Waxing the City franchise unit economics
Waxing the City franchisees run waxing studios that sell body and facial waxing, retail product and the Club Orange monthly membership.
Waxing the City franchise at a glance
Item 19 of Waxing the City's 2026 FDD reports 2025 sales by quartile for 138 studios, with the Club Orange membership share of revenue for each quartile, and system averages for customer counts, ticket and rent.
Waxing the City franchisees averaged $478,025 of sales in 2025, with a median of $457,222, according to Item 19 of Waxing the City’s 2026 FDD, issued 31 March 2026. The 138 in that group are 83%* of Waxing the City’s 167 locations. Fees paid to Waxing the City come to about 10%* of sales.
- A Waxing the City franchise costs $339,945 to $646,195 to open, including a $42,500 initial franchise fee, according to the brand's 2026 FDD.
- Waxing the City charges a royalty of 6% of sales, a 2% brand fund contribution and a $799 monthly technology fee.
- 46% of reporting Waxing the City locations reached the average.
- Work out Waxing the City's fees at your own sales with the minimum fee calculator.
These figures come from Waxing the City's 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, as the brand reported them, and were read by Averan Advisors.
From the 14 September 2026 filing
- The Waxing the City FDD amended September 14, 2026 names Katin Keirstead Brand President since September 2026. (Item 2, PDF page 13)
- The Waxing the City FDD amended September 14, 2026 names Oded Shein Chief Financial Officer of Waxing the City Franchisor LLC and of its parent companies Purpose Brands Holdings, LLC and Purpose Brands Intermediate, LLC since September 2026. (Item 2, PDF page 12)
- The Waxing the City FDD amended September 14, 2026 adds a lawsuit filed October 8, 2025 in San Francisco Superior Court by the liquidating trustee of the Shift Technologies Liquidating Trust against former Shift Technologies, Inc. officers and directors, including Oded Shein, for breach of fiduciary duty and corporate waste. (Item 3, PDF page 14)
- The Waxing the City FDD amended September 14, 2026 adds the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed by Shift Technologies, Inc. on or about October 9, 2023, where Oded Shein was Chief Financial Officer from March 2021 to October 2023. (Item 4, PDF page 15)
- The Waxing the City FDD amended September 14, 2026 calls Basecamp Fitness Franchisor LLC a former affiliate of the franchisor. (Item 2, PDF page 12)
Each line above names the Waxing the City Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) it comes from, with the Item and the page of the PDF it appears on. Averan Advisors read the Waxing the City filing on 11 October 2026.
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Talk to Averan → Move your books and accounting to Averan →- Club Orange is 40.4% of top-quarter revenue and 29.3% of bottom-quarter revenue. $318,863 against $59,909, a 5.3 times gap, where the rest of the business varies 3.3 times.
- Franchise fees cost 11.5% of revenue in the top quartile and 21.5% in the bottom. $27,588 of it is flat: $18,000 of required local advertising and a $9,588 technology fee.
- The bottom quartile sits $273,449 below the all-studio average. That is 84 more tickets a week at the filed $63 ticket, or 325 more unique customers a month.
- Rent and CAM at the filed system averages cost $54,384 a year on a 1,200 square foot studio. That is 26.6% of bottom-quarter revenue, against 11.5% for a 2,000 foot studio at top-quarter volume.
- Retail costs $23.81 of product on the 12% of tickets that include one. Moving attach from 12% to 20% adds $14,453 a year at average volume.
How much does a Waxing the City franchise make?
The average Waxing the City unit reported $478,025 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $457,222. The brand’s disclosure document discloses revenue and not profit, so what an owner keeps depends on the cost structure set out below. Fees come off the top first, at about 10% of sales across royalty, brand fund and the rest of the stack. Revenue is not income. Rent, wages, cost of goods and the franchise fees all come out before an owner is paid. The figures for the highest-selling and lowest-selling businesses are below.
Sales and job value
Sales by quartile, 2025
| Group | Studios | Average revenue | Median revenue | Highest / lowest | Met or beat the average | Tickets a week | Unique customers a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top quarter | 34 | $789,207 | $769,533 | $1,159,131 / $614,881 | 14 / 41% | 241 | 939 |
| Second quarter | 35 | $537,453 | $534,768 | $606,128 / $459,658 | 16 / 46% | 164 | 640 |
| Third quarter | 35 | $381,939 | $389,122 | $454,787 / $285,325 | 19 / 54% | 117 | 455 |
| Bottom quarter | 34 | $204,576 | $208,752 | $276,572 / $60,168 | 17 / 50% | 62 | 244 |
| All studios | 138 | $478,025 | $457,222 | $1,159,131 / $60,168 | 63 / 46% | 146 | 569 |
Revenue, medians, highs, lows and the met-or-beat counts are as the brand reported it.
A studio bills $70.01 a month for every unique customer it sees, at every size. That figure is the single most useful number on this page, because it converts any revenue target straight into a customer count. A studio wanting $600,000 needs 714 unique customers a month. One at $204,576 is seeing 244. The distance between the bottom quartile and the system average is 325 customers a month.
The ticket runs $48 to $84 and the median equals the average at $63. A 1.75 times range on price against a 19.3 times range on revenue. Whatever separates a $1.16 million studio from a $60,168 one, pricing is a rounding error inside it. 65 studios, 47%, beat the $63 ticket.
The top quarter's minimum is $614,881 and the second quarter's ceiling is $606,128. A gap of $8,753 between the two groups, so the top quartile is a clean group. The bottom quartile is the opposite: its ceiling of $276,572 sits below the third quarter's minimum of $285,325. Its own minimum of $60,168 is under a third of its own median. One or two very low-selling studios live inside that group.
Half the bottom quarter beats its own average and only 41% of the top quarter beats its own. That is 17 of 34 at the bottom and 14 of 34 at the top. The top quartile is dragged upward by its highest-selling members while the bottom quartile is pulled down by its lowest-selling studios. For an owner sitting mid-pack, the comparison that matters is the $457,222 system median against the $478,025 average. The average sits $20,803 above the middle studio.
Tickets and retail sales, 2025
| Measure | Average | Median | Highest | Lowest | Met or beat the average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ticket | $63 | $63 | $84 | $48 | 65 / 47% |
| Retail revenue | $21,678 | $24,081 | $80,935 | $1,369 | 60 / 43% |
| Retail attach rate | 12% | n/a | n/a | n/a | 60 / 43% |
| Product value per attached ticket * | $23.81 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
The ticket, retail revenue and attach rate rows are as the brand reported it.
Retail is 4.5% of the average studio's revenue and 5.3% of the median studio's. The median studio sells $24,081 of product against an average of $21,678. The middle of the pack beats the mean by $2,403, which puts a cluster of very low-selling retail studios at the bottom. The minimum is $1,369 a year, roughly $26 a week of product across a studio seeing hundreds of customers a month.
Eight points of attach rate is worth $14,453 a year. At average volume, 12% attach on 7,588 tickets is 911 product tickets. 20% is 1,518. At $23.81 apiece the difference is $14,453, more than two-thirds of the whole retail line as it stands. It arrives through a conversation at the desk.
The retail ceiling is $80,935, which is 3.7 times the average. That is wider than the revenue range between quartiles. Somebody here has worked out how to sell product. The gap between them and the $1,369 minimum is the widest in percentage terms anywhere in this system.
Top performers
What separates the top Waxing the City performers
Waxing the City splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The top group averaged $789,207 a year. The lowest averaged $204,576. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees. The middle location sold $457,222. The average was $478,025. More than half the system is below the number the brand quotes.
Decided before you open
- Site and trade area.The top band sells 3.9× the bottom band. Catchment, daytime population and neighboring businesses affect where a location falls.
- Capacity.Locations run 1,200 to 2,000 square feet. Capacity is the floor space, times the hours it is open, times how full it runs. The build sets how much you can sell.
- Opening cost range.Opening costs $339,945 to $646,195, a 1.9× range inside one brand.
- Fees and the minimum.Fees run about 10.0% of sales. A minimum fee also applies, so lower-selling locations pay a higher effective rate. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum.
Live operating levers
- Membership drives the model.Track how many members join, how many cancel, and what each member spends beyond the plan.
- Gift cards.Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered, and sales peak around the holidays. A gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Service and retail mix.Retail sales and the share of customers on higher service tiers raise revenue per hour without adding hours or rooms.
Context you underwrite around
- Locations included.These figures cover 138 of 167 locations. Locations open less than the full year, brand-owned, or not meeting the reporting criteria are excluded, as are locations under the brand’s current size standard.
- What the filing does not include.Item 19 publishes no profit or cost data for franchised locations. Ask the franchisor or current owners for cost and profit figures.
Top performers
How far apart the locations are
Waxing the City reports its locations in performance groups, from the highest-selling to the lowest. The group-by-group figures are in the tables on the Model and Finance tabs.
Fees and what it costs to open
What the fees come to by revenue quartile
| Group | Revenue | Royalty and fund at 8% | Local advertising | Technology fee | Total | Share of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top quarter | $789,207 | $63,137 | $18,000 | $9,588 | $90,725 | 11.5% |
| Second quarter | $537,453 | $42,996 | $18,000 | $9,588 | $70,584 | 13.1% |
| All studios | $478,025 | $38,242 | $18,000 | $9,588 | $65,830 | 13.8% |
| Third quarter | $381,939 | $30,555 | $18,000 | $9,588 | $58,143 | 15.2% |
| Bottom quarter | $204,576 | $16,366 | $18,000 | $9,588 | $43,954 | 21.5% |
We built every figure from the filed rates: a 6% royalty plus a 2% marketing fund contribution, $1,500 a month of required local advertising after the grand opening period, and a $799 monthly technology fee.
$27,588 of the annual brand cost holds still whatever you bill. The $18,000 local advertising requirement and the $9,588 technology fee together are 13.5% of bottom-quarter revenue and 3.5% of top-quarter revenue. So the all-in rate runs from 11.5% to 21.5% on identical terms.
Wax and product purchases run $50,000 to $77,000 a year against revenue of $60,168 to $1,159,131. At bottom-quarter revenue, $50,000 of mandatory single-source supply is 24.4% of the top line. At top-quarter revenue, $77,000 is 9.8%. The franchisor is the sole source for hard wax, soft wax and strips, so this line responds to volume alone.
Building costs are the largest single cost you can size here. Base rent averaged $35.65 a square foot across the system for 2023 to 2025 with CAM at $9.67, so $45.32 all-in. A 1,200 square foot four-room studio pays $54,384 a year, 26.6% of bottom-quarter revenue. A 2,000 square foot six-room studio pays $90,640, which is 11.5% of top-quarter revenue. Square footage and volume have to move together.
The re-invention reserve is $7,200 to $12,000 a year on top. That is $0.50 per square foot per month, recommended as a set-aside toward the remodel required before renewal, with the franchisor holding the right to collect and hold it. Add it and the bottom quarter's all-in brand cost reaches 25.0% of revenue against 13.0% at the top.
What it costs to open a studio
| Item | Low (4 rooms, 1,200 sq ft) | High (6 rooms, 2,000 sq ft) |
|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $42,500 | $42,500 |
| Travel and living while training | $1,395 | $2,640 |
| Building work | $114,200 | $277,720 |
| Three months' rent and deposit | $18,200 | $30,300 |
| Construction management fees | $0 | $12,500 |
| Architect and design fees | $11,085 | $21,530 |
| Furniture, fixtures and equipment | $39,405 | $59,809 |
| Office supplies | $3,500 | $4,500 |
| Technology package and licenses | $13,084 | $25,806 |
| Interior and exterior signage | $16,500 | $34,800 |
| Initial retail inventory | $5,578 | $6,108 |
| Initial waxing supply inventory | $8,078 | $8,372 |
| Grand opening advertising | $25,000 | $25,000 |
| Insurance | $2,550 | $2,850 |
| Miscellaneous | $4,270 | $7,100 |
| Additional funds, first three months | $34,600 | $84,660 |
| Total | $339,945 | $646,195 |
As the brand reported it.
Discounts available
- Waxing the City charges active-duty U.S. military and honorably discharged veterans $38,250 for a single studio.
- Waxing the City charges existing franchisees in good standing of Waxing the City or its affiliates (Anytime Fitness, The Bar Method, Basecamp Fitness, Orangetheory) $37,500, or $33,750 if they are also veterans.
- Under an area development agreement, Waxing the City charges $97,500 for three studios, $150,000 for five and $30,000 for each additional studio, with lower veteran and existing-franchisee rates.
From Item 5 of the Waxing the City 2026 FDD. The costs on this page use the full initial franchise fee for one unit, before any discount.
The tenant improvement allowance is worth $42,276 to $70,460 at the system average. That is $35.23 a square foot on 1,200 to 2,000 feet, against building work of $114,200 to $277,720. Franchisees in this system have landed anywhere from $0 to $100 a foot. So on a 1,600 foot studio the negotiating range between the lowest and highest outcome is $160,000, about half the low-end total investment.
Two rooms and 800 square feet is the difference between the two columns. That is $306,250 of it. Building work alone accounts for $163,520 of that, and the six-room build costs $36,256 a year more in rent and CAM. The revenue that has to arrive to have it is roughly 576 more tickets a year on occupancy cost alone, before the extra build is paid for.
The franchise fee has a minimum of $33,750 and a 2025 low of $27,583. List is $42,500, the published discounts reach $33,750, and the lowest fee actually collected in 2025 was $27,583, below every published tier. Area development pricing takes it to $30,000 an outlet beyond the fifth, or $22,500 for an existing franchisee who is a veteran.
The Club Orange program
Club Orange membership revenue by quartile, 2025
| Group | Average Club Orange revenue | Median | Highest / lowest | Met or beat the average | Share of that group's revenue | Everything except the membership |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top quarter | $318,863 | $312,601 | $556,956 / $99,800 | 17 / 50% | 40.4% | $470,344 |
| Second quarter | $211,754 | $204,645 | $320,256 / $64,345 | 14 / 41% | 39.4% | $325,699 |
| Third quarter | $142,210 | $146,512 | $280,145 / $94 | 20 / 57% | 37.2% | $239,729 |
| Bottom quarter | $59,909 | $54,728 | $120,538 / $11,932 | 14 / 41% | 29.3% | $144,667 |
| All studios | $183,094 | $172,313 | $556,956 / $94 | 61 / 44% | 38.3% | $294,931 |
Club Orange revenue, medians, highs, lows and counts are as the brand reported it, as is the 38.3% all-studio share.
Subscription revenue varies 5.3 times across the quartiles; everything else varies 3.3 times. That is $318,863 against $59,909 on the membership, $470,344 against $144,667 on the rest. So the membership is where a studio pulls ahead. A studio stuck in the bottom quartile is stuck there mainly because its subscriber base is thin.
The share climbs with every quartile: 29.3%, 37.2%, 39.4%, 40.4%. Three of the four groups sit within 3.2 points of each other and the bottom one is 7.9 points adrift. Reaching the system's 38.3% at bottom-quarter revenue means $78,353 of subscription income against the $59,909 filed, $18,444 more, on the same customer count.
The top single studio bills $556,956 of subscription alone. That is more than the top quarter's average Club Orange revenue of $318,863 and 9.3 times the bottom quarter's membership line. It also exceeds the entire revenue of every studio in the bottom half of the system.
Only 44% of studios reach the 38.3% system-wide membership share. That is 61 of 138. The typical studio sits below the system’s own mix, and the average is held up by a minority running a genuinely subscription-led model. That is the single clearest operating target here.
The network of locations
The network of locations
| Year | Start | Opened | Terminated | Non-renewals | End | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 133 | 22 | 4 | 1 | 150 | +17 |
| 2024 | 150 | 17 | 16 | 0 | 151 | +1 |
| 2025 | 151 | 31 | 15 | 0 | 167 | +16 |
| 2026, to 11 September | 167 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 168 | +1 |
As the brand reported it.
70 openings and 36 departures across three years. Roughly one studio leaves for every two that arrive. 2024 was the hard year, 17 openings against 16 terminations for a net gain of one, and 2025 recovered to 31 and 15. The system has grown 26% since the start of 2023 while turning over a quarter of itself.
Four of the 15 studios that closed had traded under twelve months, and two of those opened and closed inside 2025. Those were in Florida and Utah. A studio that reaches its first anniversary is therefore in a different position than one still building up. That matches an investment table carrying $34,600 to $84,660 of working capital (cash to run the business day to day) for three months alone.
Texas holds 34 of the 167 studios, 20.4% of the system. It also carried the highest transfer activity, with eight over three years. Colorado runs nine, Illinois ten after four openings in 2025, Minnesota nine and New Jersey eight. Arizona fell from six to two after four terminations in 2024, and Michigan, Utah, Connecticut and Indiana each went to zero at some point in the period.
33 signed Waxing the City agreements sat unopened at 11 September 2026, against 6 openings projected for 2026. The original issue listed 48 at the end of 2025. Texas accounts for nine of the 33 and California four, and each projects one opening. So the remaining pipeline is 5.5 times* the openings the franchisor projects. The gap between signing and trading is where the working capital gets consumed.
What territory you get
Your protected territory holds a population of up to 50,000 people. It is drawn with mapping and demographic software, based on census projections up to five years out. It is described either as a map attached to your agreement or as an area around your location. It follows traffic patterns and natural boundaries. The franchisor keeps the right to grant waxing and hair removal studios under other names inside it.
Protected territories may overlap, and the grant is explicitly other than exclusive. Inside yours the franchisor will decline to approve another Waxing the City studio opening or relocating in. There are no minimum quotas attached, the franchisor is unable to change the boundary unilaterally, and the population gets recalculated at renewal against then-current guidelines. Relocating costs $1,500 plus expenses, currently waived where you work with the franchisor's real estate team.
Questions we get asked
Questions owners ask.
How much does a Waxing the City franchise make?
Waxing the City franchisees averaged $478,025 of sales in 2025, with a median of $457,222, according to Item 19 of Waxing the City’s 2026 FDD, issued 31 March 2026. The 138 in that group are 83%* of Waxing the City’s 167 locations. Fees paid to Waxing the City come to about 10%* of sales.
What should a Waxing the City studio be billing?
The 138 franchised studios that traded all of 2025 averaged $478,025 with a median of $457,222, ranging from $60,168 to $1,159,131. By quartile the averages were $789,207, $537,453, $381,939 and $204,576. The top quarter starts at $614,881 and the bottom quarter tops out at $276,572. Average monthly unique customers were 569 across the system, from 74 to 1,384, and the average ticket was $63.
How much of this business is the membership at Waxing the City?
38.3% of system revenue comes from Club Orange subscription payments, and 61 studios, 44%, reach that share. By quartile it runs 40.4%, 39.4%, 37.2% and 29.3%, on average subscription revenue of $318,863, $211,754, $142,210 and $59,909. The highest-selling single studio bills $556,956 of subscription alone. Subscription revenue varies 5.3 times across the quartiles where the rest of the business varies 3.3 times. That makes the membership base the clearest predictor of where a studio lands.
What does Waxing the City cost a franchisee each year?
A 6% royalty with a $100 weekly minimum, a 2% marketing fund contribution that may rise to 3%, $1,500 a month of required local advertising. The $799 monthly technology fee rises 10% a year, compounded. Together that is 11.5% of revenue at top-quarter volume and 21.5% at bottom-quarter volume, because $27,588 of it holds still. Wax and product purchases add $50,000 to $77,000 a year from the franchisor as sole source. A $0.50 per square foot monthly re-invention reserve is recommended toward the remodel required at renewal.
How much does a Waxing the City franchise cost to open?
A Waxing the City studio costs $339,945 for four rooms in 1,200 square feet and $646,195 for six rooms in 2,000 square feet. That includes a $42,500 franchise fee and $25,000 of required grand opening and build-up spend. Building work is the swing line at $114,200 to $277,720. The tenant improvement allowance in this system has averaged $35.23 a square foot and ranged from $0 to $100. Working capital for the first three months is carried at $34,600 to $84,660.
Who does bookkeeping for a Waxing the City franchise?
Lead the monthly pack with unique customers: revenue divides into them at $70.01 apiece system-wide, so a revenue target converts straight into a customer count, then Club Orange as a percentage of revenue against the 38.3% system figure, tracked as active subscribers, new sign-ups and cancellations. Then retail attach rate against 12%, where each point is worth about $1,807 a year at average volume. Two mechanics need watching in the close: sales for royalty purposes counts gift cards and membership packages at the time of sale and keeps chargebacks in. That puts the royalty base ahead of recognized revenue, and the technology fee compounds at 10% a year, so the budgeted figure moves annually. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.
- The filing gives no profit figure. The filing reports sales and not earnings, so what an owner keeps is not disclosed.
Questions worth putting to Waxing the City
These are questions the Waxing the City filing leaves open. An owner or a buyer can put them to Waxing the City directly.
- What do locations at the median spend on wages and rent as a share of sales? The filing reports sales only.
- Which factors does Waxing the City see in its highest-selling locations, such as trade area, years open and size?
- How long does a new location take to reach the average you publish, and what does the build-up look like month by month?
- At what level of sales do the minimum charges stop applying and the percentage take over?
- How many Waxing the City locations closed, were sold, or changed hands last year, and why?
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Numbers Check runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. Checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
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Talk to AveranWhere these figures come from.
Every figure here comes from Waxing the City Franchisor LLC's 31 March 2026 FDD, as amended 14 September 2026, covering the 2025 calendar year. The location counts for 2026 run to 11 September 2026. The document is unaudited by us. The figures are based on data franchisees report to the franchisor. We are unaffiliated with the brand. The figures describe past performance at other studios. Calculations of our own are labeled where they appear. The brand’s disclosure document discloses revenue. It also discloses membership revenue, customer counts, and ticket and retail figures. It discloses no cost or profit data. This page is an educational summary and is not legal or tax advice. WAXING THE CITY® is a registered trademark of its owner. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.
These figures come from the brand's disclosure. They are not a forecast, an offer to sell a franchise or advice. Source: Waxing the City Franchisor LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, issued 31 March 2026.
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Waxing the City reads against the rest of the salon, lash, wax and tan group: Amazing Lash Studio · Blo Blow Dry Bar · Drybar · European Wax Center · Hammer & Nails · The Lash Lounge. The salon, lash, wax and tan guide compares all of them on the same figures.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- Money arrives before the service does. How should that be booked?It explains deferred revenue and why the bank balance and the profit line disagree.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?It works out the sales level where a minimum fee stops applying.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?It builds a 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- How much of Item 19 can I rely on?It explains what an Item 19 financial performance representation tells you and what it leaves out.
- What should I be looking at every week?It lists the handful of numbers that move before the P&L does.