
filing](https://cards.web.commerce.state.mn.us/documents/%7B9078B29B-0000-C21E-982F-C2FDAFB07783%7D/download?contentSequence=0&documentClass=FRANCHISE_REGISTRATIONS)
is the place to read the Shah's signage footnote next to the fixture package
and the build-out line. A filed [Great Greek
disclosure](https://cards.web.commerce.state.mn.us/documents/%7B40DC349A-0000-CFD3-B1AA-6F584E40E621%7D/download?contentSequence=0&documentClass=FRANCHISE_REGISTRATIONS)
is the place to confirm that no signage row appears in that Item 7 at all.

## Signage checklist

1. Copy the filing's signage label, or note that the filing has none.
2. List every required identity element from the brand book: primary sign,
   blade, window vinyl, interior graphics, menu boards, directional signs,
   drive-through, monument, pylon panel.
3. Mark which Item 7 row is supposed to pay for each element — signage,
   fixtures, technology, construction, grand opening, or unnamed.
4. Price permits, engineering, installation, and electrical as separate lines
   if the quote does not already include them.
5. Read the landlord's sign criteria before using the Item 7 low.
6. Ask recent franchisees what the installed sign package actually cost,
   including change orders after landlord review, as the FTC's
   [FDD walkthrough](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2023/05/franchise-fundamentals-taking-deep-dive-franchise-disclosure-document)
   recommends for opening costs generally.

## Code, landmarks, and interior graphics

A historic-district or landmark façade can forbid the channel letters the
brand book assumes. That fight is a sign-variance fee, an architect's time,
and sometimes a different identity package. It will not show up as a fourth
column in GDK's $20,000–$35,000 **Signage** row. Put it on the worksheet as
a site quote against signage or against [professional fees](/professional-fees/).

Interior graphics — wall murals, menu boards that are not digital, window
hours, directional signs to restrooms — are the items most often left off a
storefront bid and then rushed in the last week. Shah's **Marketing Supplies**
of $2,000–$7,000 may cover some of that. GDK's furniture-and-fixtures row of
$15,500–$20,000 may cover millwork that has the logo in it. Great Greek's
restaurant package may cover it and may not. Walk the brand book against the
Item 7 labels before treating the signage high as the identity budget.

Illumination and night-time photographs are a landlord-criteria issue as much
as a city-code issue. A shopping center that requires internally illuminated
letters, a raceway painted to match, and a photocell will price differently
from a second-generation box that will accept a non-illuminated blade. Mad
for Chicken's $5,500–$9,500 is the band that most needs that distinction
written down, because it is the lowest disclosed signage range on the largest
footprint.

The injected comparison below sorts the four disclosed signage rows by high
estimate. Great Greek will not be in it. That absence is the fifth data point.

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HTML: https://donerhandbook.com/signage/