Guest: Ty Brewster
Topics: Franchising, location data, PlacerAI, Buxton, LocateAI, career development

Franchise Mastery: The Secrets Behind Retail Expansion with Ty Brewster

In this episode of Retail Retold, host Chris Ressa delves into the world of franchise real estate with guest Ty Brewster, a franchise broker from Phoenix, Arizona, who specializes in national expansions. Ty shares fascinating insights into his unique role, including utilizing LocateAI to track cell phone data and provide valuable location analytics for client franchises. He explains his journey from running Cold Stone Creamery locations to representing over 70 franchise brands, all while maintaining a tenant-only focus at his firm. Ty’s story about investing heavily in attending conferences and building relationships offers listeners a deep dive into the intricacies and commitments of succeeding in the franchise space. Chris and Ty also touch on industry trends, the impact of rising interest rates on corporate growth, and the growing appeal of franchises amid economic uncertainty. The episode wraps up with a compelling case study of how Ty helped bring Hawaii’s beloved Seven Brothers Burgers to Utah, showcasing his dedication to franchise growth and strategic real estate decisions.

00:00 Introduction to Retail Retold
00:22 Meet Ty Brewster: Franchise Specialist
00:45 Understanding Franchise Real Estate
01:00 The Role of Technology in Franchise Growth
04:17 Challenges and Strategies in Franchise Real Estate
10:39 The Journey into Franchise Real Estate
17:54 The Importance of Investing in Yourself
26:28 Success Stories: Seven Brothers Burgers
31:54 Rapid Fire Questions and Conclusion

What You’ll Learn:

1. The intricacies and advantages of working within the franchise sector in commercial real estate.
2. The importance of attending industry-specific conferences for networking and business development.
3. The concept of personal financial investment and commitment to professional growth.

About Retail Retold:

The Retail Retold Podcast highlights community retailer stories from across the country and gives a behind-the-scenes perspective from business leaders in both retail and real estate industries. The show’s episodes contain valuable insights that help solve the needs of entrepreneurs and real estate pros. Join host Chris Ressa and new guests weekly for amazing insights and thought-provoking stories.

Transcript:

[00:00:17] Chris Ressa: Welcome to Retail Retold everyone. Today I’m joined by Ty Brewster. Ty is a broker in Phoenix, AZ specializing in the franchise space. He works with LocateAI. I’m excited for him to be here.

He does a lot of interesting work. He’s got a good story for us. Welcome to the show, Ty.

[00:00:40] Ty Brewster: Thanks, Chris. Appreciate you inviting me on.

[00:00:44] Chris Ressa: Oh, no worries, man.

So Ty, tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do.

[00:00:48] Ty Brewster: I’m a specialist in the franchise space. I work with about 70 different franchise brands doing national master broker work, helping them grow around the country. Working with franchisees, we have a program with Locate.AI, where we track on the technology side, about 200 million cell phones around the country.

And then we provide that data to our clients at no cost in exchange for allowing us to help their franchisees work on their real estate deals. And then we monetize our services. With the landlord commissions that are received. So we do a similar to a Buxton service. We provide our clients with that financial analysis and location analysis service at no cost so that we can help them grow around the country.

[00:01:42] Chris Ressa: Super fascinating that you provide this service that gets you in the door, but then you. And you use that and then you leverage that to let the real estate be the payer of your guy’s business versus the actual client paying for the Locate.AI service. So that’s super interesting.

So when you say you track cell phone data and you mentioned Buxton, would you guys put yourself in the Buxton category or more like the PlacerAI category of when you’re monitoring cell phones,

[00:02:23] Ty Brewster: I would say the difference between us and Placer, when you run a Placer report, the place report does not have any information or artificial intelligence associated with that individual user.

So for example, if I am working with Chipotle just to pull a name out of a hat, and I run a Placer report, they do not have sales data for Chipotle to understand the individual cell phones going in and out of every Chipotle or the revenue being driven by those cell phones going in and out of that location, and they’re not able to use that to predict potential revenue from other future locations. We do provide that so as Buxton is a system that provides location analysis and it gives you a revenue analysis for potential locations, we are very similar to that where we will work with a company, give them revenue analysis where locate or where Placer ad does not do that with an individual company. We will actually pull your sales from all of your locations, analyze the cell phones going in and out of each of those locations and give you revenue analysis. If you have enough locations that we can analyze that.

[00:04:02] Chris Ressa: I will say this. There is sales data that Placer is coming out with, and they have come out with, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, check it out it certainly is interesting and how they’re getting that data.

Okay I gotta ask. How do you work with 70 different brands? How’s that possible? That’s a lot.

[00:04:21] Ty Brewster: We’ve got a pretty good size team and we’re looking to build a team similar to what a stall back put together. So we are unique in that we are a tenant only shop. We’re focused only on the tenant side of the business.

[00:04:35] Ty Brewster: So that is all we do is focus on these franchise brands. And help them to grow so we Can work volumes? I’m working right now with my team on over 230 transactions And you’ve got to develop a system, you’ve got to work that system and you’ve got to stay on top of each of these transactions and make sure [00:05:00] that everybody’s doing their job and keeping these things rolling.

[00:05:05] Chris Ressa: That’s super interesting. I guess the followup to that for me is, are you. Hired by the franchisor or the franchisee?

[00:05:17] Ty Brewster: So I build a relationship with the franchisor who then introduces me to the franchisee at the perfect time So the franchisor does not have need for real estate The franchisor signs a franchisee in Ankeny, Iowa, north of Des Moines, and then that franchisee at the time that they sign their franchise agreement, then they have a need for real estate.

[00:05:44] Ty Brewster: The franchisor would then introduce me to that franchisee at the time they sign their franchise agreement, and I would service the franchisee or the franchisee’s team.

[00:05:56] Ty Brewster: And got it. And [00:06:00] there are some, you say franchisor doesn’t have a need for real estate. There are some franchisor that’s in a franchise model that do guarantee the lease and they work on the lease and the franchisee just gets given the location.

That is an unusual scenario that does happen. That happens.

[00:06:19] Chris Ressa: Chick-fil-a is like that, right?

[00:06:21] Ty Brewster: Chick-fil-a is, that’s a whole other animal. I don’t work with Chick-fil-a.

[00:06:27] Chris Ressa: And McDonald’s is like that.

[00:06:31] Ty Brewster: Yeah. Look some of the larger, there’s 2000 franchise brands.

You could probably name three or four that are like that, but that’s very unusual. Most franchises will sign a franchise agreement with a franchisee or a franchisee group, and then they will start looking for leased space. I help those franchisees find least space. Sure.

[00:06:54] Chris Ressa: And so you’re not doing any work with the corporate groups, right? Just franchise groups, right? So if someone doesn’t have a franchise model, like a Starbucks or Chipotle, who’s not franchised, they’re just, they’re all corporate. You’re not doing that work.

[00:07:07] Ty Brewster: That is not my specialty. I have one client that I work with. It is a corporation. I do corporate locations, but everything else is franchised

[00:07:17] Chris Ressa: So one of the things I’m curious about, are these franchisors signing an agreement with you? Do you have an exclusive agreement or is it and do these franchisees have to work with you?

[00:07:38] Ty Brewster: So yes, I have an agreement with the franchisor and the franchisor.

If the franchisor does choose to grow and they do corporate units, which some franchisors will have up to 10 percent of their locations. Would be corporate owned units so that they can do test marketing or different things like that they are required to use Our services if we do a model for them . The franchisor is required to introduce us to the franchisee.

They are not required to use us. It is very common that a franchisee already has a relationship in the market and they want to use the person that they have a relationship with or They might have a brother who’s a commercial real estate agent and they want to use their brother and I’m not their brother so we’re fine if they don’t utilize us in Tampa, Florida for Rosati’s pizza. They can use their brother if they choose to do that. And we’ll just work with the next franchisee that comes down the pike.

[00:08:43] Chris Ressa: Got it. Can you name some of the brands that you work with? Let everyone know who are some of the brands that you represent?

[00:08:50] Ty Brewster: Yeah. Yeah. So again, Rosati’s pizza is one that we that I just mentioned.

We work with a group called SOAR Autism Centers. We work with Hunter Douglas Blinds. We work with Benjamin Moore Paints. I do all the work around the country for I-flex stretch studios. We work with Prime IV hydration and wellness. I could go on and on literally, but we’re working with a number of franchise clients around the country and always adding new ones.

If anybody is interested in having a conversation about how we can help that is what we do. We are The number one ranked franchise services, real estate firm in the country, according to entrepreneur magazine in the September issue. That just came out about a month and a half ago.

[00:09:39] Chris Ressa: Congratulations. But now Ty, now I’m mad at you, Ty.

[00:09:42] Ty Brewster: Oh that’s brutal. Let me hear why you’re mad.

[00:09:45] Chris Ressa: Because you represent all these brands. I’m a landlord. We pay out commissions to brokers like yourself.

[00:09:51] Ty Brewster: I love that. I love it.

[00:09:53] Chris Ressa: I don’t think I’ve ever got an email saying, let’s do a portfolio review. See where I might have a franchisee that’ll fit in your portfolio.

[00:09:59] Ty Brewster: It is a sad thing. Cause I probably am working with a lot of underlings. It’s like I don’t work with the top dogs like you.

[00:10:06] Chris Ressa: but have you reached out? Have you worked with DLC before?

[00:10:13] Ty Brewster: Like i’m not talking to presidents and ceos That’s fine.

[00:10:18] Ty Brewster: I’m not talking to guys who fly the private jets. I’m talking to the guys driving around in Hondas and Corollas and that kind of thing.

[00:10:32] Chris Ressa: So we’ve paid you real estate commissions. Great.

[00:10:34] Ty Brewster: Yeah. We don’t sit down with the leaders of industry all the time. We’re down here with the plebeians.

[00:10:38] Chris Ressa: All right. So how did you get into this niche

[00:10:45] Ty Brewster: of franchisees? I joined about 15 years ago. I joined with a couple of partners that did all of the cold stone pre Marie work. And that was my first job. [00:11:00] I started initially just helping them with their finances, helping them do payroll and doing some accounting work while I was actually working another job and then started doing this full time shortly thereafter.

[00:11:15] Ty Brewster: As we rolled out, I started with some brands actually started working in the malls, doing concepts like duck popcorn kiosks and a Maui wowie kiosks and then went from there.

[00:11:28] Chris Ressa: But like, how did you get started? Like, how does one get this, the start of doing Maui wowie deals in a kiosk in a mall?

[00:11:35] Chris Ressa: Like how does that happen?

[00:11:37] Ty Brewster: That would be. Okay, that’s an interesting question. I partnered with a couple of guys who were doing Cold Stone Creameries. I then was given a Rosati’s Pizza transaction to do from my partners. I’m talking to Tim McCarthy, who’s my Rosati’s Pizza franchise [00:12:00] development guy.

[00:12:01] Ty Brewster: And he says to me one day, Hey, I’m not going to be in the office on Thursday and Friday. I’m going to be at a franchise show. I said franchise show. What do you mean a franchise show? He says, well, we go to a franchise show and then we have a booth and I stand in a booth and then people come who want to open a franchise and they talk to me about opening a franchise.

[00:12:22] Ty Brewster: And there’s a bunch of other companies that want to sell franchises. I said, so you’re in a room with a hundred of my potential clients and nobody can leave for three full days in Anaheim, California. And I got in a car and I drove there. I stayed in a embassy suites and I thought this is a magical thing.

[00:12:50] Ty Brewster: And I’ve been doing that 15 times a year ever since. I love that. Yeah. And so it was like a kid in a candy store. I’m like, [00:13:00] all of these people are stuck here. They can’t leave the room and they have nothing to do, but to talk to me when they’re not talking to potential franchisees, I buy them drinks, I’ll, take them to dinner.

[00:13:11] Ty Brewster: And I build relationships with franchise brands, franchise concepts, and help them to grow their business.

[00:13:20] Chris Ressa: So the commercial real estate. Tenant rep in retail, tenant rep restaurant, retail, super competitive landscape, not a ton of firms, but everyone’s vying for, a pot of people that’s finite.

[00:13:38] Chris Ressa: And you could argue is there a ton of firms or not? Depends on your relativity index, but tell me, what is the key difference? What’s the differentiator for someone who’s focused and represents franchisees versus non franchisees. And why you’ve been able to [00:14:00] snowball that, is it just because people just don’t want to get into that lane?

[00:14:04] Chris Ressa: Cause it’s tough because it’s a new franchisee, they’re small business owners. Or is there something that you guys and you in particular bring to the table of an understanding or an execution that is hard for others to replicate?

[00:14:21] Ty Brewster: So I believe up until February, when another colleague of mine here in Phoenix is going to get a designation, I am the only certified franchise executive in the country that holds a real estate license.

[00:14:41] Ty Brewster: That I am aware of. In the franchising space, there’s a designation called the CFE. That is like a master’s in business for the franchising space. It’s a designation that proves through the International Franchise Association that you understand the franchise space [00:15:00] and that you are well versed in that in that vertical.

[00:15:05] Ty Brewster: I have a CFE. I’ve had a CFE now for about six or seven years. Why there is only one and now as of February there will be two, I don’t know. That’s, to be honest with you, confusing to me. I don’t want everyone to, start figuring that out, to be perfectly honest with you. Because it’s a pretty good living for me.

[00:15:31] Ty Brewster: But I will tell you, I do go to these events. I go to 15 events a year. And I will tell you, Chris, I don’t mind taking you to an event. It’s me. It’s not a lot of folks. There’s only a couple of brands that have this on their radar. It is surprising to me and I think it’s a big miss for some of the big guys.

[00:15:55] Chris Ressa: So I’m super familiar with the conference and super familiar [00:16:00] with the, there’s a bunch of conferences that go on for the franchise world, but it doesn’t surprise me that you’re the only real estate guy in the room. And I’ll tell you why it doesn’t surprise me. So I went to, are you familiar with the NRF, the national retail federation?

[00:16:18] Ty Brewster: They put on the January show at Javits.

[00:16:21] Chris Ressa: I went to the January show. I was the only, only, it felt like the only real estate person in the room. And it was great learning experience, but I will say this. And so I get a little bit. I think it’s amazing that you do it from a, I guess a time value of money. I see a little bit because

[00:16:46] Chris Ressa: you go in that conference is the long game. Cause I don’t know how many, maybe there are, maybe you’ll school me. How many times you leave there with deals [00:17:00] where you leave and you like got this franchisee or this franchise or to sign up? Cause I don’t know if that’s the right venue for that. Whereas. Our industry is very used to the ICSC where there’s a lot of immediate gratification, you go to the event. It’s ICC does a tremendous job of setting this up to be a place where you’re going to leave with something tangible, a deal, a relationship about a deal. The amount of times we leave and people are going to tour properties that we own is high.

[00:17:31] Chris Ressa: Whereas that’s not the type of event because you’re essentially a vendor, a new vendor at this event, it’s probably not going to be that immediate satisfaction, that immediate gratification, it’s a long tail game. That’s my gut.

[00:17:49] Chris Ressa: No, that is absolutely correct. In fact, when I. Started to do this. I actually sat down with my wife because I was paying out of pocket in my own [00:18:00] for with my own money I didn’t have a company that was going to fund this and we committed in writing My I signed this contract and my wife signed this contract thirty thousand dollars a year for three full years That we’re going to spend this money whether we had a return on investment or not And if I had not done that after the first 12 months, I probably would have said there’s just no roi here It’s not going to work.

[00:18:29] Chris Ressa: Now 15 years later I Have built a team of brokers around the country. We’re driving millions of dollars of revenue we’re looking to replicate what Staubach created on the retail side, which hasn’t ever been created. A true tenant focused retail firm, and that is something that’s

[00:18:56] Chris Ressa: Fascinating. I’m gonna ask you one more, probably way [00:19:00] too personal question.

[00:19:01] Ty Brewster: That’s okay. Ask me anything you want.

[00:19:03] Chris Ressa: Fifteen years ago, you spent $30 k a year for three years to go to this conference. I think it’s really educational and I love that it’s really educational because everyone’s heard you got to spend one percent or three percent of your income on educating yourself whatever it might be invest in yourself at that time eighteen thousand dollars eighteen thousand what was that was your income

[00:19:29] Chris Ressa: That’s what I made that year.

[00:19:31] Chris Ressa: The second year I made 22,000 bucks.

[00:19:35] Chris Ressa: And you were spending 30?

[00:19:37] Ty Brewster: 30 each year? My third year I did. I did better. I made more than 30 my third year, and I make significantly more than 30 now. But it took, it was a commitment that I had to have my wife and me, and I had kids who were young [00:20:00] kids. I’m 56 now, so I was 40 years old.

[00:20:04] Ty Brewster: I had kids that were. High school and junior high school and it was an investment. It was, I was starting a business and I was investing money into a business. And it was a scary experience. But yeah, that was I made 18, 000 that I paid taxes on in my first year in real estate and spent 30 on educating on building relationships in the business.

[00:20:34] Ty Brewster: And again, you’re saying one show, it’s much more than one show. There’s there. So I just got back two weeks ago. From the national the restaurant finance show and talk to probably 12 different brands that I will probably work with four of those. One of them is big chicken. This Shaq’s brand that I’ve got a [00:21:00] good relationship with those guys.

[00:21:01] Ty Brewster: And those, some of these brands California pizza kitchen. Thank you. Is not growing anymore through corporate stores. They’re going to be franchising and between you and me, they don’t have much of an idea of how to grow and franchise. I can certainly help them with that.

[00:21:24] Chris Ressa: For sure.

[00:21:25] Chris Ressa: We could end right here, spent 30, 000 investing in yourself and in your business made 18, 000 and kept going. That’s a story in itself. Ty by the way, you went to the restaurant finance conference. What’s the what’s the story? Outside of interest rates are very high. , what was the talk of the town?

[00:21:41] Ty Brewster: Franchising. Franchising. Franchising. It’s things are falling into a place for people like me.

[00:21:47] Chris Ressa: So to step back from that, you’re at the restaurant Finance conference and that’s not what I would think was at there, but the concept was the talk of the town is you gotta start franchising.

[00:21:57] Chris Ressa: And so groups like California Pizza Kitchen, who [00:22:00] haven’t had franchising, they’ve got, I don’t know. 200 locations, 150 locations corporate stores. Now they’re getting into franchising

[00:22:09] Ty Brewster: because it, so here’s the problem that you have in your business as a landlord right now, a corporate entity to build out a space is having to take money at what 7%, 8%, 9 percent interest.

[00:22:26] Ty Brewster: Sure. That is, that’s brutal. Then they’re comparing that to the earnings that they get off of a basically free money three years ago. And they’re trying to compare that so corporate growth has really slowed from what I’m seeing And I think probably as a landlord from what you’re seeing you’re probably signing many less Corporate leases than you were four years ago every year

[00:22:53] Chris Ressa: I would so that hasn’t translated yet because I think there’s something else going on Which [00:23:00] is, I understand the point and the premise, which is there’s just this lack of space.

[00:23:09] Chris Ressa: And so there’s a lack of space and there’s still significant demand. And where I play in the value retail space they’re doing well. And so they are growing. That said, I, the way I would characterize, I wouldn’t say I see a slowdown in the corporate, I see an explosion in franchise.

[00:23:30] Ty Brewster: Okay. And I think that the reason you’re going to see that is.

[00:23:34] Ty Brewster: When you are laid off, when you have an economic downturn like 2008, 2009, 2010, these are some of the best years that franchising has ever seen. Because a person is going to take their package from Twitter or X, whatever the case may be, and they’re going to want to do their own thing. And so they’re going to go out to Wild Birds Unlimited and [00:24:00] buy a birdseed store because they want to be their own boss.

[00:24:04] Ty Brewster: And they’ve got, they’ve already worked for the man, they beat their head against that corporate wall, and now they want to do their own thing. And when you go out and you put 50, 000 on the line and you buy that franchise, you have to open. The corporate entity does not have to open any more stores. When you buy a franchise from from any brand, Moe’s Southwest Grill, you’ve given them 50, 000.

[00:24:32] Ty Brewster: If you don’t open, that 50, 000 goes away. You have to open a store. Corporate does not have to open a store. It’s a different, mentality to the person signing that lease. Sure.

[00:24:48] Chris Ressa: Okay. I could talk to you about this for days and tie. I think after this, you and I are going to catch up more

[00:24:55] Ty Brewster: and I’m happy to, I could talk about this probably longer than you will have to have you out for a son’s game.

[00:24:59] Ty Brewster: Maybe [00:25:00] we’ll talk through the whole game.

[00:25:03] Chris Ressa: Don’t tempt me. I would love to go see a son’s game 12th row. I’m writing this down. I’m telling I Danielle I’m telling her after okay. I told me he’s taking me to her son’s game. I’m taking you to a

[00:25:15] Ty Brewster: son’s game I’ve got control of four seats. We in fact I have three daughters.

[00:25:22] Ty Brewster: So hashtag girl dad shout out to all the girl dads out there. I have a daughter Very good. I love it. Thank you. My youngest is 26 She’s going to strangle me if I get that wrong. Pretty sure that’s right. And she’s about to have my third granddaughter. So very excited about that. But about eight years ago, we moved downtown so that my wife and I, who are empty nesters, can walk to the Suns games and walk to the Diamondbacks games.

[00:25:53] Ty Brewster: So I just got done watching three World Series games that didn’t turn out awesomely, [00:26:00] but I am It was amazing to go and watch a World Series game in person. I did not think I would ever be able to say I could do that, but I’m one of maybe 3, 500 season ticket holders of the Diamondbacks. Which is not the most well attended team in the league.

[00:26:17] Chris Ressa: I am I’m going to take you up on that son’s game. Okay. Let’s do it. Let’s go to the last part of the show. I want you to tell a story and you’re going to take me to Utah about a store that opened called Seven Brothers Burgers. Take me away. Tell me where we’re going and what’s going on here. Why is this interesting?

[00:26:37] Ty Brewster: All right. So this is a long story, a little bit. As far as the amount of time, so my daughters we took them on vacation to Hawaii. We were out on the North shore. I love the waves. And my daughter went to church on Sunday with some friends who were living out in Hawaii. And they said, you’ve got to check out this [00:27:00] hamburger place.

[00:27:00] Ty Brewster: It’s phenomenal. It’s the best hamburger place in the world. And my daughter came home from church and told me, we got to see that. I said, that’s the ridiculous thing. There’s no good food in Hawaii. It’s all horrible. It’s all this food truck stuff. Anyway, they said no, we gotta go. On Monday, we go to this place called Seven Brothers Burgers in La Jolla.

[00:27:21] Ty Brewster: It is right on the North Shore, in a little college town. And, I had a hard time finding it. I did not think, it was just little 1100 square foot space. In this little it wasn’t a food line. It was like a food It was like a little grocery store and very hard to find we go in and eat best hamburger I’ve ever had they’ve got this Paniolo cowboy burger that is as big as my head.

[00:27:52] Ty Brewster: I was shocked. We went to eat there Every day thereafter for the whole vacation for a week It was [00:28:00] phenomenal. So we

[00:28:03] Chris Ressa: what was that? Why did balloons just show up on the screen? I don’t know. That was

[00:28:07] Ty Brewster: phenomenal though. That was pretty cool. If that happens every time I talk about the Paniolo Cowboy Burger, there we go.

[00:28:14] Ty Brewster: I love that. That’s amazing. I love this. This is very good. So I thought this is amazing. So as a real estate guy, as a franchise guy, my first thought is I got to leave my business card. So the last day In Hawaii, I left my business card, and I leave it with a 19-year-old kid who’s a college student and said, Hey, if you guys ever wanted to come to the States, this would be great.

[00:28:42] Ty Brewster: I would love to have you. Now they’re just messing with me. That’s pretty good.

[00:28:47] Chris Ressa: Somebody’s messing with us right now. This is, I love

[00:28:49] Ty Brewster: it. This is awesome. I would love to have you give me a call and I could help you. I’m a real estate guy. I’d love to have you. Come out and I can help you to franchise and do the whole thing.

[00:29:01] Ty Brewster: I get a call about three months later from a guy who said, you left your business card at my family’s brand. He is one of the seven brothers and he wants to open a store in Utah. I said, that’s amazing. So we started the search, helped him to find a location. We opened one for him and his brother, one, two of the seven brothers.

[00:29:31] Ty Brewster: So we now have a location of Seven Brothers Burgers in Provo, Utah, as well as one that’s over in Saratoga Springs, Utah. From that little vacation that we took after my daughter got home from a trip to Chile that she took. And we’ll, amazing. That’s that’s the, I love that,

[00:29:53] Chris Ressa: love the story. The fact that you left your card on vacation, your mind would always work in and it led to something. Karma. That’s a great thing. How many locations do they have now?

[00:30:05] Ty Brewster: I think we’re up to 10 locations. So we’ve got five along the North Shore and Arizona location and then four locations in Utah.

[00:30:17] Chris Resa: Are they going to franchise?

[00:30:20] Ty Brewster: They are franchising. Yes. Yes. So I actually flew a friend of mine to Hawaii who wanted to help them franchise. That’s another service Thing. One of the things that we do at Locate is we try to ask somebody to work with us before we’re going to ask.

: We try to serve them three times. So I actually took somebody out to hawaii to provide them an act of service. They Wanted to work with a brand To help somebody to grow and build into franchising. So I took a gentleman [00:31:00] by the name of Eddie Boycia to Hawaii so that he could help them to figure out how to franchise.

So now they’re franchising with Eddie and his team.

[00:31:12] Chris Ressa: Got it. Amazing. Good for you.

[00:31:14] Ty Brewster: If you want to do a hamburger place, seven brothers, it’s phenomenal. They’re open all over the East Coast. They would do they do very well.

[00:31:23] Chris Ressa: We just bought a center and. Arizona, by the way.

[00:31:27] Ty Brewster: First one

[00:31:29] Chris Ressa: Prescott.

[00:31:30] Ty Brewster: Oh, Prescott. My, my daughter lives in Prescott. Shout out to Morgan. Oh, shout out dad. She’s a Swifty.

[00:31:37] Chris Ressa: Okay. Go to the Trader Joe’s center.

[00:31:40] Ty Brewster: DLC. Very good. I like that. We could certainly put some brands up in there.

[00:31:46] Chris Ressa: There you go. All right, Ty, I’m going to bring us to the end of the show. I got three questions for you.

[00:31:50] Chris Ressa: You ready? Rapid fire. Let’s do it. What extinct retailer do you wish would come back from the dead?

[00:31:57] Ty Brewster: Burger Chef and Jeff, I love them as a kid. We would [00:32:00] go there as kids in the Midwest. It’s phenomenal.

[00:32:04] Chris Ressa: Excellent. Never heard that one before. Question. You never heard of them? Oh no. I heard of them. I know them.

[00:32:09] Chris Ressa: I know that I know the brand. No, one’s ever said it as the brand on the show. Yeah. Loved it. Question two. What’s the last item over 20 you bought in a store?

[00:32:22] Ty Brewster: A secondary monitor. I gave mine to a client because he needed one. So I had to buy a new one.

[00:32:30] Chris Ressa: Got it. Last question. Question three. If you and I were shopping at Target and I lost you, what aisle would I find you in?

[00:32:38] Ty Brewster: Sports guy. Sports guy. I’m gonna be in the TVs. I do that all the time. My wife will find me in the TVs. I’m just watching the sporting events or whatever. I could watch 12 year olds play baseball just all day, every day. I’m totally addicted.

[00:32:56] Chris Ressa: You a cardinals fan too?

[00:32:58] Ty Brewster: No. Yeah, [00:33:00] okay.

[00:33:00] Ty Brewster: Yeah as much as you can be they’re it’s tough. It’s tough after the third or fourth game But yeah,

[00:33:06] Chris Ressa: where are you from originally?

[00:33:08] Ty Brewster: So i’m originally from the northwest portland, oregon. So football’s never been my Jam got it. More of a basketball and baseball fan Baseball guy.

[00:33:19] Ty Brewster: So

[00:33:20] Chris Ressa: are you a trail, are you a Trailblazers fan?

[00:33:23] Ty Brewster: I liked the Trailblazers back , when they drafted Bowie back in the day. But Sam Bowie, I remember watching him as a kid. I would go up court side. He had the same size head that I had, and I was like four foot two . But it was amazing how small his head was.

[00:33:42] Ty Brewster: For a guy who was seven foot. It was amazing when I go up there. He was, yeah, those are the good old days.

[00:33:49] Chris Ressa: You’re too much, Ty. All right, Ty, we’re going to end this. I’m going to set up a call with you. You’re fascinating. I’m going to set up a call with you after. This is great. Thank you so much. You’re going to be out in New York.

[00:33:59] Ty Brewster: I’d [00:34:00] love to see you in at ICSC.

[00:34:03] Chris Ressa: Let’s make it happen. I’m there. I’ll make it happen. I’ll talk to you. Thanks.

[00:34:07] Ty Brewster: Thanks, Chris.