If you go to a restaurant like Longhorn where you live, then go to another Longhorn 100 miles away, a lot of the decor will be the *exact same* items, down to statues. Is there some sort of catalogue?
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TLDR: The franchise corporation makes deals with companies that sell the decor, and the franchise owner is required to buy from those companies.
Part of the agreement you sign when you buy a franchise states that you will decorate your restaurant following the guidelines set by the parent company.
McDonalds corporate for example will tell you that you need to buy these chairs, this style of floor tile, use these paint colors etc. They have dedicated teams of stylists and interior decorators at corporate that figure out what a restaurant will look like and even do psychological research to figure out how it will affect customers and their business.
Corporate has contracts with companies that supply these materials at a set rate / discount (because they buy them in such large quantities). That ensures that each location looks very similar and that the experience is that same regardless of which location you go too. But it’s up to the franchise owner to actually pay for it all.
The downside of this agreement is if corporate decides to change something the franchises don’t have any choice but to comply. So if corporate decides all the locations need to be painted bright neon green, the franchises have to pony up the cash to repaint with a certain number of months or lose their franchise.
The upside is they have all these professionals behind the scenes taking care of all this stuff to make sure your restaurant is as successful as possible. Owning a franchise of a big chain is practically a license to print money as a result, because it’s difficult to fail.
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