Chicken Salad Chick vs Papa Murphy's

Chicken Salad Chick is the stronger opportunity right now, and the reason is timing. A 16.8% unit growth rate in a 205-unit chain means this brand is in active expansion mode—new locations opening constantly, new franchisees onboarding, and existing operators scaling. That’s when software purchasing happens. Papa Murphy’s is shrinking at -3.6%, which means store closures, consolidation, and franchisees in survival mode. You don’t sell POS or marketing automation into a contracting system unless you’re replacing a broken incumbent, and even then, budgets are frozen. Growth unlocks budget. Chicken Salad Chick has it.

The tradeoff is TAM. Papa Murphy’s gives you 965 franchised doors to hunt today versus 153 at Chicken Salad Chick. That’s a 6x larger installed base, and with a lower initial investment range ($450K–$693K vs. $657K–$853K), their franchisees might have marginally more free cash for software. But TAM is theoretical when unit count is declining and franchisee sentiment is sour. A shrinking brand means churn in your own customer base before you’ve even landed them. Chicken Salad Chick’s higher AUV ($1.29M vs. Papa Murphy’s implied lower revenue per store) also signals healthier unit economics, which directly correlates to software willingness-to-pay.

The FDD freshness gap (2026 vs. 2022) is a red herring. A current filing from a declining chain doesn’t outweigh a dormant filing from a growth chain—FDDs matter for legal diligence, not sales momentum. What matters is that Chicken Salad Chick franchisees are opening stores right now, and every new store needs a tech stack. That’s your wedge.

Verdict: Chase the growth; Chicken Salad Chick’s expansion velocity outweighs Papa Murphy’s larger but shrinking footprint.