Subway...what a joke

Romr123
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Subway...what a joke

Post by Romr123 »

There's been some (relatively negative) recent press on Subway's revamp...our Subways in one county around here are generally operated by Dortch Enterprises, which has >20 of them currently (had up to 40 in the past) so are pretty well-run stores. They dropped a coupon FSI recently talking about their new revamps---the coupons excluded the CaliFresh sandwiches (but they're what's being featured). Two of three yesterday at 6:30 pm (including a big one with drivethrough_ were closed. The other one had a big sign on the door "No Coupons"...I left and ended up at Jersey Mike's. They're swirling the drain like KMart...
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by storewanderer »

I have seen some banners up about "big changes" at some still open Subways I've driven by this past week. Quite a few in my area have closed and some have had fixture sales so it appears they are closed for good (it is not unusual for these to close then reopen again).

It has been a known issue for a number of years now that various Subway locations do not honor coupons and in some cases jerk you around if you use a coupon (telling you that you have to buy additional items if you use a coupon or limiting what toppings you can receive if you use a coupon).

With that said, I don't really understand why the Subway Corporation keeps issuing coupons. It is doing more harm than good. This reminds me a lot of Quiznos right before the chain basically disappeared and there was a lot of tension between the franchisees and the Corporate and coupon acceptance issues were really upsetting customers and franchisees.

And if the Subway Corporation must keep issuing coupons, they need to force the franchisees to accept them. Run an inspection program and ensure that the locations actually accept the coupons. Given how many locations they have, that may be too much for them to monitor. That may also run up against some franchisee rights or something.

Maybe if they actually had a consistent quality product and well run locations with fair/consistent pricing they wouldn't need to run coupons in the first place........

Wendys seems to have no problem forcing its locations to honor promotions like the 4 for 4, and accept coupons... automatically program this stuff into the registers and it is done.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by pseudo3d »

I worked at a Subway about five or so years ago, and most of the "new items" we either had as an option. Mozzarella was used for their "pizzas" (and was an ingredient on my free employee sandwich, which was toasted with pepperoni and other vegetables for a delicious sandwich that no one has been able to replicate), the ham was already changed in 2015 to get rid of "artificial flavors and colors" (looking more like lunchmeat ham than the redder color the old ham had, honestly, it wasn't an improvement), the fresh produce was always a problem (tomatoes were either underripe or overripe), the tuna was always mixed with mayonnaise first, and the bread was always too mushy. The "Subway smell" is still a complete mystery to me, and I can't imagine it's just the bread.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by Super S »

We have discussed Subway elsewhere here. I will say that they are by far one of the most inconsistent chains out there, and is a chain I try to avoid when traveling. With that said, there are a few local ones that are well-run.

Their "refresh" needs to include some kind of quality control. Maybe corporate people actually visiting the restaurants to ensure proper procedures and standard are being followed.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by Romr123 »

unfortunately central control is not one of their strengths...they're one step away from the 1960s "pump and dump" franchisees...they'll put them anywhere (no or very limited geographic exclusivity) and support is pretty nonexistent except for supply chain.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by storewanderer »

Romr123 wrote: July 24th, 2021, 7:04 am unfortunately central control is not one of their strengths...they're one step away from the 1960s "pump and dump" franchisees...they'll put them anywhere (no or very limited geographic exclusivity) and support is pretty nonexistent except for supply chain.
They will either get some control, or the brand will just start to disappear.

It seems to me their last decent marketing campaigns involved Jared and some $5 subs. Since then the marketing has been really bad.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: July 24th, 2021, 2:04 pm
They will either get some control, or the brand will just start to disappear.
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The later already has been happening in my area of Philly..they plopped a location in almost every large strip center in the later 2000's, and one by one they are slowly closing up (hard to compete with Wawa for cheap hoagies to begin with, and all the independent shops that make something 100x better). I see former owners trying to dump all their equipment on FB Marketplace all the time. The only ones that still seem to do any kind of business are the locations inside Walmart.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by storewanderer »

mbz321 wrote: July 26th, 2021, 9:39 am
The later already has been happening in my area of Philly..they plopped a location in almost every large strip center in the later 2000's, and one by one they are slowly closing up (hard to compete with Wawa for cheap hoagies to begin with, and all the independent shops that make something 100x better). I see former owners trying to dump all their equipment on FB Marketplace all the time. The only ones that still seem to do any kind of business are the locations inside Walmart.
Location count is definitely falling but in my area I have been surprised to see how many locations have been remodeled into the latest decor scheme. There was one that was remodeled that closed a few months after it was remodeled (and the equipment was removed too).

In my area over the years I watched Blimpie pop up, open quite a few locations, and then they all disappeared. A decade later- same thing with Quizno's, now all but one location is gone. What will happen with Subway remains to be seen. In Reno also is the home of Port of Subs which is sort of like Blimpie and they have generally survived.
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Re: Subway...what a joke

Post by Alpha8472 »

Many Subway restaurants near me in the San Francisco Bay Area have closed in the past few weeks. The signs are gone and the stores are totally cleared out. I just checked Google and it seems like about 40 percent of the Subway locations around me now say Temporarily Closed. I do not see how they can be temporarily closed when everything inside is gone.
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