First off, be upfront with your manager and give them a heads up. Be courteous. This is good practice no matter where you work.

I don't have the employment documents in front of me at the moment, but basically when you signed them you agreed not to work for another franchisee within x amount of time after leaving this one (last I checked it was 1 year). There may have been a "within x miles" stipulation attached to this but that might have been for the general non compete, I can't recall.

Anyways, if that part of your agreement applies to you in this circumstance, then your new store is almost certainly going to have to call your old store and have them release you from that agreement. As long as you weren't a massive dick during your employment and left on good terms, most franchisees don't have a problem doing this. It's mainly there to prevent stores from "poaching" employees from other stores.

A word of caution though- the prevailing sentiment around here is that employees who had previously worked at a JJs left for a reason, and it usually wasn't a good one. You're going to have to prove yourself again and the fact that you were "almost a PIC" doesn't mean anything- don't even bring it up.