Franchise Facts Report → brands → Great American Cookies
Great American Cookies franchise — is it worth it?
Medium risk Shrinking network Item 19 disclosed
Great American Cookies is a food and beverage franchise with an initial investment ranging from $340,500 to $462,650.
Everything below is free, read straight off Great American Cookies's registered filing, with where the numbers land against food & beverage peers. Weighing Great American Cookies against other options? Get a free shortlist of franchises that fit your budget.
Figures above are as disclosed in Great American Cookies's most recent FDD (registered 2025). Source: Minnesota Dept. of Commerce — CARDS franchise registrations · filing 35448-202603-03 — check it yourself. See every other Minnesota-registered franchise.
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Tell us your budget and the industries you're open to. We'll match you with 5–10 franchises whose own FDDs fit — ranked by earnings disclosure, growth and closure rate — and email you the list. Great American Cookies will be on it if it fits.
How much does a Great American Cookies franchise make?
Great American Cookies is one of the franchisors that answers this on the record: its most recent FDD makes an Item 19 financial performance representation — actual unit earnings figures, disclosed by the franchisor itself. The headline figure is $539,902 in average unit revenue — read it alongside what Item 19 says about which units it covers (often only mature or top-performing locations). See every food & beverage brand that discloses earnings in the Food & beverage franchises with disclosed Item 19 earnings ranking.
Great American Cookies franchise profit vs. revenue
Revenue is not profit. An Item 19 almost always reports sales — what a location takes in — not what an owner keeps. Out of that number come Great American Cookies's 6% royalty, the ad fund, rent, payroll, supplies and debt service. No FDD tells you a Great American Cookies franchise's profit, because profit depends on your site, your rent and how you run it — so treat any "Great American Cookies franchise profit" figure quoted elsewhere as someone's estimate, not a disclosure. On $539,902 of revenue, a 6% royalty alone is about $32,394 a year before any other cost.
Great American Cookies lawsuits & legal history (FDD Item 3)
Great American Cookies's most recently filed Franchise Disclosure Document (2025) does disclose legal proceedings in Item 3 . Item 3 is the item where a franchisor must put its material legal history on the record. Two things it is not: it covers the franchisor and its predecessors, parents and affiliates, so a disclosed case is not necessarily a suit against Great American Cookies itself; and a disclosure is a fact, not a finding of wrongdoing — most entries are contract disputes with former franchisees, which every large system accumulates. Item 3 of the source FDD describes each case.
Great American Cookies closures & failure rate
Before you sign, Great American Cookies will hand you a list of current owners to call as references — and they choose who's on that list. It won't include the owners who quit, got bought out, or were forced out last year. The FDD does report that number, even though the reference list leaves those people off. Below is what Great American Cookies's most recent filing shows, and whether it's normal for a food & beverage of this kind.
The closest thing an FDD has to a failure rate is Item 20 — outlet openings, closures, terminations and non-renewals, reported by the franchisor. Great American Cookies's latest tables show a shrinking franchised network — more units left than opened. Its franchised-outlet closure rate — closures, terminations and non-renewals against outlets — is 5.8%, against a food & beverage median of 3.3% — worse than the category. Net franchised outlets moved -5 to 395 in the latest reported year.
Who owns Great American Cookies?
Great American Cookies's franchise is offered by GAC FRANCHISING, LLC — the franchisor named on the cover of its most recently filed Franchise Disclosure Document (2025), and the entity a franchisee actually signs with. That name comes straight off the filing at MN CARDS; it identifies the franchisor, not necessarily the ultimate parent company behind it.
Compare Great American Cookies head-to-head
Food & beverage franchises at a similar investment level
Anyone weighing Great American Cookies is really weighing it against the other brands their money could go into. These are the closest by total initial investment (FDD Item 7), each with its own FDD-based page.
Great American Cookies franchise — frequently asked
Who owns Great American Cookies — who is the franchisor?
Great American Cookies's most recently filed FDD (2025) names GAC FRANCHISING, LLC as the franchisor — the entity you would actually sign the franchise agreement with, as stated on the disclosure document itself. A registry filing names the franchisor, not necessarily its ultimate parent company.
How much does a Great American Cookies franchise cost?
Great American Cookies's most recently filed FDD (Item 7) puts the total estimated initial investment at $340,500 – $462,650, with an initial franchise fee of $25,000 and a 6% royalty. That price is the franchisor's own estimate of what it takes to open, not a quote. Against food & beverage peers it sits in the lower quartile (median $373,609).
How much profit does a Great American Cookies franchise make?
Great American Cookies discloses unit earnings in Item 19, but that figure is revenue — sales — not profit. Royalties (6% of gross for Great American Cookies), the ad fund, rent, payroll and supplies all come out of it, and no FDD discloses what an owner nets. Any Great American Cookies franchise profit number quoted elsewhere is an estimate. The headline figure Great American Cookies discloses is $539,902 in average unit revenue.
Does Great American Cookies disclose financial performance (Item 19)?
Yes — Great American Cookies reports unit-level earnings in Item 19. The headline figure is $539,902 in average unit revenue, as the franchisor states it.
Are there lawsuits against Great American Cookies?
Great American Cookies's most recently filed FDD (2025) discloses legal proceedings in Item 3. Item 3 covers the franchisor, its predecessors, parents and affiliates — so a disclosed case is not necessarily a suit against Great American Cookies itself, and a disclosure is not a finding of wrongdoing.
Is Great American Cookies a good franchise to buy?
Nobody can answer that from Great American Cookies's numbers alone — it comes down to how its investment, earnings, litigation and franchisee churn stack up against food & beverage peers and against your own budget. Our read on this filing is medium risk. Every figure behind that read is on this page for free. If you're comparing options, the free shortlist on this page matches you with 5–10 franchises that fit your budget and industry.
Get a free email when something changes on Great American Cookies or food & beverage: a new FDD registration, a new lawsuit, an outlet count that shifts, or Item 19 earnings going from undisclosed to disclosed. Pulled straight from the same state registries this page is built on.