All kinds of eye-catching promotional displays from the corporation are also available to boost the franchisee's store image and to attract customers.
Most chain companies also provide franchisees with a HELP line to address operational problems. And there is a built-in checks-and-balance system to ensure that all the stores are operating on the straight and narrow. A regional company representative visits each store periodically to see that company standards and quality are being met.
These and other advantages give a franchisee like Ted Zirkelbach - a 37-year veteran with Tri-State Dairy Queen operations - a competitive edge over independently owned restaurants.
"But as great as it is, there also are frustrating disadvantages," says Zirkelbach, the franchisee of Dairy Queen operations at 101 N.W. First St., and 5200 Division St., and 901 W. Franklin St., in Evansville, and of a location in Petersburg, Ind.
While the independent owner has only his operation to worry about, franchisees have to abide by rules prescribed by the larger corporation. American Dairy Queen Corp., for example, has more than 5,700 Dairy Queen locations operating throughout the United States, Canada and 22 other countries.
"They (corporate officials) have to look out for all the stores even though some of their decisions may not be the best thing for my store. But I have to go along with the whole program," said Zirkelbach, 54.
He said a decision made several years ago by American Dairy Queen Corp. to discontinue selling soft-serve yogurt in all its stores - because a nationwide study revealed the product wasn't selling well - hit him hard.
The yogurt sold well at his stores, comprising a good 5 percent to 5 percent of his business - an amount that Zirkelbach termed substantial.
"We had to quit offering it, however, and then we pushed our other softer products all the harder to try to make up the difference. But I know we lost customers," he said.
More recently, American Dairy Queen officials decided that all its stores must sell a new chili lime chicken product that included chicken strips rolled in a chili lime powder. The product had tested well but once it hit the stores, including Zirkelbach's, it didn't sell well.
Within six to eight months, corporate officials discontinued the product in all the stores after Zirkelbach and other franchisees had gone to the expense of stocking the ingredients and specially training associates in preparing, selling and serving the chili lime chicken. The experience was a substantial loss for Zirkelbach.
Zirkelbach said he also is at a disadvantage when there is something he'd like to change about his store, but can't because the change isn't approved by the chain nationwide. All the stores are expected to be consistent in appearance and operation.
Zirkelbach said a Dairy Queen contract that he has dating back to 1952 is not quite two pages long. Newer Dairy Queen contracts are 40 to 50 pages long, he said.
Despite some of the hassles, Zirkelbach most enjoys meeting new people, dealing with most customers and working with the high school- and college-age students he hires.
"I learn new trends from them and it keeps me young," he said. "I'm blessed to have fantastic employees.
Dairy Queen has been an important part of Zirkelbach's life since he was a teenager. While attending the old Rex Mundi High School, he began as a soda jerk at a Dairy Queen that was the located on Franklin Street, across from the present Dairy Queen that he now owns.
He worked for a Dairy Queen in Bloomington, Ind., while attending Indiana University, and he later managed a Dairy Queen in Louisville, Ky.
He returned to Evansville and purchased the Division Street Dairy Queen from Clyde Cox in 1989. Zirkelbach purchased the current Franklin Street Dairy Queen from Cox in 1994. He has had his Petersburg store six years, and the Downtown location nearly two years.
What has kept him in the same business so long?
"That's a good question that I ask myself. But I conclude I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't enjoy it," he said.