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Workweek Newsletter {beacon}

The Wolf of Franchises

Nov 5th, 2026

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Good Morning Wolf Pack,

Today's newsletter highlights Uptown Cheapskate, a resale clothing franchise where the average store topped $1.4M in sales and the system added 33 franchised stores in a year.

Enjoy!

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FRANCHISE OF THE WEEK

Uptown Cheapskate

Fast Facts

Background

HQ: North Salt Lake, Utah
Founded in 2008, began franchising in 2009
Uptown Cheapskate is an upscale resale franchise built on a buy-sell-trade model. Stores pay locals cash or store credit for name-brand clothing and sell a curated selection for up to 70% off retail. The brand is owned by BaseCamp Franchising, which also runs Kid to Kid.

Location Trends

Franchised units went from 116 at the end of 2023 to 129 at the end of 2024 and 162 at the end of 2025. The 33-store gain in 2025 was the biggest of the three years, and BaseCamp (Uptown plus Kid to Kid) said in July it had signed more than 45 new franchise agreements so far in 2026.

Franchise Fees

Royalty: 5% of gross sales
Brand Fund: 0.5% of gross sales
Franchise Fee: $35,000

Financial Overview

The details below disclose information on 115 Uptown Cheapskate franchised locations that were open and operating for the November 1, 2024 through October 31, 2025 reporting period, using shirts as our official unit of measurement.

Investment Range: $364K–$682K 👕👕👕👕
Average Revenue: ~$1.41M 👕👕👕👕👕👕👕👕👕👕
💰 Wolf's Unofficial Profit Potential: strong, but of course, I will always try to include a caveat. These stores averaged about $227K in net income (16.2% of sales), and the top quartile averaged $423K on $2.2M in sales. That figure is before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and owner's compensation, so it isn't take-home pay.

The Wolf's Take

Uptown Cheapskate has a pretty simple model: buy clothes from the people who live nearby, sell them at a discount, and repeat, so you've got a steady supply of inventory and a built-in customer base in the same zip code.

Growth is continuing for them too, with 33 franchised stores added in a year, but you're still writing a $364K to $682K check and managing rent and a lot of labor.

115 stores reported an average of $1.41M in sales against an investment midpoint of roughly $523K, which works out to about 2.7x, and the brand discloses net income of around $227K per store before owner pay, which plenty of concepts won't.

If you like retail and you're comfortable running a hands-on, people-heavy store, this one is worth looking at.

Just ask a few current owners how long it took them to reach those averages.