On the costs Johnson gave, a store needs about $379,000 a year to break even, more than any store in the bottom quarter of BAM’s own table took in. He wrote it to a stranger, before asking the stranger’s name, about a store BAM had run itself and sold to the Gormans for $65,000, at a gain of $42,619. In September he said of the takeover: “So we got Salem for free, right?”
CONFIRMEDJosh Johnson wrote it. His emails to a correspondent in early August 2026 put the Salem store’s annual revenue “between 200k and 300k,” “really more like 200k,” and say its franchisee “was not running a profitable business in any way shape or form.”
CONFIRMEDBAM’s current disclosure document names Johnson among the nine people who sell its franchises, and reports that the bottom quarter of its franchise stores, 38 of them, took in $188,084.15 to $349,071.13 in 2025, an average of $293,524.91 (2026 edition, Item 19, Table No. 2).
ASSERTEDWhether Johnson’s figures for the Salem store are true. His emails cite no records, and the store’s sales records are not public.
CONFIRMEDJohnson sent the figures before he asked who he was writing to. His next email: “I’m Josh nice to meet you. What’s your name?”
Johnson is also a plaintiff who verified BAM’s complaint against Benjamin Schneider, and the Salem store’s successor operator. BAM took the store from the Gormans’ company, BAMF Salem 1, LLC, owned by Chrystal Law and Benjamin Gorman, on November 14, 2024; they sued BAM on March 27, 2026 (October 20). In early August a correspondent wrote to Johnson, and he turned the exchange to Law’s store.
God wants you to know the truth. There are two sides to every story. Are you even interested in knowing both sides? Or are you just going to believe everything youu see on YouTube?
The truth is the truth. You have spent 200 hours studying what one side has said.
You haven’t asked me for my side of the story.
Ok. Let’s start with Crystal and the operations of her store.
What do you know about that in your studies?
Ok. So where did you get the 40% from?
I have never seen that.
Let’s start before all that. Let’s talk about her store.
What kind of a franchisee was she?
How much were her expenses? What kind of revenue was she generating?
I don’t want to just talk talking points. Let’s talk Crystal and her store. Total annual revenue is between 200k and 300k.
Cost of goods sold is about 40% meaning if she had an annual revenue of 300k the product she sold cost her 120k leaving her 180k in profit to pay her bills.
Payroll was about 8500 a month
Rent was about 5500 a month
Electric 400
Internet 100
Royalties on 25k a month in sales is about 1700
Other expenses 2k
So... If she sold an average of 25k a month in sales. Math looks like this roughly.
25,000
- 15,000 COGS
- 8800 PAYROLL
- 5500 RENT
-1700 ROYALTIES
- 2500 ELECTRIC, INTERNET, INSURANCE, CAMS, AND MISC EXSPENSES.
TOTAL -3500 a month. Give or take.
In this scenario I am giving her credit for selling 300k in a year. It was really more like 200k.
Meaning she was not running a profitable business in any way shape or form.
Does this make sense?
I’m Josh nice to meet you. What’s your name?
I am open to a phone call
I’m open. Just need to find a time
Three times the correspondent raised an inventory list of the store at the changeover. Each time Johnson answered something else: where the correspondent got a percentage, then the store’s finances, then his own name and a phone call. BAM’s complaint, which Johnson verified, says Brandon Best “completed the inventory” that night (¶ 41) and that “the maximum value of any residual inventory was less than $38,000” (¶ 29). The franchisees say that “No appraisal, inventory, or accounting of seized assets has ever been provided” (Complaint ¶ 62; October 17).
CONFIRMEDJohnson’s total, “-3500 a month,” matches neither set of his own figures: the list in the same email comes to a loss of 8,500 a month, and the figures at its top to a loss of 3,200.
Johnson’s own figures, one month
The email gives the store’s month twice. The total he wrote matches neither.
| Top of the email | His list | |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 25,000“300k” a year | 25,000 |
| Cost of goods | 10,000“about 40%” | 15,000 |
| Payroll | 8,500 | 8,800 |
| Rent | 5,500 | 5,500 |
| Royalties | 1,700 | 1,700 |
| Electric, internet, other | 2,500400, 100 and “2k” | 2,500 |
| What is left | A loss of 3,200 | A loss of 8,500 |
Johnson’s total: “TOTAL -3500 a month.” It takes the cost of goods from the top of the email and the payroll from the list.
The total takes its cost of goods from the top of the email and its payroll from the list. A 40 percent cost of goods is a 60 percent gross margin, inside the range BAM reports for its stores, 56.34 to 64.88 percent by quartile (August 17); the 15,000 in the list is a 40 percent margin, below all of them. Johnson called the figures rough (“Math looks like this roughly,” “Give or take”), then wrote that the store really sold “more like 200k” a year, not the 300k in his example.
On the costs Johnson gave, a store breaks even at about $379,000 a year. BAM’s own disclosure document reports what its franchise stores took in.
BAM’s own table, run on Johnson’s lines
Average 2025 revenue of BAM’s franchise stores, by quarter, against break-even on the costs Johnson gave
The highest store in the bottom quarter took in $349,071.13, short of break-even. Bars are each quarter’s 2025 average; the thin line is the bottom quarter’s range, $188,084.15 to $349,071.13; the dashed line is break-even on Johnson’s lines: cost of goods at 40 percent, royalties at 6.8 percent, 16,800 a month in payroll, rent and everything else. Revenue from BAM’s 2026 disclosure document, Item 19, Table No. 2.
INFERENCEBy the arithmetic of one of BAM’s own franchise sellers, every store in the bottom quarter of BAM’s own table loses money.
PRIMARY SOURCEBAM’s 2023 disclosure document, Exhibits F and G; Note 8 to the audited statements in its 2024 edition; its 2026 edition, Item 2; BAM’s verified complaint of May 27, 2026.
INFERENCEEither way Johnson’s figures cut against BAM. If they are right, BAM ran a store that could not make money and sold it to the franchisees for $65,000, booking a gain of $42,619. If they are not, a BAM franchise seller sent a stranger figures his own arithmetic does not support, about a franchisee who was suing BAM.
The emails are not the first time Johnson has described the Salem store to someone outside BAM. Each line below is his, on the record linked.
INFERENCEJohnson’s own accounts leave a business that could not make money, taken “for free,” that he says he put “like 80 grand into.” BAM swore the inventory left in it was worth “less than $38,000.” On their own numbers, the store was worth more to the side that took it than BAM’s papers say.
The fair reading, and its limit. Johnson was answering a correspondent who had cited over 200 hours of investigation, told him to “tread lightly,” and then asked for his side. He called his figures rough, said of the correspondent’s own estimate “I have never seen that,” and offered to talk by phone. His costs were one store’s; another store’s rent and payroll can be lower. A store that loses money under one owner can be worth taking for another who means to run it differently, and he described the takeover to police in March as a rescue. A prosecutor twice reviewed the Keizer police file and twice declined to bring a criminal case, and BAM is entitled to cite that. The limit is the record: the figures are Johnson’s, about a franchisee who was suing BAM, sent to a stranger before he asked the stranger’s name, and the total he wrote does not follow from the lines he listed.
Sources. Josh Johnson’s emails to a correspondent, early August 2026. BAM’s 2023 disclosure document, Exhibits F and G. Note 8 to the audited financial statements in the 2024 edition (the disclosure document). BAM’s 2025 disclosure document, Item 19 (August 17), and its 2026 edition, Item 19, Table No. 2, Item 2 and the list of franchise sellers (BAM’s words). BAMF Salem 1, LLC v. BAM Franchising, Inc., No. 260200029 (Utah Business and Chancery Court), filed March 27, 2026, Complaint ¶ 62 (October 20). BAM Franchising, Inc. v. Schneider, No. 2:26-cv-00593 (D. Utah), Verified Complaint ¶¶ 29, 41 and 47 and Johnson’s verification (September 26). Keizer Police Department file KZP24020132 (the Keizer police file). Johnson on an American Fork body camera, March 8, 2026, and on Matty AppleSeed’s calls (September 26, October 17). The right of reply is open to everyone named here.