Sister franchisees Paige, left, and Peyton Geyser run a Wetzel’s Pretzels food truck in Orange County, California, with plans for more non-traditional locations.
Working with family is the name of the game for sisters Paige and Peyton Geyser when it comes to their Wetzel’s Pretzels food truck. The franchisees have different strengths they use and are already on the hunt for more locations—all while working with their favorite person.
“We’ve been best friends since a young age,” said Peyton. “Honestly, owning a business with your sister, in my opinion, is like the best thing.”
It was that close relationship that prompted them to open a franchise together. The sisters, both in their 20s, acknowledge each other’s differences and their individual strengths when it comes to running the business. “We get each other in a way that a business partner in a general sense might not have understood you,” said Peyton. “We were brought up the same way, we understand things the same way, so I think it’s the best experience I’ve had.”
Paige echoed her sister’s comments. “It makes going to work feel like you’re just hanging out with your friends, still,” she said.
Peyton began working at a Wetzel’s Pretzels store in Ontario Mills, California, when she was 16, and persuaded her sister to do the same. Paige immediately hopped on board and stayed with the company.
Peyton eventually went to college, continuing to work at Wetzel’s during summers and holidays. She later became a marketing intern at Wetzel’s headquarters. After a brief stint working elsewhere, Peyton returned to Wetzel’s as its marketing manager in 2021.
Paige stayed with Wetzel’s, receiving promotions all the way up to general manager for Ontario Mills. “I climbed the ranks over seven years,” Paige said.
One of the first projects the sisters worked on together was Wetzel’s participation in the 2022 Rose Parade, held on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California, where the brand is based. “That’s what really flipped the switch for us,” said Paige. “As a corporate general manager, I was selected to work on the food truck that was going to be serving people at the Rose Parade.”
Paige worked at the parade with a franchisee who owned a food truck. “I came home and I was like, ‘Peyton, we need to do this,’” said Paige.
“We really just saw this big brand love in Southern California that we wanted to take advantage of so close to home,” Peyton said. “Food trucks are a lower cost of entry so it was a little more feasible.”
The cost to open a Wetzel’s food truck or trailer ranges from $174,525 to $304,200. It took about eight months for the sisters to get started and they’ve been on the streets of Orange County since early 2023.
Neither want to slow down in their franchising journey. Fans of nontraditional locations, the sisters immediately started looking for their next location once the food truck took off. Paige’s heart set, they approached Wetzel’s during the company convention with the idea of opening in a Walmart.
“We had this extreme calling that this is what we were meant to do,” said Paige. “I really wanted a Walmart location,” and their store inside a Walmart Supercenter in Foothill Ranch, California, opened this summer.
Peyton takes charge of the marketing because that’s her forte, while Paige works on the operations side. All in all, the sisters say they’re unified in their business and completely trust each other in their decisions. Despite the stereotypes of siblings, they claim to rarely argue, if at all.
Both sisters are determined to be owners and operators. Because they have both had the chance to work in nearly every aspect of Wetzel’s, they are comfortable with the day-to-day operations. Whether they’re making (or snacking on) pretzels, managing staff, coordinating events or just jumping in where they’re needed, Peyton and Paige plan to be on location as often as possible.
The sisters aren’t the only family members in the business, either. Once they opened, their parents also got involved. Debbie Geyser, their mother and a retired teacher, is involved in operations while their father, Brad, helps with the accounting.
“It’s just fun to be all together,” said Paige. “We’re the type of family to all sit down and do a game night every week just for fun.”