Subway...what a joke

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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by storewanderer »

I have a better one. Quiznos. On the Quiznos website there is a location in Reno, NV on Damonte Ranch Parkway. This place closed like... 4+ years ago. It still has online ordering available (the order won't go through and it is missing new items). It still has the 4 years ago pricing listed which is funny as everything is like $2 less than the one still open Quiznos in Reno. There is still one Quiznos open in North Reno.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by Super S »

I have been noticing more Subway locations disappearing around the Portland/Vancouver area in the last few months. Many are in out of the way places or are too close to other existing locations. A lot of them seem to be closing much earlier, sometimes as early as 6 or 7 PM, which seems a bit odd.

If Subway could maintain some level of consistency in how the stores are ran, they can be a viable chain....they do fill a niche at a national level, but has so much variation that you don't always know what to expect.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by Brian Lutz »

Went into a Subway this evening to use a gift card we got, and the one we went to was a disaster. The sandwiches themselves were OK (albeit expensive, approaching $7 for a 6-inch sub) but the refrigeration on the drink machine was out and there was no ice and the drinks were warm. One of the restrooms was out of commission due to a plumbing problem, and it appeared that the thermostat in the restaurant was also defunct. On top of that, some of the much touted new items on the menu were horrendously expensive. I don't know if it was just this particular location, but the Baja Turkey Avocado sub was listed for $9.99 for a 6 inch, $14.99 for a footlong and a whopping $20.99 for the "Pro" footlong version. Looking at online pricing for Subways near here (the website is a mess too) that particular location seems to be an outlier, but just a footlong sub is approaching the price of an entire sit-down meal at a lot of places. If I had to guess, this particular Subway is likely going out of business within six months.

Meanwhile, Jimmy John's prices are going up too, but an 8 inch Jimmy John's sub (even the smaller originals) is a lot more substantial than a Subway 6-inch, and a much better value. You lose some of the customization options, but I'd much rather go to Jimmy Johns at this point.
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A Non-Cra**y Subway

Post by rwsandiego »

I'm a very picky eater but I also get "hangry" and this afternoon I could feel "hanger" coming on. The only places open and nearby were Safeway and Subway (McDowell Marketplace at 7th St and McDowell Rd in Phoenix). Throwing caution to the wind, I decided to eat at Subway, as Safeway was crowded.

It was actually very good.

Had an Italian BMT. Meat was fresh and cold, the vegetables were also fresh, and the bread was fresh out of the oven. It even tasted good. the guy making the sandwich carefully placed the meat on the bread and the lady working the vegetables was also very careful to distribute the vegetables across the entire sandwich and keep them away from the very edge. The bottled soda was warm and before I could ask for a cup for ice the cashier offered it.

Was the sandwich an amazing gourmet experience? Of course not. Was the place spotless and the food tasty?

Absolutely. I was shocked.
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Re: A Non-Cra**y Subway

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: February 2nd, 2022, 5:10 pm I'm a very picky eater but I also get "hangry" and this afternoon I could feel "hanger" coming on. The only places open and nearby were Safeway and Subway (McDowell Marketplace at 7th St and McDowell Rd in Phoenix). Throwing caution to the wind, I decided to eat at Subway, as Safeway was crowded.

It was actually very good.

Had an Italian BMT. Meat was fresh and cold, the vegetables were also fresh, and the bread was fresh out of the oven. It even tasted good. the guy making the sandwich carefully placed the meat on the bread and the lady working the vegetables was also very careful to distribute the vegetables across the entire sandwich and keep them away from the very edge. The bottled soda was warm and before I could ask for a cup for ice the cashier offered it.

Was the sandwich an amazing gourmet experience? Of course not. Was the place spotless and the food tasty?

Absolutely. I was shocked.
That they had multiple employees working was an achievement in itself. This is not a hard concept to execute. Locations that can actually execute it correctly like this one, are much less common than they should be.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by Super S »

Not all Subways are bad. The local Subway locations where I live are for the most part on the better side as far as service and cleanliness. There was one that was in an odd location that closed a while back. That particular location was not always clean and had staffing problems, and the building has since been demolished for an upcoming road project. The ones I seem to have problems with tend to be closer to the larger cities. But I have been to a few poorly run locations in small towns as well...consistency has long been an issue with Subway.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by veteran+ »

I don't go to Subway any longer but the ones in San Diego, Palm Springs and West Hollywood have all been clean and fresh.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by storewanderer »

Where Subway went wrong was letting competing franchisees open locations too close together. This caused good franchisees who spent years running a good string of say 3 locations in a 5 mile radius, to encounter a situation where Subway corporate let other franchisees open locations in that same radius and it ended up spreading unit volumes too thin. So the older good franchisees either got disgusted and operations declined or they left the system and sold their units. The worst thing I notice with Subways is what happens with location level changes in ownership. Sometimes they get an owner who decides they are going to own/manage the store (which drives off good employees generally speaking), other times they get an owner who is buying multiple units as an investment and needs to have actual managers in the units to operate them day to day.

The coupon topic is another one. I have heard so many stories of what happens when people try to use a coupon at Subway. Typically an ownership change seems to involve some kind of change in coupon policy. Often I will see ownership change on a previous "no coupons" store then the new owners in an effort to drum up business may issue some coupons but may or may not accept the corporate Subway coupons. In my area some locations have signs posted stating they do not accept any coupons at all period. If you push through an app order with a coupon they will not fulfill it as a rule but sometimes do fulfill it if someone doesn't notice it had a coupon. Another good one was a unit that changed ownership and the new ownership decided to accept coupons but if you used a coupon you were only allowed to have lettuce and mayonnaise on your sandwich, no other toppings.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Subway that I drive by every workday suddenly closed. The entire restaurant has been emptied. I never went in there, but the time it took to close was phenomenal. I do not know why it would close as the busy shopping center has a Walmart with no restaurant inside.

There were many in the area only a few years ago, and now I do not know of any still open. Google lists them all as temporarily closed. I doubt they will ever reopen.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on February 6th, 2022, 7:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: February 6th, 2022, 4:47 pm The Subway that I drive by everyday day suddenly closed. The entire restaurant has been emptied. I never went in there, but the time it took to close was phenomenal. I do not know why it would close as the busy shopping center has a Walmart with no restaurant inside.

There were many in the area only a few years ago, and now I do not know of any still open. Google lists them all as temporarily closed. I doubt they will ever reopen.
What happens is they close then whoever ran them tries to auction off or sell off equipment to raise money. Or the landlord made the decision to clear the place after rent stopped being paid. Subway's area developers try to keep the locations fixtured in hopes of bringing in a new franchisee/operator to assume the location but it gets infinitely more difficult when they get cleared of equipment. I have seen a few Subways where this happened where they closed and were cleared of some or all of the equipment and then the area developer found new operators to take over and they went in and did full remodels to the current green/yellow/white interior before doing a grand reopening under new ownership.
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