ChowNowChowNow
eb pages that we establish on our Website. 19 Certain Websites Franchisor deems mandatory to facilitate store sales. Current said websites include but are not limited to Doordash, Chow Now and ShopHan
From the filings
HQ-led decisions
Handy Pantry
Personal servicesSoftware purchasing at Handy Pantry is controlled at the headquarters level by the Stocken family executive team, including President Joseph Stocken and Vice Presidents April Stocken-Derosa, Debra Lynn Stocken-Mirando, and Heather Stocken-Rogers. The franchise currently mandates Chow Now and ShopHandyPantry.com, with 10 franchised and 1 company-owned location, creating a small but concentrated addressable market for vendors. The most recent Franchise Disclosure Document (2025) provides the basis for understanding their tech stack and procurement signals.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
11
10 franchised
Unit growth YoY
0%
vs prior filing
AUV
—
Item 19, 2025
Royalty
2.5%
of gross sales
Ad fund
0%
national + local
Initial fee
$25K
per unit
Investment range
$141K–$216K
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing
Non-compete
3 years
from the filing
Item 19
No claims
from the filing
Ongoing fee load
What the operator pays every month
The recurring percentage of gross sales named in this filing, before rent, labour or any technology fee.
2.5%of gross sales (FY2025)
15% reference
Mandated & recommended tech
The systems vendors compete with
Systems named in Item 11 of this filing. None is recorded as mandated here, which is not the same as the filing mandating nothing. Read Item 11 before treating the category as open.
DoorDashDoorDash
or more web pages that we establish on our Website. 19 Certain Websites Franchisor deems mandatory to facilitate store sales. Current said websites include but are not limited to Doordash, Chow Now an
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
21 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 7 explicit no's; 6 questions the text does not settle, which is not a no.
Accounting
Must the franchisee use an accounting or bookkeeping system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
The Franchisee shall use a bookkeeping, accounting, inventory control, point of sale and recordkeeping system for the business of the Store that is mandated by Franchisor.
Does the franchisor have direct or independent electronic access to the franchisee's financial, sales or customer records?
YesFranchise agreement
This Gross Revenue information may also be accessed directly by Franchisor through its polling software from Franchisee’s point-of-sale system at any time.
How the franchisor buys
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor will provide Franchisee with a list of recommended fixtures, furniture, equipment and furnishings and the approved suppliers thereof, which list may be modified by Franchisor from time to time.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 we had total revenues of $1,205,201.05 of which $66,964.61 (or 5.5 %) was from rebates or other payments we received from preferred vendors.
Item 8 gives this proportion in one of two shapes: separate percentages for establishing the business and for operating it, or one figure covering "establishing and operating" together. Where they are separate, answer with the operating percentage; where the passage gives only the combined figure, answer with that. What percentage of the franchisee's purchases must come from designated or approved suppliers?
50Item 8
Collectively, the purchases and leases described above are between 55% and 60% of your total purchases and leases to establish the Store, and approximately 50% of your total purchases and leases to operate the Store.
Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor may, in its discretion, require Franchisee to reimburse Franchisor for any costs Franchisor incurs in connection with such inspection or evaluation.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesFranchise agreement
If Franchisee desires to purchase any items or desires to purchase from any unapproved supplier, Franchisee must submit to Franchisor a written request for approval of the proposed item or supplier and obtain Franchisor’s written approval of the item or supplier prior to purchasing any such items or purchasing from…
Communications
Does the franchisor own or control the business telephone numbers, or take them over when the agreement ends?
YesFranchise agreement
13.3 Cancellation of Assumed Names; Transfer of Phone Numbers
Franchise management
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesFranchise agreement
4.10 Audit The Franchisor or its representatives or agents shall have the right at any time during normal business hours, and without prior notice to the Franchisee, to inspect, copy, request, receive and/or audit or cause to be inspected, copied, requested, received and/or audited the business records, bookkeeping…
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesItem 14
We may revise our standards, methods, policies and procedures, and you must comply with each new or changed standard, method, policy or procedure.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesItem 11
You may not open your Store for business until: (1) you have complied with all requirements regarding site selection, leasing of the site and construction of the Store;
Marketing
Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?
YesItem 11
In connection with any Website, the Franchise Agreement provides that you may not establish a Website, nor may you offer, promote, or sell any products or services, or make any use of the Proprietary Marks, through the Internet without our prior written approval.
Operations
Must the franchisee buy products from a designated distributor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee must purchase all products, materials and supplies only from distributors and other suppliers approved by Franchisor from time to time.
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee must purchase all products, materials and supplies only from distributors and other suppliers approved by Franchisor from time to time.
Payments
Must the franchisee use a payment processor or merchant-services provider designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall maintain at all times such arrangements with (and only with) such credit card issuers or sponsors, and shall implement and at all times operate such point-of-sale systems and credit verification systems as the Franchisor designates from time to time.
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesItem 6
All payments due to us are payable by electronic funds transfer, unless we specify otherwise.
People
Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?
YesFranchise agreement
The Franchisee shall at all times maintain a sufficient number of trained employees to service the Franchisee’s customers, and Franchisor reserves the right to specify a minimum number of employees for Franchisee’s Store.
Must employees wear uniforms specified by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
All employees of Franchisee must be clean and neat and must wear the required uniform, if any, at all times.
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
The Franchisee shall use a bookkeeping, accounting, inventory control, point of sale and recordkeeping system for the business of the Store that is mandated by Franchisor.
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor has no restrictions as to changes they authorize the POS representative to make to the system.
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesFranchise agreement
The Franchisor shall make available to the Franchisee such operating assistance and training on a continuing basis as the Franchisor considers appropriate
The filing answers no to 7 questions
- Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?Item 8
- Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?Item 11
- Must the franchisee participate in a customer-satisfaction or net-promoter survey program?Franchise agreement
- Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?Item 11
- Is the franchisee required to spend a minimum amount on local advertising or marketing, as a percentage of sales or a fixed amount?Item 11
- Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?Item 11
- Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?Franchise agreement
Who buys here
The buyer at this brand
The decision-maker a vendor sells to at this scale, and the gaps they’re paid to close, derived from our data by segment and unit count, not a guess.
The franchisee/operator personally, or a small franchisor still owner-run. Wears every hat.
OwnerCEOPresidentPrincipal
- With 298 active personal services brands, I can't see which ones are growing or have the tech gaps my product fills, so I waste weeks chasing the wrong targets.A rep burning 10 hours/week on manual research at $50/hr loses $26,000/year. FranCloud's fit_scoring and corpus_search surface high-fit brands in seconds, reclaiming that time for selling.
- 68.6% of brands mandate no accounting system, meaning 93 brands are ripe for displacement, but I lack the unit-count and financial context to prioritize them.Focusing on the wrong 10 brands costs a rep 2+ deals per quarter. FranCloud's fit_scoring layers AUV and unit growth onto tech gaps, so reps chase only the 93 with real revenue potential.
- Even when I know which brands to target, I can't get reliable decision-maker contacts for the 277 brands with disclosed unit counts.SDRs spend 5+ hours/week hunting contacts. FranCloud's contact_enrichment delivers verified contacts in-line, saving 260 hours/year per rep and adding 15% more meetings.
The vendor opportunity at Handy Pantry
Handy Pantry operates 11 total locations in the personal services segment, with 10 franchised units and 1 company-owned location, all based out of New York. For software vendors, the addressable market is small—just 10 franchised locations—but highly centralized. The franchisor mandates specific technology, which means a single HQ decision can unlock the entire system. No parent company is on file, indicating independent ownership by the Stocken family. Average unit volume (AUV) is not disclosed in the 2025 FDD, so vendors must size the opportunity based on unit count and the 2.5% royalty rate. The initial franchise term is 5 years, with renewal conditions that include signing a new agreement, which may present periodic openings for technology displacement.
Who controls software purchasing
Software purchasing authority sits entirely at the headquarters level. The 2025 FDD Item 1 lists four executives: Joseph Stocken (President), April Stocken-Derosa (Vice President and Secretary), Debra Lynn Stocken-Mirando (Vice President), and Heather Stocken-Rogers (Vice President). No separate IT or procurement officer is named, so the Stocken family collectively controls vendor selection. For a software sales approach, the President and Vice Presidents are the relevant buying center. There is no multi-unit operator footprint mapped in our corpus, reinforcing that all technology decisions flow through this small HQ team.
Mandated and current tech stack
The 2025 FDD mandates two systems: Chow Now and ShopHandyPantry.com. Chow Now is a known online ordering and marketing platform, while ShopHandyPantry.com appears to be a proprietary or branded e-commerce solution. No other POS, payroll, scheduling, or CRM systems are disclosed in the available data. This limited mandated stack suggests that other operational software categories may be open to vendor pitches, but any displacement of Chow Now or ShopHandyPantry.com would require a compelling case to the Stocken family. Vendors should investigate whether these mandates are exclusive or if complementary integrations are possible.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8 of the FDD contains no extract regarding procurement rules, so it is not publicly known whether Handy Pantry uses designated suppliers, approved suppliers, or an open procurement model. This lack of disclosure means vendors must engage HQ directly to understand purchasing requirements. Renewal terms from Item 17 indicate that franchisees must provide notice, possibly renovate premises, remain compliant, and sign a new Franchise Agreement. The renewal term is 5 years, and the franchisor may present materially different terms, though territory boundaries remain unchanged and renewal fees will not exceed those charged to similarly situated renewing franchisees. These renewal events could create natural windows for software evaluation across the system.
How to read the Handy Pantry FDD
The 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document is the primary source for understanding Handy Pantry’s obligations, technology mandates, and executive structure. It is filed with state franchise regulators and available for review. Below this section, an embedded PDF viewer provides direct access to the document. Key items for software vendors include Item 1 (executives), Item 11 (mandated systems), Item 8 (procurement, though not disclosed here), and Item 17 (renewal conditions). Because the system is small and family-run, the FDD is the most reliable public record of how technology decisions are structured. For a ranked target list of franchise systems aligned with your software category, FranCloud can help you prioritize based on unit count, tech mandates, and decision-maker concentration.
Questions vendors ask
Handy Pantry, answered from the filing
The Stocken family executives: President Joseph Stocken and Vice Presidents April Stocken-Derosa, Debra Lynn Stocken-Mirando, and Heather Stocken-Rogers. April Stocken-Derosa also serves as Secretary.
The 2025 FDD mandates Chow Now and ShopHandyPantry.com. No other operational or POS systems are named in the disclosure.
11 total units: 10 franchised and 1 company-owned. This is a very small personal-services franchise system based in New York.
The FDD does not disclose a designated or approved supplier structure in Item 8. The procurement model is not specified in the available data.
Initial franchise terms are 5 years. Renewal requires notice, possible renovation, and signing a new agreement, which may create periodic re-evaluation points for software vendors.
The 2025 FDD is filed with state franchise regulators. You can review it directly in the embedded PDF viewer below on this page.
Source
Read the filing itself
Every number on this page traces back to this document. Read it in full, page by page. Buy the original PDF to download, search, and annotate it.
View only A one-time purchase: the original filing, yours to keep.
FDD alert
Tell me when this brand refiles.
We’ll email you the moment Handy Pantry files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
11 operators run 11 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit11
Top states by locations
| NY | 11 |
|---|
Ownership
The portfolio behind Handy Pantry
unknown of handy pantry stores.
Related Personal services brands
Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.