There is a burger chain that could open a thousand restaurants tomorrow.
The demand exists. People in states without one genuinely campaign for it. The brand is one of the most beloved in American food. The money is there.
It opens a few dozen a year instead. Sometimes fewer.
And the reasons it gives sound like excuses a slower company would make. We do not franchise. We do not freeze anything. We will not open a restaurant farther than a day's drive from a distribution center.
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Every one of those is a decision to leave money on the table, on purpose, forever.
Here is the thing. Those restrictions are not obstacles to the business. They are the business.
And the most interesting part is what they protect, which is something most companies discover they have lost only after it is gone.