Subway Eliminates Customization and Switches To 12 Sandwiches

[retailfanmitchell019]

This is a win-win for everyone.

It will take them less time to make the standard sandwiches, so the lines will move a bit more quickly. If it takes even 15 seconds less per sandwich, that will add up in a big way if there are 7 people in front of you at lunch time.

If you are ordering online and aren't terribly picky, you can just order by number, instead of having to customize ingredients. This will make it easier to order on DoorDash.

If you're Subway, this will probably tend to reduce your food costs a bit.

And if you're someone who isn't interested in the new sandwiches, you can still customize your own sandwich, just like always.

I'm not sure why people are upset about this. No one is worse off here.

I agree with the points you and Alpha have made. It is all about Subway making more profit. These 12 sandwiches, while I would never eat any of them, are quicker to make, which will help Subway in the long run.
Going the McDonald's route of orders by number is a good idea. Although I am not a fan of McDonald's, Subway could learn a thing or two from them, like strict franchising.

[SamSpade]

When I order sandwiches at Safeway and order one of the pre-advertised sandwiches I notice the employee always has to get a prep card out to figure out how to make the sandwich. It has been like this now for 20+ years ever since they started a sandwich program with pre-advertised sandwiches. I guess they typically aren't making sandwiches all day so maybe that is part of why they need the prep card every time.

I would argue that they also suffer from the "slow service" issues that were outlined by Brian, especially if a sandwich is warmed.

For a time, Safeway had a terrible sign (for their employees) that it had to be under 5 minutes or it was free. I am glad that went away because it just put a lot of pressure on the deli folks.

[Super S]

I went to Subway today. They had a "build your own" section on the menu and I was able to choose everything as before. I don't see the problem here.

[storewanderer]

For a time, Safeway had a terrible sign (for their employees) that it had to be under 5 minutes or it was free. I am glad that went away because it just put a lot of pressure on the deli folks.

That sign was from the time you ordered, that it would be ready in 5 minutes. It did not include wait time before being helped. The 5 minutes prep time is already much too long. The deli employee being paid $20/hr after benefit costs in a union store, to be spending 5 minutes to make what was at the time a $5.99 sandwich is a horrible labor cost for a low ticket item like a sandwich. Plus there was already labor put into getting the sandwich prep bar (lettuce, tomato, etc.) set up earlier in the day.

Safeway sometimes had to slice the meat/cheese fresh and that added time to it due to their set up- slicers far from sandwich prep bar, need to use different slicer for meat than cheese, may need to clean slicer before even using it, etc. Their program is intended to pre-portion the meats out during production shift (3 AM shift) so the pre portioned meats go into the prep bar but lower volume stores don't always have a full production shift every day so that isn't always done.

When I look at a chain, Port of Subs, who slices the meat in front of you at the beginning of the line (after that the experience is just like Subway), they are able to put out a sandwich in less than two minutes even including slice time, I know Safeway's guarantee was put into place for a reason.