Retail Watchers

Subway is switching to Pepsi for 10 years. Previously the chain used Coke. No more Coke Freestyle machines for Subway.

They say Pepsi is cheaper for restaurants, but more people prefer Coke products.

https://fox59.com/news/national-world/i ... -products/

Another excuse not to eat at Subway. There are better places for subs.

Also Subway is now owned by Inspire Brands-the same company that owns Jimmy John’s, Arby’s, Sonic, Dunkin, and Buffalo Wild Wings. BWW and now Subway serve Pepsi, the other Inspire chains serve Coke.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑March 19th, 2024, 4:21 pm Subway is switching to Pepsi for 10 years. Previously the chain used Coke. No more Coke Freestyle machines for Subway.

They say Pepsi is cheaper for restaurants, but more people prefer Coke products.

https://fox59.com/news/national-world/i ... -products/

Previously, Subway actually did have Pepsi - I worked at a Subway for 7 disastrous months in 1993. We sold Pepsi. So this is a return home for them.

Pepsi offers incentives that Coke does not; a bribe, if you will. Unless you're a Yum Brands restaurant (Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut), then they are required reading.

I would far rather have Coke, but at least with Pepsi, they will have Zero products. Coke did not unless the franchise chose to.

I personally prefer Pepsi products.

I gotta wonder if Coke was pushing Subway to adapt Freestyle machines...those seem to only work in high volume operations, and not all Subway locations fit that bill.

I have been noticing some restaurants that went to the countertop Freestyle machines have switched back to regular fountain machines. One such chain is Ivar's in the Seattle area. I have also seen some unremodeled Wendy's that are holding out on this.

Perhaps people have complained about the weird taste of the pop from the Freestyle machines and this could be a factor.

I have to wonder if similar changes are brewing with other chains.

It seems like Subway changes back and forth between Coke and Pepsi products far more frequently than other chains, to the point that I suspect they switch back and forth pretty much each time the contract ends. Pepsi seems to be unusually popular in North Carolina (presumably since it was originally created in New Bern NC) but I much prefer Coke to Pepsi, and I actually happen to like the Freestyle machines. At least a decent number of places around here offer Cheerwine (a cherry soda that seems to be a very regional thing in the Carolinas) as an option; if that's not available I pretty much stick to water.

It makes sense for Subway to go with the lowest cost option. They've never marketed around the soda brands.

I think fewer people buy drinks as prices have gone up.

Subway is Coca Cola's biggest fountain account customer with over 20,000 restaurants. This is a big loss for Coke.

Perhaps it shows how pushing the Coke Freestyle machine led to increased costs for restaurants. There was a ton of soda waste, higher costs, and this led to many restaurants switching to Pepsi which has a cheaper fountain service.

Coca Cola should stick to traditional fountains where they had good tasting soda. Those Freestyle machines taste terrible and turned off many customers who didn't like the flavor cartridges. People want real soda made with syrup not some kind of powder.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑March 20th, 2024, 7:20 pm Subway is Coca Cola's biggest fountain account customer with over 20,000 restaurants. This is a big loss for Coke.

Perhaps it shows how pushing the Coke Freestyle machine led to increased costs for restaurants. There was a ton of soda waste, higher costs, and this led to many restaurants switching to Pepsi which has a cheaper fountain service.

Coca Cola should stick to traditional fountains where they had good tasting soda. Those Freestyle machines taste terrible and turned off many customers who didn't like the flavor cartridges. People want real soda made with syrup not some kind of powder.

I wonder though given how low volume many Subway units are, how much syrup was this actually moving?

I think a higher volume account like McDonalds or Chickfila would be a lot more effective despite smaller store counts.

Better option would be to offer multiple flavors- have Coke, have Pepsi, have Mountain Dew, have Dr. Pepper, and let the customer make a choice...

On the contract, restaurants get a discount if they exclusively use Coke or Pepsi. No major restaurant chain serves both Coke and Pepsi.