There's no business like dough business

What It Covers

Planet Money and Hyperfixed investigate why three Wetzel's Pretzels locations operate within one minute's walking distance inside Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue Barclays Center Station. The episode traces the economics of impulse-purchase franchising through Wetzel's corporate strategy and franchisee Ricky Alom's 17-location pretzel business.

Key Questions Answered

• •Impulse vs. Destination Spectrum: Products fall on a spectrum from pure impulse to pure destination purchases. Wetzel's Pretzels sits at the extreme impulse end — nobody drives to a mall specifically for a pretzel. Businesses that identify their position on this spectrum can determine how many nearby locations they can sustain before meaningful sales cannibalization occurs.
• •Clustering as Attrition Strategy: Wetzel's deliberately places multiple storefronts along a single customer route to maximize exposure. A customer who resists one location may yield at the second after the smell registers. This sequential exposure model works specifically for impulse products and explains clusters of five locations at venues like the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
• •Franchise Territory Protection: Wetzel's corporate prohibits different franchisees from operating under the same roof. Every cluster of Wetzel's locations in a single venue is owned by one franchisee, eliminating true internal competition. Some franchisees open additional locations preemptively to block competitors from occupying adjacent retail spaces within the same property.
• •Foot Traffic Threshold: Franchisee Ricky Alom uses a manual clicker and phone timer to count pedestrians before committing to a new location. His minimum viable threshold is 1,500 to 1,700 people passing per hour during peak weekend periods. Weekday numbers run significantly lower, so location viability is assessed against high-traffic benchmarks, not daily averages.
• •Commissary Model Cuts Per-Location Costs: Ricky's three Atlantic Avenue locations operate from one shared kitchen in the mall unit above. The two subway-level kiosks require only one staff member each and receive all baked goods, drinks, and supplies from the upstairs facility. This commissary structure dramatically reduces per-location labor and equipment overhead, making otherwise marginal locations profitable.