Ben Franklin stores are all Franchise Stores. Promotions Unlimited, Racine, Wi, owns the franchise name. I can believe that a Ben Franklin frame shop could be one of the highest volume stores. Personally, I owe a lot to a little obscure Ben Franklin store for starting me in a career of picture framing. In my early years, I worked in 3 different stores. In 1996, the company suffered a bankruptcy because of bad management decisions. At that time, there over 800 stores nationwide, 32 of those stores were "company" stores. All Company stores were closed during the bankruptcy.
Today, Ben Franklin stores are surviving because they service smaller communities in places where BB's aren't interested in going.
Ben Franklin stores are as good as the people that run them. For training, I was sent to the Larson Juhl training school. I had some excellent mentors and the 5 stores I was originally connected with had some great people as mentors for me. I can easily see a good Ben Franklin store being a top performer in framing sales.
There is a store in the little town of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, that is one of the top Ben Franklins in the company. The reputation of that frame shop has been excellent for better than 25 years. However, as with any retail store, it is as good as the people who run it. Battle Creek, MI, has a store that I was shocked to see what a poor framing department they had.