Subway calls ‘emergency’ meeting with franchisees as sales plummet

I like Subway but it’s too expensive. We have one about 30 minutes from our house that’s in a Pilot Truck Stop near where my dad parks his truck at so we go there and pay with his points. In my opinion Subway is so much better than Jimmy John’s, Firehouse and Jersey Mikes I can’t stand any of those places because they don’t toast the bread.
Firehouse will toast the bread and not steam the meat. Only way I'll eat it.
 
They were more expensive than Subway.

Quiznos isn’t around where I live anymore.

Yeah - they used to be big with national ads. I liked them. I used to walk from work to college games where I worked in a downtown area in a college town, and there was a Quizno's. Cheaper than eating inside the arena. There was a Subway, but I would rarely go there.

I heard one of the big issues with Subway was oversaturation. They made it too easy to build a new location without consideration of what it would do to nearby locations. There were a bunch around here and quite a few have closed.

It's the small regional chains that seem to be doing better. Someone mentioned Mr. Pickle's, which I've seen. Another around here is Ike's Love and Sandwiches.
 
I have to admit that I like their fresh cookies much more than their subs.

Long time ago when I worked at a supermarket I would stop off and get Subway sandwich at 11:30 PM after work. The food was better back then.
Those raspberry cheesecake cookies are excellent.

My job has me landing at a BP gas station right next to the hotel I stay in all the time. There's a 24 hour Subway and 24 hour Dunkin' Donuts in this little gas station. It's hard to spend the money on Subway with their prices. The Dunkin' bacon, egg, and cheese sourdough and other options feel like a better deal. Subway used to be my go to, but I fully believe the pricing is the biggest problem. I don't buy from either of them every time I go there as I pack enough food to last me a normal stay, but if I get stuck there for a second day then I end up frequenting one of these restaurants. If Subway were a value that landed between McDonald's pricing and Jimmy John's I think they would be printing money. Whether that's sustainable for the cost of the ingredients or if they got greedy and priced themselves out their business model is not working.

The food definitely used to be better. They either need to make themselves premium to match the prices they have and realize they'll do less business or they need to find a way to accurately price what they offer. There is very stiff competition in this segment of the market. I'd select Jersey Mike's, Jimmy John's, Firehouse Subs, or Quizno's over them every time in that order and I haven't seen a Quizno's in years. I had to do a search and it seems Quizno's is failing and closing a lot of stores. I think Subway is going to follow in those footsteps.
 
Cost to you is minimal
Chick Fil A
“covers the majority of startup costs, including real estate, construction, and equipment”

Okay. My fault for not looking it up. I looked into buying a AAMCO franchise once...They wanted to throw me into a delipidated building & revive a failed business. Would've been cheaper to knock the building down & start over, But it's on leased land.
 
CFA is nearly impossible to be awarded a franchise for. The extremely low cost doesn't matter as there are literally thousands of apps every year and very few are chosen.
 
The Subway franchises were just everywhere in my area, especially 30 to 40+ years ago. Every one of them that I recall has been closed, some for many years. I'm sure that there must be a couple left tucked into mini strip shopping centers somewhere. The only one I ever see is one that took over the restaurant trade section in the last remaining safe-to-shop Walmart. I gave up on them about 15-20 years ago when they seemingly went from measuring meat content in grams to measuring it in milligrams. Gas station food seems to be the go-to for years with the late teens-early 20's group.

A great many long-time restaurants here have closed in recent years. Reportably due to not being able to source labor. One of the old time independent sandwich/steak places can only open weekdays due to no labor. They are now desperately trying to source the 14-15 year old employees.
 
I’m all for smaller government but the truth in advertising should apply to the prepared food industry..
You ever get a sub that looked like this at Subway?
IMG_8748.webp
 
I'd select Jersey Mike's, Jimmy John's, Firehouse Subs, or Quizno's over them every time in that order and I haven't seen a Quizno's in years. I had to do a search and it seems Quizno's is failing and closing a lot of stores. I think Subway is going to follow in those footsteps.

I think I mentioned Quizno's. Their decline started around 2006-7. Apparently their business model wasn't franchise fees or a percentage of profits/revenues, but directly selling food and supplies (paper, cups, etc.) to certain franchises. That's not necessarily the business model of other franchise operations, where they buy from approved suppliers. I guess it was all meant to ensure that corporate always got a cut, but it became too expensive for many franchises to operate.

Not sure how accurate it is, but there are some claims that Quinzo's franchises could order from approved suppliers, but that was contingent on meeting certain "quality metrics" via regular inspections. But with some hints that inspectors were encouraged to give lower scores, which would then force a franchise to purchase directly from corporate (which makes corporate more money where they take a cut) as a supposed quality improvement measure. Some claims too that the inspection scores determined the discount that a franchise received on food and supplies.

Most of the articles don't necessarily claim that.

That's when things started to fall apart. The core issue was a simple one: The entire business model of Quiznos was built on a house of cards, and franchisees had been sold a bad bill of goods when buying in. The company made profit largely by selling food and branded products (like wrappers) to their own franchisees; it was how it expanded so rapidly in the first place. But their subsidiary distribution system, under American Food Distributors, sold to franchisees at such high prices that the only way locations would be able to make money was by raking in sales. Since a franchise's average revenue was only around $400,000 per year, that wasn't happening.​
In 2006, the dam finally burst when the franchisees started suing them for fraud, treating them as "captive customers" under their distribution system. One even took his own life after the company terminated his franchise agreement for trying to help organize his fellow franchisees for the lawsuit. And that was only the start of the trouble for Quiznos.​
 
I think I mentioned Quizno's. Their decline started around 2006-7. Apparently their business model wasn't franchise fees or a percentage of profits/revenues, but directly selling food and supplies (paper, cups, etc.) to certain franchises. That's not necessarily the business model of other franchise operations, where they buy from approved suppliers. I guess it was all meant to ensure that corporate always got a cut, but it became too expensive for many franchises to operate.

Not sure how accurate it is, but there are some claims that Quinzo's franchises could order from approved suppliers, but that was contingent on meeting certain "quality metrics" via regular inspections. But with some hints that inspectors were encouraged to give lower scores, which would then force a franchise to purchase directly from corporate (which makes corporate more money where they take a cut) as a supposed quality improvement measure. Some claims too that the inspection scores determined the discount that a franchise received on food and supplies.

Most of the articles don't necessarily claim that.

That's when things started to fall apart. The core issue was a simple one: The entire business model of Quiznos was built on a house of cards, and franchisees had been sold a bad bill of goods when buying in. The company made profit largely by selling food and branded products (like wrappers) to their own franchisees; it was how it expanded so rapidly in the first place. But their subsidiary distribution system, under American Food Distributors, sold to franchisees at such high prices that the only way locations would be able to make money was by raking in sales. Since a franchise's average revenue was only around $400,000 per year, that wasn't happening.​
In 2006, the dam finally burst when the franchisees started suing them for fraud, treating them as "captive customers" under their distribution system. One even took his own life after the company terminated his franchise agreement for trying to help organize his fellow franchisees for the lawsuit. And that was only the start of the trouble for Quiznos.​
Thank you for that info. I likely would have never known otherwise on Quiznos. I could go for a chicken carbonara right about now.
 
I've always wondered how they justify having the folks who power wash the parking lot in there on Sunday. About once a year I notice the Chick-fil-A getting a power wash on a Sunday morning.
Not only that, but when I saw a new Chick-Fill-A location being built near me, those construction crews worked Sundays as well. So obviously they have one standard for themselves and another for their contractors.
 
Not only that, but when I saw a new Chick-Fill-A location being built near me, those construction crews worked Sundays as well. So obviously they have one standard for themselves and another for their contractors.
Eeehhhhh I wouldn’t say that’s as much as a double standard but more of a “this is what we do, but we won’t tell you how to run your business” type of thing.
 
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