HA-HA!
I have close-by Subways on all points of the compass, which apparently means that I was surrounded by about 150 unloved sandwiches last week and did not feel their presence.
So what’s their plan now if giving the food away for free is not working?
Subway is in a weird spot. Their big claim to fame was the $5 foot-long sandwich, basically cheap healthy(ish) eats. (At least their marketing was all about how much healthier a turkey 6-inch with no dressing was than a burger.) But the $5 foot-long is long gone - at least it’s been gone around this area of the country for years, but their ingredients are still cheap shit that tastes like it’s only worth $5.
If you want an $8-$12 sandwich there are a half-dozen chains that offer better, and if you just want fresh not-a-burger stuff like Panera, Qdoba, and any local shop offers miles ahead for the same or less. Personally, I’ll drop a $10 on a banh mi any day over Subway.
Subway corporate is totally dysfunctional. They’ll never turn this around.
Their food tastes like depression.
You nailed it. Subway was quite a revelation in 1992, especially in places like the non-urban town I grew up in. “I can get a semi-healthy, fresh(ish) sub with custom toppings versus the only other options at the time (McD, BK, Wendys)? Sign me up!
But they appear to still use the same ingredients, which thirty years later look pathetic compared to any number of comparable sandwich shops, particularly local or fast casual that cost nearly the same. I went into one for the first time in at least ten years due to a food emergency (traveling across country and just was tired of fried food off the highway). That wack “grilled” chicken plank still exists at Subway. Insane.
It shows me a large chunk of people don’t seek change and don’t seek out better out of ignorance or inertia, because Subway just shouldn’t exist at a large scale anymore.
Meanwhile I’m in between a Jason’s Deli and Jersey Mike’s and a couple of also-rans. For sure, everyone is bringing their A game and Subway isn’t even IN THE GAME anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them fold within 5 years.
I don’t even know where I would find a Subway around here anymore. I don’t think the one I used to eat lunch at downtown is still there (I haven’t gone there in years and don’t go into the office generally right now anyway). The one that used to be a few blocks away closed a few years back and the space was bought by the neighboring local bar and grill. If there’s another one in my operating range I don’t know where. I had no idea they were giving away free sandwiches on the 13th and was given a gift card to Subway by my work months ago and haven’t used it because there’s not one to go to by me and it sure ain’t worth making a special trip by bus.
I feel bad for the franchisees, who are often immigrants. Subway treats their franchise partners horribly. They’re a revenue stream to be exhausted and exploited, not the building blocks of their entire business.
I haven’t seen a Subway in the actual Twin Cities in I don’t know how long. Out in the burbs, sure, but wtf do you expect?
https://www.subway.com/en-us/findastore
Ack, still 25 subways in a 20 mile radius of where I live. Most are in gas stations now, for that extra cleanliness and quality.
I went to check out the “new”: menu. I put menu in quotes because almost nothing changed. Their Turkey/Bacon/Guac is gone, and has been replaced with Cali Fresh, which is…turkey/bacon/smashed avacado. Wow, that is some innovation there!
The only other change I could find was they no longer offer chopped salads. They still will make you a salad, but they won’t chop it any more. Dude told me they even took his bowl and chopping tool away to keep him from chopping salads.
My first job as a teenager was as a Sandwich Artist in a gas station. It was a total mess of a franchise. The owner had no idea what was going on and never showed up. I got trained for 1 hour by some other kid on my first day, then was left on my own. There was a 3 ring binder with printed instructions on how to make the bread, use the deli slicer (only for veges) and how to make each sandwich.
The steak and cheese was especially nasty. It came in a big frozen brick and we had to saw off chucks with the bread knife and put it in little paper trays to microwave when someone ordered a sandwich.
The only thing they counted was bread and cups. So I could make a sandwich and load it with as much meat as I wanted, since they didn’t track it. And I could drink soda all day if I just used a cup from the Cumberland Farms gas station the subway was attached to!
One time the soda ran out and I had to ask the girl working at Cumbies to show me how to change it. She was cool. I was like 15 and she was in her mid 20s and we dated for a summer. I saw Independence Day in the theater with her. In retrospect she was probably breaking the law dating me but I felt super cool.
My subway career ended when I showed up for work one day and the store was gone.
You ate and drank them right into bankruptcy!
Tons of subways (and the sandwich shops too) in NYC. I don’t know how they stay in business. Same way Dominos does, I guess.
Domino’s significantly improved their pizza. They are also very convenient in that they deliver quickly. Many reasons they are still around and doing well.
Subways in WY are like Starbucks in Seattle. There is one on every corner it seems.
Yup. They adapted. There was a time when Doninos was a joke, and now it’s better than half pizza places in the area. But, that’s because half of the pizza places in the area are Greek pizza, which is an abomination.
Subway is simply too expensive for what you get. Especially when for $1-2 more I can get a Jersey MIke’s sub that is lightyears ahead in terms of quality of the meats.