My friends parents have a shop with the Zabka sign over it , they own the shop , so i guess it must be a franchise thing...no doubt somebody here will tell you for sure....
The position is not clear in my eyes. All Żabka shops were supposed to be up for sale, there was a sign to that effect in the windows of the shops (Nov 2008). That seems to have passed and the position has returned to normal.
I'm with wildrover on this, I think it is a franchise but I'm not sure.
Its similar to a franchise - the owners of the property work as agents for a bigger company called Zabka which supplies them with the food, beer and fags.
Zabka is now owned by a Czech private equity firm, before that was owned by a bloke called Switalski who is one of Poland's richest men and set up Biedronka in the 1990s.
