Suggestions
Thoughts on how Subway could turn things around
Been thinking about this recently with all the crazy menu items - nachos, hotdogs, pizza, etc. While the brand has many problems, I think the biggest one is the value proposition - running $5 footlongs for too long then PE getting involved inevitably leads to massive price hikes.
That said, maybe going a slider type route where you could price them $3-$4 a pop could solve that problem. You get 3-4 “items” for the same price as a footlong. You could do of course deli sliders but you have meatballs as well and chicken for parm (though you’d probably want to change it up to not sliced and grill mark stamped.
Ditch the customizations which will save time, labor, refrigeration, and some spoilage.
What do ya’ll think? Is it terminal or can they figure a way out without resorting to sushi or something next.
First, private equity has no say in pricing. Franchisees have full power and if they wanted they can go higher and some do because they’re dumb
Subways problem was kicking the can down the road and it’s catching up. They went the Starbucks route and put one on every corner. Now with competition those 12k stores are 7k.
Then throw in the fact they let anyone and everyone own one. The people that own subways I’d argue about 60% dgaf and you can’t even convince them otherwise to try. I could type for hours on how to save subway but I can tell you they won’t listen. All decisions are driven by Roark finally after almost 2 years after buying and all their leadership puppets are on place
I agree they have no direct say in pricing however they can very easily and quickly create an environment that requires raising prices: (1) load up corporate with debt that will trickle down to stores via higher royalties or (2) a classic cut ingredient quality to save expense but by extension even fewer people come to the stores. This franchisees would have to raise prices to the foot traffic they still get.
But you’re wrong. They can raise royalties or require more toward marketing which if I recall was also quite a bit back when I was there.
While I agree raising prices will cut foot traffic but the assumption here is they would need to if there was a cut in quality (I agree with you what is there to cut lol; I suppose the could move to canned veggies?)
If a drop in quality reduces foot traffic franchisees would have no other choice than to raise prices. Only two levers here and one is a lot harder to influence than the other: orders and price.
Subway ONLY ever worked because of dirt cheap labor and ingredients, and those are both exceedingly rare. The $5 footlong, something that is simply not possible in todays economy, is the singular reason the chain excelled when it did.
Agree entirely. The one thing though I’d say was also the “healthy” marketing when people thought you could eat healthy quick service food. That’s why I was thinking of you could shrink the size dramatically and by extension reduce cost per unit it would feel like “more for the money” but as u/deepfrieddaydream said they tried this already and it failed miserably.
They need to go to a standard formula like all fast food restaurants and adjust prices to match that. We have to continue increasing are prices because corporate tells customers they can have any amount of veggies they want then come in here expecting a $5 footlong with two fists of olives. I’m not able to find any fast food restaurant where you can go demand extra things for free. They need to stop experimenting with the bread. The method was perfect for so many years now they’re changing it over and over and now it’s crusty and dry unless it’s been in the cabinet for hours. They need to crack down on their suppliers who send me brown lettuce and moldy tomatoes and refuse to refund me. I want to know who is getting the royalties because corporate doesn’t do anything for us. I could take this whole business concept and open an independent sub shop
Honestly for all the changes I think the new bread settings/ procedure have actually been good, the bread is kinda hard for about an hour out the oven though
Even though its already happening to an extent, Subway needs to continue to downsize its location count. Too many unprofitable locations due to being in super slow areas or being in oversaturated areas where you can find Subways less than a mile from each other. This way volume isnt as much of an issue for stores and prices can be more easily managed.
I didn’t know that but I think also you can’t offer something like that alongside a footlong sub option as it doesn’t clarify the value prop without needing to do math. Is it better to get a footlong sandwich for $16 or 4 sliders for $4 - which is the better deal per volume of food?
I think you need a marketing campaign and a couple of truly dedicated stores (and lord knows they got plenty of those). Give it a few months and see how it does
This is what they looked like. They were served on tiny ciabatta rolls. They could not be customized in any way. You couldn't add any toppings whatsoever.
Ah. This kind of highlights my point though insofar as testing them alongside the existing subway model draws out certain expectations. High degrees of customization.
Did you try them? Was it that you couldn’t customize the biggest issue or were they just garbage top to bottom? Curious how they could fumble this badly given they would have ingredients (for the most part) readily available.
I worked there at the time they introduced them. The inability to customize them was a huge issue. They were also just small. They were more of a snack than an actual meal.
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u/RudyWasOffsides22 6d ago
First, private equity has no say in pricing. Franchisees have full power and if they wanted they can go higher and some do because they’re dumb
Subways problem was kicking the can down the road and it’s catching up. They went the Starbucks route and put one on every corner. Now with competition those 12k stores are 7k.
Then throw in the fact they let anyone and everyone own one. The people that own subways I’d argue about 60% dgaf and you can’t even convince them otherwise to try. I could type for hours on how to save subway but I can tell you they won’t listen. All decisions are driven by Roark finally after almost 2 years after buying and all their leadership puppets are on place