Reminds me of the first shop where I worked. It was one of those franchise tune-up shops and the owner had bought the franchise from the area sub-franchisee. They had been friends for a while and the sub talked my boss into buying saying that it was a sure money maker. Of course my boss should've asked why the last guy went bankrupt, but didn't.
Anyway, he signed an 18yr (!) lease on a run-down old Marathon station that was outdated in the Sixties, let alone the early Nineties, based on his friends recommendation. Turned out the lease was whats called "triple net" where the lessee was solely responsible for maintenance/repair, property taxes, and something else that I forget. This was on top of the franchise fees that took 10%, paid weekly, right off the top. Oh yeah, he also got stuck with the cost of removal of the old gas tanks back when that was the end-of-the-world issue.
Suprisingly they made a go of it for about ten years but finally couldn't take it anymore and declared bankruptcy.
