# What the range hides

An Item 7 range is not a probability distribution. The midpoint is not a quoted
“typical” project unless the filing says so, and the low end is not the price a
qualified buyer should expect. The endpoints combine assumptions about format,
site, market, payment timing, and operating period that can move together.

## Different spaces produce different scopes

Construction is the obvious source of spread. A compliant second-generation
restaurant may preserve infrastructure that a shell needs from scratch.
Landlord work and a tenant-improvement allowance can change who writes the
check and when. Local labor, permit, utility, and accessibility requirements
can move the project outside a generic estimate. A wide construction range may
therefore describe several site conditions, not contractor uncertainty around
one defined scope.

Footprint compounds the difference. The 800–1,500-square-foot outlet in one
filing and the 2,000–4,000-square-foot full restaurant in another do not need
the same seating, finishes, HVAC, refrigeration, or working inventory.
Comparison starts with the format statement printed above the line items.

## Labels bundle unlike costs

The public filings show the problem directly. Minnesota's filed
[Shah's Halal Item 7](https://cards.web.commerce.state.mn.us/documents/%7B9078B29B-0000-C21E-982F-C2FDAFB07783%7D/download?contentSequence=0&documentClass=FRANCHISE_REGISTRATIONS)
uses a fixture package alongside a separate 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)
puts equipment, furniture, supplies, and fixtures together. In this index,
German Doner Kebab separately discloses restaurant equipment, fit-out materials
and installation, smallwares, furniture and fixtures, and mechanical,
electrical, and plumbing.

Those tables may all be internally valid. They are not row-for-row substitutes.
Adding every relevant row within one filing is safer than comparing a single
“equipment” label across filings. When a package cannot be unpacked from public
data, the package stays intact.

## Discounts and zeroes need context

A low total can include a fee discount available only to a defined class of
buyer. A $0 low value can mean the cost is not expected in a qualifying site,
could be covered by another party, or is estimated as no additional payment
under the stated assumption. It is a disclosed zero, not a blank. Conversely,
a brand with a published total but no line-item source in this dataset remains
total-only; no rows are reverse-engineered from the difference.

Arithmetic deserves the same restraint. If a filing's line items do not add to
its printed total, report the printed total and the sum. The Shah's Halal page
in this index does that. Quietly changing one of the values would make the
directory cleaner and the source record less accurate.

## Time changes the comparison

Filing years matter because labor, equipment, freight, insurance, and rent
assumptions age. The initial period matters because three months of additional
funds is not six months. Payment timing matters because a project can exhaust
cash before every reimbursement or loan draw arrives even when the final total
fits the estimate.

The FTC's [consumer guide to buying a
franchise](https://search.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/plain-language/591a_buying_a_franchise_sept_2020.pdf)
recommends comparing the filing with what franchisees in the system and
competing systems actually paid. That is the right use of the range: a starting
hypothesis to test against recent openings, site quotes, and a dated cash-flow
model.

Read the high end as exposure under the franchisor's assumptions, not as a cap.
Read the low end as a conditional endpoint, not a target. Then document which
conditions the real project satisfies.

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