Fireside Chats with Rand Vol.1: $5 of Failure

The first stop on our journey: My thoughts and gripes surrounding the fast food franchise Subway

Ever since Subway got rid of their $5 Footlong deal, I haven’t found nearly a good enough excuse to slug my way through that dying franchise’s doors. Ladies and gentlemen I plan to use my newspaper column as an outlet to address the real problems facing our world today. With that being said: WHY THE HELL DOESN’T SUBWAY HAVE A DRIVE-THRU?...and while I ask that rhetorically, it really does beg the question, why has Subway been left behind? When I was a youngin, the sight of that pristine yellow “S,” crowned with with the masterfully designed arrow, was cause for a frenzy of excitement. Now however, it seems as though Subway is the moldy grape of the fast food industry, the proverbial rotten egg, even earning itself a whole Munchies article entitled “Now That the $5 Footlong Is Dead, Can We Admit that Subway Sucks?”

Well Munchies, my answer to that is a resounding YES, so let’s explore what turned Subway’s bright future, into the sinking ship of a franchise we see today.

First, to address the drive-thru debacle. Now in reality, there is a genuine reason that Subways don't have drive-thrus. The subway business model is this: be the cheapest fast food chain to open, and sell to as many as possible. Now credit where credit is due, that was one effective business model they chose. When most people think American fast food, the mind immediately skips to McDonald’s. The golden arched eatery has been a staple of the American diet for almost 80 years now, which makes it even more shocking when you compare McDonalds’ 14,000 US stores, to Subways gargantuan 25,000 US stores. That’s right, Subway dominates America’s fast food industry, which is why you should be even more concerned about the consequences of the giant’s aforementioned business model. Because of Subways goal to sell for the least, and thus open the most, the commodities of the average Subway was far less luxurious (if we can even call it that) than competing fast food restaurants. It’s for this reason that Subways never has drive-thrus… or good parking...or a sizeable eating area… or.... you get the point. So, why doesn’t Subway have a drive-thru? Simply put, that’s just not what they were going for.

There’s a second consequence of the Subway model though, but unlike the first, it gets worse every single day. Because of the massive amount of stores Subway has under their belt, it’s become increasingly hard for the corporation to regulate the quality of their food. A 2018 businessinsider article titled “Subway's 'mystery meat' and 'mushy and rotten vegetables' destroyed the 'Eat Fresh' advantage it spent years building” interviewed a multitude of current and former Subway employees, as well as other members of the franchise. One interviewee said,“By the end of the week ... the lettuce is just a massive problem."’Another said “‘About half of the vegetables we used were far from fresh. A third even said that the lettuce and tomatoes delivered to them in their weekly produce shipments were “mushy and rotting.” I believe I speak for all of us when I say...ew. It’s obvious that Subway’s Laissez faire style of opening stores doesn’t stay fresh for long.

To those of you thinking that the solution is just to close down a bunch of Subway’s, well you're in luck, because across the country, Subways are falling off the map at an alarming rate, except it doesn’t really seem like an intentional solution. According to thetakeout.com “More than 1,000 Subway locations closed in the U.S. in 2018, marking the third straight year the chain has shut down more shops than it opened—about a 4-percent drop.” The company is taking a major hit from all the closings, seeing a 25% fall in business between 2012 and 2017. If Subway doesn’t make a major change, soon, the whole company might fall into the abyss of bankruptcy.

So to answer what Subway should do, invest back into your restaurants. Take this loss in number of facilities and use the extra focus to regenerate the ones you have left. Invest back into yourselves, and by that, I mean build some freakin drive thrus.

In conclusion, why do I even care? Well, if I’m being 100% honest, Subway will always have a special place in my heart. It was me and my brothers’ favorite place to go, because we, as 8 year olds, had very unique and defined tastes...or maybe I just like their mayo a lot, I really don't know. But my point in writing this is to show that there are people, maybe very few people, who actually still care. I mean, I know I care, I just wrote a whole article about it. Good luck Subway, eat fresh.

Bibliography:

Narishkin, Abby. “Subway's 42,000 Locations Are the Most of Any Fast-Food Chain on the Planet, but Franchise Owners Are Taking a Hit.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 5 Aug. 2019, www.businessinsider.com/subway-fast-food-chain-locations-franchise-rise-fall-2019-8.

Pollack, Hilary. “Now That the $5 Footlong Is Dead, Can We Admit That Subway Sucks?” Vice, 13 Sept. 2018, www.vice.com/en_us/article/ev7d8j/now-that-the-dollar5-footlong-is-dead-can-we-admit-that-subway-sucks.