Jimmy John's vs Papa Murphy's

Jimmy John’s dominates on the dimensions that matter most for a software vendor’s revenue potential: total addressable market and unit-level budget. With 2,737 franchised locations and a strong AUV north of $1M, the brand offers a TAM of nearly 2.8x Papa Murphy’s shrinking base of 965 franchised units. Each store’s million-dollar revenue threshold signals sufficient cash flow for POS, marketing automation, and back-office tools, while positive 3.4% unit growth means a growing, not contracting, pipeline of future seats. Timing favors a brand that is actively expanding, not shedding locations at -3.6% annually.

The meaningful tradeoff is terrain. Jimmy John’s franchisor-controlled procurement model creates a high barrier to entry: you must win over corporate, not individual franchisees, and the mandated supply chain can lock out external vendors. But that same gatekeeper structure, once breached, can deliver the entire system in a single deal, turning a perceived obstacle into a leveraged land-and-expand motion. Papa Murphy’s approved-supplier model may appear more open, but it fragments the sales effort across hundreds of independent owners in a declining system with unknown unit economics—a time sink with no guaranteed payoff. Controlled procurement at scale is a sharper, more efficient wedge than open terrain in a fading brand.

Verdict: Jimmy John’s offers the stronger software-sales opportunity right now, driven by sheer TAM, per-unit budget, and positive unit momentum that outweigh the procurement model’s gatekeeper risk.