The Decline of Subway...What Happened?
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- čas přidán 19. 12. 2023
- Subway has been going through some tough times. This video attempts to explain the rise and fall of America's biggest fast-food restaurant.
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What happened is a sandwich that used to cost $5 is now $15 and the majority of the time it's built with everything falling out. I hate what subway has become.
They realized they at they were losing money with $5 foot long. Pretty much all the cheap meals are long gone. Don’t you just LOVE inflation? Hmm??
They thought they were gourmet out of nowhere. Just trash now.
I used to work at subway and I ate extra free food during breaks so my boss lost a lot of money
Take it from a guy who prefers going to local sandwich joints, it’s not just Subway now charging $15 for a sandwich
Ya a Mc double was only a buck that also went up three times the price as did gas and every other thing I can think of except technological goods like tvs and so on . Kinda feel like stuff always goes up no matter what
Subway's decline is due to two things not mentioned in the video: 1) The quality of the food has taken a nose dive, and 2) the price of the food has gone through the roof. If I'm going to pay $15 dollars for a sandwich, I might as well go to a premium deli and get something that actually tastes good.
I'm going to add #3. "Health conscious" consumers these days are big on protein and veg, keto, low-carb, etc. that really don't fit with bread-heavy subs. I've noticed they added some "salads" to their menu (way overpriced and underwhelming) but that doesn't fix the issue.
He addressed the food quality issues and said he didn't believe them.
I stayed away from their chicken/steak long before not eating there anymore as everything else slowly got more funky. Last sandwich i had from there tasted like it came from a vending machine.
Nah it was poor from the start i found the chicken fillets had crushed chicken bone in them multiple times back nearly 20 odd years ago.
@@Sophie-ge7ti- they also now have ‘bowls’ which are basically the sandwich ingredients in a bowl without the bread. Can’t image they’re all that popular. 🤷♀️
The ones near me still taste pretty good, but the prices have doubled over the past few years.
They got ludicrously expensive. Family of 4 was 58 dollars the other day and we had no drinks/chips/cookies. Use to stop in for lunch regularly when you could get a 5 dollar sandwich. For the prices they charge, I can go to a sit down restaurant for substantially cheaper.
mcdonalds the same. they are bumping up against the outbacks with 16 dollar meal specials with soup/salad and cheese cake.
Sit down restaurants aren’t cheaper at all especially with tips…
@@SeudXeChilis is like 2X the food per dollar. I takeout and live 1.5 mile from both.
Fk Subway unless they go back to value- 7.00 footlong and 4 bucks for chips, drink and a cookie.
Let most go out of business…
I stopped going ever since I found pieces of the plastic wrapping in my sandwich 😵😵💫
Fifty eight dollars for a family of four that is ridiculous
Their portions have always been a problem. The only way you get a sandwich that isn't all bread is if you load a ton of vegetables on it. It is always frustrating watching store associates count the number of something on a bun. I once had a manager talk to a new employee about putting an extra piece of bacon on my sandwich to which they took it off and placed it back into the bin - and it was a sparse amount of bacon to begin with. I think it's frustrating when you see something that you're paying for be made cheap right in front of your eyes.
Subway is pretty much a bread and lettuce sandwich.
Well said, agreed. It's the same thing at a Chinese takeout, and the Chinese lady is putting in the food for you. She's always skimping you out on food as much as possible.
When I used to eat there daily in the 90's , the subs were packed with meat and whatever else you wanted. It was an actual meal. Haven't eaten there in at least 20 years, mainly due to logistics
My ex-manager at subway wrote me up over two extra slices of provolone in front of a customer and made me remove from the sandwich and bin it, so I told her to politely FO and handed in my two weeks. You’d better believe over those two weeks customers were getting double on everything.
Port of subs is even worse with the meat portions.
It comes down to being cheap. Filling the meat and bread with filler ingredients and sugar is not something that should be disregarded. They are stingy with the portions. And worst of all, the $5 foot long is nearly $20 now. There's no way that a high school student placing deli meat and veggies into a sandwich bun costs $20.
Honestly I bet it's all a lot more expensive than you would think these days so they all have to raise prices. And they are trying to make consumers pay for it. Their costs are going up but our wages aren't.
But it's our choice to say nope and find much better alternatives.
I mean Jersey Mike’s is far better and it is like $15 for a large. Really covered in meat, like a foot and a half.
You’re forgetting that it’s not just subway or restaurants in general that control prices.
It also depends on how much diesel costs, how long it took to get to that location, the weight of ur delivery. Etc… hell, it also depends on how much money the gov gives the farmers (which isn’t enough) less money= less
Product
Everyone is greedy these days, everyone wants to gain a penny wherever they can and cut a penny wherever they can. That makes it so that us consumers slowly pay more and more for goods over time.
If it was easy as refusing to hire high schoolers it would have already been done 😂
I still love the yoga mat scandal which was both true and something Subway had to address
a busy subway can easily spend $5k+ a week on inventory so they need to make that money back. food isnt cheap when they buy it so its not gon b cheap when they sell it. everything is going up in prices get used to it nothin is gon change. if ur broke n cant afford a sandwich then dont buy it as simple as that.
As a former subway employee, honestly the management is a big factor. The owner at the subway I worked at literally told me to look up on CZcams how to make all the sandwiches because he said, "we're too busy to train you"
I work for Ecolab, and we get calls from Subway all the time (got a call from subway as I was typing this) and its seriously alarming the type of so called managers that call us. It's hard to believe some of these people run a business.
@ebonimom6964 I believe it! I mean our store literally flooded due to a malfunction with the soda fountain and the manager never picked up her phone nor the owner. Also, I can attest to how filthy mine was, idk how our store passed health inspection
I would have walked out and never came back
@MISOFOREVERRR I could write a book on working at subway and I was only there for 3 months and working part-time
@@eliasa.5852 Jesus after that line you wrote I wouldn’t have stayed another second.
I remember when it was 'fresh' in the 90's and the bread tasted different one day. The employees said they started getting bread from a different company.
I suspect they picked away at the quality to keep the cost down and eventually ended up with lower quality, less tasty food.
What happened is that people like me discovered Jersey Mike's and JJ's almost 20 years ago, and never settled for Subway again.
Yup. Jersey Mike's was sort of "late bloomer" in my area, the first one only showed up maybe mid-00s, but once people found out about it, at least two Subways in my area closed. Mike's is also relatively expensive, but it just consistently tastes better. And since that one opened, I've noticed at least 2-3 more. So I think they've really cut into Subway's business.
Another thing that Mike's does, at least from what I've seen, is they are big on catering. I've gone to several ball games and company parties where the food is always a bunch of Jersey Mike's sandwiches. I've never seen that with Subway. That creates brand loyalty, recognition, etc.
I tend to go for Firehouse, doesn’t cost much more for a sub AND a cup of soup and the quality difference is evident from the first bite.
And if I really don’t care about prices I’ll go for Penn Station, where you get witness your proteins get grilled up fresh. It’s high cost, but the quality usually matches it.
Been meaning to try Jersey Mike’s, I keep hearing good things about them.
@@darthmeticulous6901 Avoid Jersey Mike's. Their bread is hard as a rock, and they literally drench their subs in oil and vinegar. My wife and I order Firehouse online, and we get a far better sub. Their four-cheese mac and cheese is pretty tasty, too.
@@sd31263 That mac n cheese is very delicious.
I only recently tried jersey mikes, and i’ll never not eat there again when i want a sandwich
The "footlongs are only 11 inches" turned into a real lawsuit, which Subway lost (EDIT: As @ehrichweiss correctly pointed out, they settled out of court). That one, though pedantic, was not exaggerated.
A scandal that I think you missed is that Ireland ruled that Subway's bread contained too much sugar, and therefore had to be legally classified as cake. This REALLY damaged their "healthy food" reputation, not only in Ireland, but across the world.
Holy hell it had that much sugar? That's madness.
Literally too much sugar. Bread is supposed to be wholesome.
@@bmstyleeAbsolutely too much sugar. Look up the case. It’s so greedy.
wow their media team did a great job hiding the cake bread story. I only heard about the yoga mat bread one lol
thats literally all white bread though? white bread is closer to cake than whole wheat bread. literally just a fact lol
Subway has outpriced themselves 16 dollars for a foot long sub
A basic foot long at that
Haven't been in a while and holy SHIT!!!!
Wtf? I can get a full size hoagie at Wawa for half that price.
@@kingdomheartsguy44 sheetz also
and the quality is low-tier
- Diddler
- Literally plastic food
- Costs 15 for a sub
Did we need a video for this
Precisely! 😂
Except that their food is NOT literally (or even figuratively) plastic and it doesn't cost $15 for their regular foot-long subs. It's $6.99 with a coupon in most places. I think someone is doing a hit job on Subway.
@@vulpo12.99$ for a 6” and 18.99$ for a foot long. The footlong meal is 26.98$ (California)
@@vulpo6.99 for a sub after a coupon. That's about as much as some subs where i work WITHOUT one
@@vulpo Where do you live? A foot-long sub currently costs around $16 in Canada, and that's WITHOUT chips and a drink.
Ever since I tried Jersey Mikes I don’t see myself ever going back to Subway.
Fun fact: my parents met working at subway so I have this sandwich chain to thank for my entire existence 🥴
No place better to be convieved in@@emmasanders5971
Well fast food worker girls tend to be hot so can’t blame your father.
you must be like 6 then lmao
@@jokerpilled2535 Where are you getting fast food? Every place within a mile of my place is run by either crusty old South Asian dudes or the kind of girls who don't have boyfriends or husbands, they have baby daddies. Ghetto AF no matter what race they actually are.
There's a joke in there about a foot long, right?
I'm amazed you didn't mention the pricing, it's become so expensive for what it is, even more so than other fast food places or food in general even considering cost of living increases. I think that's even more damaging to a company that made affordability a big part of its brand like subway did
No way in hell am I paying that much for Subway when I can go to any other sandwich place and get higher quality for the same price
its not just subway ripping everyone off. it's all fast food. they lie about food costs, yet the buy volume discounts, and they have multi year contract prices that are set. just look at KFC and popeyes. $30 for 8 pieces of chicken, when it costs less than $4 for them. how do you go from $4 to $30? even pizza joints now charge $4 a slice. for what? some flour, sauce, and cheese? what we need is a great reset, and all these fast food joints need to go bankrupt, asap!
I can go to a local place and get a top 5 sandwich I've ever tasted for the same price as a shitty subway one now. There's 0 point.
Seriously, I thought his main talking point would be the price. I'm paying damn near $25 a visit just for myself
I could have sworn he talked about the price. Though I suppose it wasn’t the main talking point, but he definitely mentioned it along with the 5 dollar footlong commercial.
As a company, their business model focuses on selling as many franchises as possible with no protection from self-competition for the existing franchise owners. They happily throw their own franchise owners under the bus with no concern for which locations survive and which locations fail.
The quiznos model of success
Sounds like McDonald's, 6 bucks for a "Little Mac"
I think what put me off was two-fold. I got heavy food poisoning three times in a row, from three separate subway locations in the span of a couple months, and then learning that there's so much sugar in the subway bread that it's been considered more of a cake than bread has kept me from ever thinking about going back.
You add sugar to the bread mix to give the yeast something to eat so they will make the bread rise up with lots of bubbles the way people like it. There isn't necessarily any sugar left in the final product. A 6-inch hero bread at Subway contains 0 grams of sugar. The multi-grain contains 6 grams. That's not a lot of sugar.
The only time in my life that I had food poisoning was from a roast beef subway sandwich.
WHoa! Me too. Back in Feb. I use to be a Subway regular. I have a strong stomach, literally haven't vomited in 20 years, and I ate there and it just messed me up bad for like a week. I purged everything out all liquid. I will never eat there again.
@@vulpo Why are you so hell-bent on defending Subway lol
Bootlicking Connoisseur
An underscored point on the $5 footlong was that it was simply too successful and tied a common order with a fixed pricepoint that hurt their psychological relationship with their customer base. It went on far too long and gave the perception of their food's value. Now less than a decade later the pricepoint had more than doubled for a lot of those sandwiches and the base feels somewhat portrayed since going to subway used to be a value proposition. If you're going to pay $13 for a footlong why not look at what the competition is offering?
Or go to a local deli and get a hero for $6 lol.
My local spot accepts (re-usable) online coupons, making footlongs $5.99. Considering inflation since 2008, I'm getting a $4.20 footlong (nice).
Exactly this
14" large one-topping Domino's pizza for $7.99. That's handmade and baked. How can it be possible for a lame sandwich not to beat that price? Do you have any idea how much gas those pizza ovens use? A cost that doesn't even have to cross Subway's mind.
Okay but a dominos pizza with one topping (depending on the topping) costs like 60 cents in product.
I think (and other comments seem to agree) that the easy #1 problem is price. If my wife and I get 2 sandwiches, chips, and drinks we’re gonna be spending nearly $40. That’s absolutely absurd. At that price point I’d rather go get food from a full service restaurant with way better food quality. And I know they’re hardly alone in doing this, the entire “fast food” industry has priced themselves out of our rotation. Even if we’re in a hurry we’ll just call in a to go order from a restaurant rather than spend the same amount on a mediocre and meat deficient sandwich.
Yes! Or buy a fresh French bread at any grocery for $1.80 and some cold cuts for $4. Big bag chips for $2 and a 2L soda bottle for $1.25 (store brand). Costco rotisserie chicken $5, etc
I totally agree with you. Lately I almost stopped eating at fast food because for few bucks more I can have a lunch special at the seat in full service restaurant where burgers are freshly made and the salad is not stale.
I still have few favorite subways along my work routes where I still come when I’m short on time (I hate eating in the car and always seat at the table). I go there because they seem to use local produce. Tomatoes that taste real, not plastic, locally owned with giggling local rural teens that are smiling and don’t skimp on the veggies. Boy I hate those subways where you say green peppers and get a pinch on a foot long. You repeat “green peppers” and you get another tiny pinch. On third call employee looks like you’re pulling their gold tooth with those peppers.
@@drcat1313Not to mention that Jersey Mike's has fresh-tasting, non-pink slime-containing real meat.
the only major fast food chain I'm aware of where you can still fill up for cheap is taco bell, and even then you have to pay attention to what you're ordering
the only problem is this requires you to eat taco bell
That's INSANE!!!
"Turn around campaign" is not what I'd call whatever Burger King is going through right now
Burger King closed in the Town I work in January. I'd say they aren't doing well. The subway does quite well and I haven't had a bad order.
About 15y ago a Subway opened up on my way to work here in Germany. Now I know why it changed owners so often and was closed for lengthier periods in between. Revenue wasn‘t meeting the current owner‘s expectation. When I found it open I sometimes (luckily no more often) picked up a Chicken Teriyaki Sub. From the last one I picked up around mid 2016 I got THE most memorable and worst food poisoning I have ever had! They probably were massively cutting corners! Never experienced that with MCD or BK. Needless to say I have actively avoided SubWay ever since!
And I grew up in countries (Colombia, Iran and Egypt) where you would be naturally cautious about restuarant food.
I worked at Subway in 2005. Lots of people came in daily for their $5 sub because it was pretty much the most food you could get for the money. There was no limit to the veggies people could ask for and we teen employees weren't skimpy with the toppings. I think double meat was only $2
I worked there in the same year!
@@dietsodalite3716ya'll are basically brothers.
Lmao, I worked there the same year! What a horrible time in my life that was 😅 What made it worse is that, at my location, I was the only male working there and literally all of the girls I worked with were extremely catty, back-biting and cut throat. God only knows what they said about me when I wasn't there 😂
@@AndyWitmyer I know which types you’re talking about. Always with tattoos and smoking.
Great mini documentary ! I enjoy the familiarity of Subway.
I was completely flabbergasted and let down walking into a Subway for the first time in 3 years to find the price of sandwiches close to $15. That's food truck territory where they give you a gigantic plate.
I wouldn't pay $15 for a subway sandwich even if they offered drinks and chips for free.
I use the same argument about buying Five Guys or other more "premium" burger places over McDonalds, Wendy's, etc. I'm paying more than $12 for a burger, medium fry and medium drink - which is pretty bad quality wise - might as well spend another $5-7 for much much better burger and large drink and more fries than you (should) can eat. Oh, by the way if you ask for extra bacon they don't charge you for it at Five Guys - they've already charged you to begin with.
I only go there when they send coupons in the mail. You can get a foot long for $7. That’s a decent amount of food for that price these days.
@@snausages43 that would great except non of the subways near my location even except them. There are 3 locations between home and work and all of them have signs that they don't accept coupons.
Stop lying please. No subway in this world has a sub close to $15 in price. The most would be 11. STOP LYING!
i worked at a competitor and for like the past year and a half all i heard was some management talking about the subway deli slicers. Apparently they cut all the meat in the morning, and just defeats the purpose of a deli slicer
The metal cover that Subway has installed to cover the meats makes me wonder what they're hiding.
EXACTLY. fresh sliced? With never used slicers.
A subway franchise owner in the UK made some small news in the US a few years ago. He was dodging import tax due to the exact sugar content of his bread. It went to some sort of judicial review, and he was found NOT guilty of dodging import taxes. While the bread was the normal american subway bread, its sugar content was high enough to be considered a pastry under UK (then EU?) regs, and thus be subject to lower taxes.
Once i was aware of this, i realized how weirdly sweet subway bread is and have disliked it.
RIP $5 footlongs though, got me through college without meal plan debt.
Ireland*** BIG difference MuthaFu@&a
This is very common in most American bread, though. Even the bread from your local bakery/grocer has much more sugar than the bread in Europe. Whenever my friends from Spain visit, they constantly talk about how sweet our bread is.
There was a Jimmy John's on 9th Avenue at the south end of campus when I was in college at Nevada-Reno, and everyone ate there, or at the Port of Subs in the student union building. Cost more but you get what you pay for.
Theres no sugar in our bread (Norway), sugar in bread sounds weird. @@genehenson8851
I still have fond memories of getting a foot worth of food for only $5. The "$5 footlong" was a major reason why I enjoyed going there so much, but nowadays I only go there when I get the "2 for $13" coupons in the mail. The fact they pile on a ton of toppings still makes them worth while if you can get a coupon or a deal on their app.
The Subway in my neighborhood doesn’t even honor coupons.
I'm sure they don't care if you pile on all the lettuce that you want. It's not very expensive, and for the price they're charging, it's a very good tradeoff.
quality isn't worth 13
I used to get two footlongs for $4 in college early 2000s with the coupons they'd send to the dorms. Man, those were fun times.
None of subways here where I live won’t accept coupons
Thank goodness for Publix subs (FL). I haven’t had Subway since I worked there in HS in 07. The quality definitely declined.
Oh, Publix makes the very best subs! I don’t live in FL anymore, and I miss them!
i worked for Subway in high school and ended up quitting because the pace was too fast. we were absolutely cranking them out and the lines never ended. this must have been at their peak, because that same location is rarely even busy nowadays.
The Subway near my house that was always popping when I was a kid is almost totally deserted nowadays. The last time I visited, the restaurant was totally empty the entire time I stood at the counter and sat down and ate.
A major problem for Subway is that you see who is making your food. One bad interaction will turn a customer away forever. And Subway has A LOT of disgruntled workers and owners. I stopped going to Subway over ten years ago because of the bad attitudes and food quality. My final straw was when I tried to use a coupon. The franchise owner (who also worked a lot of the assembly) told me that those are "corporate" coupons and our system isn't set up for them. It was clear back then that the franchise owners held a special disdain for corporate.
You know how you sort of tell them what veggies you want as they add them, instead of listing 10 different things for them to remember? This one guy would not start assembling the sandwich unless I told him everything all at once. Then he kept forgetting things halfway through and had to ask a bunch of questions 🤦♂️ Why do people have to be so weird?
One location near me has a similar issue with those coupons. They'll accept any coupon except for the "Buy one get one free" coupons.
Yeah, this guy working at the Subway by my house got me to not want to go anymore. And since then I have hardly gone to Subway at all, maybe once or twice in over 3 years. Any Subway, not just this one with the bad employee. I dont think he works there anymore, but still that one bad experience of him smashing my bread flat as he was making my sandwich was enough for me not tow ant to go there again.
those ones drive me crazy, and im the type of person that says "and this is why i only like to do 2-3 at a time sir"@@Omni0404
This "coupon problem" can't be overstated. The only thing worse than steadily increasing prices is when the price suddenly jumps when you're at the register because they don't accept the coupon you got in email, app, mail.
I used to do the "BOGO" deals but when I couldn't predict which places would accept them, I gave up.
Online/app ordering was always erratic, too, since the app would report ingredients out of stock, but the location would be completely out of something else so they couldn't make your sandwich anyway. COVID got people used to ordering and picking up, and that broke with inconsistent supply info.
I worked for Subway during what I'd consider their peak years - 2007-2013. During the financial crisis and recession of the late 2000s, subway excelled not just because of the $5 footlong campaign, but because the economy was in a slump and people were looking to save money by going to Subway instead of more expensive restaurants. It wasn't long before it was cheaper to get a whole meal at Subway than at McDonalds, and the food was higher quality than a regular 'fast food' chain, and more in competition with pizza places and delis.
The method of franchising is different compared to other restaurants. Here in the northeast USA, Dunkin Donuts is the largest franchised chain, and subway cost significantly less to open than a Dunkin. However, Dunkin has franchise territory rules, meaning that all franchise owners have dedicated areas, and any new stores opened in those areas will always be owned by the same franchisee, meaning that two dunkins in the same area are cooperating with one another, not competing. Subway didn't have this rule, and so the biggest competitors to our Subway store weren't other restaurants, but were the other subways a couple miles up and down the same road in either direction, owned by different franchisees and fighting for dominance over the area. They even fought over employees, where an employee could jump ship to the competing store down the road if things weren't going well for them.
Subways were also tied, at least around here, to suburban shopping and mall culture. if they weren't in a mall, they were often across the road or nearby, or in a major shopping center. As shopping moves online and retail sales decline while retail location rent increases, subways have a harder and harder time getting the foot traffic they need to stay profitable. Subway isn't the sort of restaurant that someone will drive 15-20 minutes to go to as a destination, it's the sort of restaurant you stop at on your way somewhere else, or go to on your 30 minute work break, because it's cheap and conveniently located, but if the locations are less desirable because less people are out shopping there, or less people work in the stores in the area, then less people are going to visit a subway there.
Finally, I think the biggest long term issues for the brand are the price changes. I'm sure they're unavoidable, but the recent campaigns have all been redesigns that seemed to be ways of disguising the fact that they were raising prices a LOT. Launching all new 'premium' sandwiches or a new menu is just a way of pushing something more expensive in place of cheaper options. We all know food prices are more expensive, but Subway was dependent on the idea of getting good food cheaper than competitors, and that's just no longer the case. Their brand was so heavily built on affordability that moving away from that loses a ton of business, especially when there are a lot of other restaurants either providing meals at a fraction of the cost, or providing better food in the same price range.
That is the biggest reason I dont go to them anymore. Except on rare occasion. They were affordable. Now they are not. And for those times I am really craving a Sub, I go somewhere else with far better quality, even if it is a little more, but usually the same price and it tastes better for the most part.
Nawl cap, Jared Fogle Cost these situations. U know what he did, smh 🤦
Great comment. Could not agree more.
Franchisees are also a huge problem
Those were not their peak years!!! It was definitely the 90s.
I went to a Subway sandwich shop once in year 1992 - and never went back. I tried to get an Italian sub and got one with a bunch of lettuce, but meat and provolone was solar sail thin and tomato slices thin as a solid quarter. Oh, and 6 drops of Italian dressing. I swear, the meat ans cheese slicer machines had to have been designed by either Lockheed Martin or Siemens, two companies capable of such precision slicing machines.
I haven't been there in a while, and I'm real keen on making it another while!
Another issue not mentioned here is Subway locations not accepting coupons. A lot of Subways are franchisees. So when I get a coupon in the mail from subway and I take it to the store, more times than not I'll be told that Subway isn't accepting the coupon. Which is annoying from a customer perspective.
Isn't franchising where you have to abide by the rules of the parent company? Meaning, if Subway is printing tickets and sending them out in annoying sale papers and whatnot, would that not constitute a rule of the parent company? I mean, I could see if individual franchisers issued the coupons, and they were marked as such. But they're not. I don't get that, at all.
That's what happened to Quiznos as well
I just went there last week since i recently got a coupon from them and i haven't eaten there in 10 years, excited to try subway again using the coupon and was told that i couldn't use the coupon since they don't accept it and feeling embarrassed i end up buying 15 dollar sub anyway and was so disappointed. Why even bother giving me the coupon!
@@bleachhollow14that’s why I always order first. They make the sub and if they don’t like my coupon I’m out !
Yeah my local subway never honors anything. They're also the only subway near me that didn't change their hours at all during covid. Must be a terrible location to work at
The bread quality has massively decreased over the last 20 years. I remember being able to get a foot long wheat sub and it was beautiful dark brown and actually tasted like bread. It was back when the wall design had the wallpaper subway motif going on.
If you have a Wegmans near you, their subs are basically what Subway was 20 years ago. Actual bread not pumped full of filler and preservatives & generous meat portions. All for WAY more reasonable prices.
Who goes to subways for the wall paper
Yes turns out being forced to pay unskilled labor $20+ an hour slowly ruins everything economically
Good thing the border isn't being flooded with even more unskilled labor
Subways decline because everyone begin to realise you can make your own exact sandwich for 10-20x less price.
Dunno which country it was - denmark, ireland? - they made subway classify their bread as cake due to the amount of sugar contained
In 2017, there were 4 subway shops within 2 miles of my house. Now, many items I liked are usually out! 😢
Subway died for me when i discovered jersey Mike's. However, due to the current inflation and lack of cheap fast dining options, i started frequenting subway again because of the awesome coupons. You can literally get 3 foot long subs for $20. However, if their coupons go away, so do i.
I'm the same when it comes to the SUBWAY coupons. Once I cut out the coupons that I want which are:
1) BUY ONE, GET ONE
2) MAKE A FOOTLONG SUB w/FREE COMBO
3) 3 FOOTLONGS FOR $20
I then show my sister the coupons, who I care about more than anything/anyone in the world, and I tell her that "The SUBWAY coupons have arrived in the mail & they have your name on it. So anytime you are hungry for SUBWAY, just let me know, and I'll purchase it for you." Now of course, coupons or not, if my sister ever wants SUBWAY, I'm happy to buy it for her, as it makes me happy to see my sister happy.
I worked there for almost 10 years including through the pandemic. I'm amazed they have hung on this long. I've not seen a company more consistently shoot itself in the foot over and over again like Subway does. 🤦
Have you met game stop?
@@gangifreek17 hahaha touche!
Government restriction*, not pandemic.
@@AwesomeHairo agreed. You understand my point tho.
@@AwesomeHairo Ok, Fox News puppet
Subway also has a huge problem with coupons and franchisee relations. Corporate prints and circulates the coupons, but most locations near me dont accept them, or only accept them for basic sandwiches.
From what ive heard, subway does not reimburse franchisees when a customer uses a coupon. Corporate is literally printing promises that its franchisees cant afford to honor!
Normal for a lot of franchise companies, the franchisees lose on margin, while head office gets the same money.
THs are hella greedy lol its the same at dunkin
That's why you order first and give the coupon at checkout. If they don't accept it, just leave.
I’ve heard that there is also no system in place for a franchise to verify a coupon’s authenticity. Like most coupons will have a code or something that can be scanned by the register. So there is literally nothing from stopping someone from opening up Photoshop and making a bunch of fake Subway coupons
@@mattjw16 with the app you can consistently reuse the coupon over and over. So really no need to make a bunch of fake coupons. I use the 8.99 footlong meal weekly so its not really a issue
I feel like it's usually one of those things where you eat there cause it's there. Like it's in the same plaza you're shopping in, or it's across the street from where you work, or it's within walking distance. It's not one of those things where you're like "I have a craving for subway" or "I want to go to subway" because you can just make that stuff at home yourself pretty easily.
While it definitely depends on the region, I feel like improved competition is a big factor as well. We have 2 Subway locations in my town but with a bunch of really good delis and a Jersey Mike's, i honestly can't remember the past time i stepped foot in either Subway
Subway by me is usually pretty good, it's just if I'm going to spend $15 on a sandwich and a soda I might as well go to a local deli or just get something else. In my opinion the prices just got completely out of control. They also didn't change with the times, we have so many tasty options now like Chick-Fil-A, all the newer burger chains, etc.. They need new menu items.
In the uk, they’ve been pushing new menu items. Crinkle fries, nacho chicken bites. They’re always barely warm and disappointing. It’s shit
@@fluffyaf9285 Sorry to read that. If a fast food restaurant chain is going to introduce new items, they should be stellar tasting items that draw customers back again and again.
Looking at £10 ($12.50+) for a footlong now. I literally had a fresh pizza this afternoon at a sit down authentic Italian restaurant for less than that.
If I do want a sandwich there's an independent sandwhich shop where I can get a bacon, sausage, egg and mushroom sandwich on a sub for £5.50 (which has more staff than the subway btw)
So basically they're using inflation as an excuse to put up their prices to wildly above inflation levels and they're crying that they're not making enough money.
I own an electric griddle and live within walking distance of a supermarket.
If I want a breakfast sandwich, I'll make it myself, cheaper and with better ingredients than any fast food place. In fact, I usually do exactly that as a Sunday morning pre-football ritual (living on the West Coast as a Patriots fan means the game's usually on at 10 AM), and it's delicious.
It's not even all that much extra work; the grease trap on mine is dishwasher-safe and the surface is nonstick. Cleanup's easy.
You are very fortunate in the UK to have such prices, but I know you're experiencing economic hardships in your country so maybe it's not fair to call you fortunate. I live in the USA in New England and I cannot buy a pizza at an authentic sit-down Italian restaurant for under $17 U.S. However, I get your point; Subway is WAY OVER-PRICED compared to the competition. I can get a lard chicken parmesan or even meatball or Italian cold-cut sub with a large order of fries (chips to you folks) and a 20 oz coke or other soft drink for $10 plus local tax, under $10.75 from a small but growing local chain take-out restaurant in my area. Tastes wonderful, choice of types of fries (chips). Subway is top-heavy managed and simply too expensive for most of the cost-conscious fast food buying public nowadays.
I like your show. Nobody does this kind of interesting background. Good job
I'd say Company Man's channel does a excellent job of toeing the line when it comes to too little or too much information. You could find more information elsewhere on the history of Subway for example, but you might not find the growth being attributed to the timing of the 5$ campaign in the U.S, just a focus on the campaign itself. There's a certain sensitivity he is willing to take to discussions and that helps the narrative when a story is about the failing of a brand because of specific factors, or a story that impacts a group of people (such as a scam/embezzlement) that otherwise did their job. I dunno what else to say without bloating this reply of mine, but overall I feel really comfortable with the layout/conveyance of topics in his videos I don't find elsewhere! I agree with you John!
Such a nice comment. Really appreciate it.
@@companyman114Of course man, we wanted to declare how much we appreciate what you do in the field! Have a good day/night
I was very impressed last time i got subway, got 2 x turkey footlong meal deals for £18 and were lovely tasting - love the extra seasoning can get now
did you like the x3 cost
I just went to a subway for the first time in years. I was shocked by how high the prices went up. Last time I went in 2017, a chicken teriyaki foot-long cost about $8. Now it’s around $15. That’s what you pay at Jersey Mike’s. So I’d rather go there instead to get a better tasting sub.
My favorite subway scandal was the "Their bread is actually cake" thing.
It had something to do with how Ireland classified bread by its sugar content or something.
Anyway, that was really funny imo
There change in bread is the reason i don't go there anymore. The bread use to be incredible, literally melted in your mouth. Now its dry and flavorless.
@@amd1273That's just your opinion, the bread is still delicious!
They had a subway inside of a convenience store at the college I want to, the smell of their bread cooking made me want to throw up every time.
that definitely turned a lot of irish people off subway as we have a lot of better and heathier alternatives. not sure if that whole “scandal” made much of an impact in other counties
@@notanindianscammer7594 that's your opinion also
Merci beaucoup pour l'histoire de Subway❤❤❤❤❤😊❤❤❤❤❤
Millions of blessings,
Esther St Juste
I worked at subway in the late 80’s and my only comment is that we sliced everything, even the lettuce, by hand back then. I still believe getting rid of the slicers was the first downfall. Good video.
I don’t wanna pay $15 bucks for a sandwich being made by someone who actively hates me 😂
I don't understand how y'all are paying $15... wtf are you getting there? I paid less than $10 for a turkey footlong just last week. I constantly get coupons in the mail for $6 any footlong.
@@nahor88 You literally just answered your own question.. When coupon not used, sandwhich much more expensive.
@@nahor88on average when I go there , I pay about 13 dollars for a tuna sub or rotisserie chicken sub
@@nahor88 because before it was a 5 flat dollars. Now there is a bunch of up charges. It's insane.
I love being asked to tip my "sandwich artist" that's already making $15/hr to slap meat and cheese on a piece of bread.
When companies like this start to slide financially, they start a) raising prices, b) decreasing portions, c) degrading product quality, or some combination of the three. They do it little by little, and hope their loyal customers will stick with them, even though they are the ones getting screwed..
Quiznos went down this path fast.
The last time I went to a Subway was between 2018-2019, that's when I noticed the selection of sandwiches started going down. They were still decent in terms of quality around that time, after 2020 I noticed a number of their locations closed down. Luckily, I have a Jimmy Johns, Jersey Mikes, and Firehouse Subs near me if I am in the mood for a sandwich.
First time I walked into a Jersey Mikes was the last time I ever thought about going to subway.
There is a Subway in my local walmart. They always seem to be burning the herb and cheese bread. The smell of burning bread is a massive turn-off. For shopping too. When I worked the candy store at a local mall in the 90s, we made fresh popcorn every hour, not because we sold that much popcorn, but because the smell of popcorn would draw in snackers. The most important rule was DON'T BURN THE POPCORN!
Actually, I prefer Subway’s smell over candy store’s artificial chemical smell, especially the plastic popcorn smell.
Sales have tanked at our local Subway. Several months ago they programed their POS card readers to suggest the amount of tip to include. Now if you select 00 (zero or no tip) it stops the sale and refused to process the transaction. They've lost a LOT of sales over this with many people walking out without their sandwich that was already made. It's left a bad taste in the mouths of a people in this small (2400 population) town. The Gas Station/Mini Mart that the Subway is in is just waiting for the lease to run out so they can kick them out.
i used to work there, and it was corprets disition to add tips, Problably to help workers come in at all...) But you can Skip the tip and the sale goes thoough fine. Alot of times i'd just hit the skip button if they were confused.. But will say they do make the Skip button harder to see which should't be the case and causes confusion.
@@sawakochan3You need to go back and work there. You don't even know how to spell "decision".
@@sawakochan3 Ouch. The word is "Corporate."
The subway I go to, which is also sharing a building with a gas station, has had a suggested tip screen on the card reader for years now. I can just press skip and it's fine, the button is very noticeable. It's just awkward to press no tip right in front of the person that made my sandwich, but then again, that's their whole damn job description!
This is everywhere now. Every transaction you make in person either asks if you want to tip or donate to something. The whole tipping culture needs to be done away with.
Our Tuesday men's lunch group used to go to Subway every 4 to 6 weeks. About 2 years ago, we found Jersey Mikes (admittedly further away) and haven't been back to Subway as a group since. 'Nuff said.
#5 should be Stale Bread instead of Stale Brand when you talk about a store near my office in Dallas. If I go I go a couple miles down the road to a different location because the one down the street always has crap bread.
The core of their business model is lunch. They rose to prominence by offering a fast, affordable lunch option. The moment they lost focus on those two key attributes is the moment their business trajectory went downward. And the reason that happened is that franchisees got cheap and started understaffing restaurants (no such thing as fast when only 1 or maybe 2 people are working in the shop). And we all know their prices have increased well beyond what one might consider an affordable lunch option. Nowadays, if they ate Subway for lunch every day, most workers would go broke.
i pass by 2 subways every day for lunch. there is never anyone in there. they dont accept and coupons. i would be deathly scared to go there. how long do they keep the meat and cheese out? until they sell it? no thanks.
Used to have a Subway by my house and one day I just realised the prices were absolutely insane for what I was getting and never walked into a Subway ever again. I mean, Firehouse Subs is expensive too but they put brisket on a sub and mine had a massive counter with like 50 different hot sauces that you could fill cups from for free. That's worth it to me.
Firehouse Subs is the go-to for hot subs. For cold subs, I prefer Jersey Mike's, Ike's, or Jimmy John's. I think that's the issue: Subway might have more stores, but I'd never choose them over anything else.
the town i live in had 2 subways within 1 minute of eachother. one was in a walmart and the other was on the same street on the other side of the intersection the walmart was on in another shopping center
I'm on a subway kick, It's nostalgic to me I'm a 30 year old female, I really don't need to lose weight I weigh 135lbs, but my brother got me into back when we were kids/teens, he was a swimmer, and his main thing was Subway and Propel. It got me to copy him. At that time nothing beat the 5 dollar foot long, granted I only ate half for lunch and half for dinner. I never ate a full one in one sitting.
So a week ago, I got a bunch of Subway coupons and pretty much have ate subway for a week. I don't really crave anything else, I get full and satisfied and I don't think my weight has changed, but it brings back those memories of great times as a teen and it's my favorite fast food place.
I don't know why people bash it. When other fast food is just as much and even worse for you.
I've been a shift lead at a subway for the past 4 years. The brand is just failing hard. Management changes processes and systems so often that it overwhelms the customers and the employees, and leaves everyone confused. In the past 2 years we've been through 3 iterations of a rewards program, which has scared away regulars who had been coming to the stores for the past 10+ years. The new "pre-built" menu stuff they have is a massive headache because they now are trying to phase in the idea that customization isn't possible for those items, much to the customers dissatisfaction. The quality of all ingredients has cheapened massively as we've swapped to poorer quality sources and adding in the slicers was a massive waste of time and productivity, nearly doubling the length of time required to complete food prep daily and causing more stress as theres less time to focus on customers. It's really a shame
If Subway eliminates customization, then that's it for me.
Get out whilst you can brah
4 years?!? You need to get out of there
Customization isn't possible...when you can go to literally any other fast food place and get exactly what you want. The fact that they think that's a good business model shows me just how fucked they are.
Good screaming christ, dude, Burger King invented "Have it your way" 50 years ago. It's hardly a new idea.
The Jared scandal really didn't help the brand in my opinion. It's been downhill since then. Subway really built it's brand on the "lose weight" thing despite the fact you had to know what you were doing if you wanted to lose weight eating Subway. Most of the sandwiches have as many calories as McDonalds, especially the footlongs.
I think the biggest problem with subway is how all those food scandals have counteracted their "healthy" image. Consumers have a long memory for hypocrisy, and having an "eat fresh/eat healthy" image doesn't work well when you constantly have scandals about high fat, salt, and sugar and poor quality ingredients
Dont forget the impact Jared's arrest had on the brand.
I think it might be safe to say they sealed their fate, may they rest in hell next to Jared fogle
Subway isn't as healthy as people think. Calories are quite high so it's not really that much better than other fast food restaurants.
A few things I've noticed apart from the increase in price since I started eating at Subway in the 1980s:
- The meats tasted fresher then versus now; I've had a couple sandwiches recently that tasted borderline rancid, which makes me not want to eat there.
- Staff was more friendly then versus now, and the employees were called sandwich artists; this may be a generational shift where many recent stores I've eaten at are staffed by either glum unfriendly immigrants or morose, disaffected teenagers who'd rather be anywhere else than doing their job.
- The bread isn't as fresh as it used to be, and the sandwiches are made more sloppily; they used to cut a v-shape in the bread so the contents would stay in the sandwich better, but now they cut the bread in half and the contents tend to fall out or get sloppy.
- There's often a long wait now versus then; with online orders and only one or two employees working, it can take 20-40 minutes just to get a sandwich.
- Lastly the presentation has declined; they used to neatly wrap the neatly-made sandwich in paper, then wrap that in several large Subway-branded napkins, then put that in a plastic bag, whereas now they use generic napkins you have to ask for or get yourself from a dispenser, and half the time you have to ask for the paper bag too. It's just annoying.
In the city that a live (in mexico) there was a subway like 10 years ago that people refused to eat at because it was asociated with fast food and not being clean nor healthy
First off, I've been waiting for this video. As a person who worked at corporate post-Deluca, the impression I also got was that Deluca was stubborn and refused to really take any large risks. Working in IT, he wouldn't look at spending much to improve technological inprovements or growth. It definitely reflected in other departments as well.
When Chidsey got hired, there was quick speculation about being bought out, depsite his adamant claims otherwise. Massive layoffs occured (including myself) and about a year and a half later they did sell.
While I personally gained solid work experience while there, some of the 'family business' mentality really hurt progress and quality workers. People often joke about "we're family here" as a red flag, but it definitely showed, especially the last 10 years.
I stopped going to Subway when the prices more than doubled in a short amount of time. I tried it recently after a few years of avoiding them and I was met with a new and confusing menu that didn't have any of the things I was familiar with. I had to sit there like a chump trying to figure out what was going on and I randomly picked something I was unsure of because I didn't know what else to do. When I finally got my sub the bread was hard and it tasted just as disappointing as I remember. A new menu with all the old high prices and low quality as before - what a concept! It's a good thing corporate is offering equity and bonuses now so all the people at the top can opt in and cash out on a dying brand.
I liked the Seafood and Salad Blend sandwich, but they don't sell it anymore at least not in the L A area. When I do go to a Subway I get the foot long Turkey on wheat sandwich, but the prices have risen to the point where I now mostly buy lower priced sandwiches that I pick up at the supermarket.
Used to love the any $5 for lunch. Chain in on a fast roller coaster downhill
I worked at Subway as a manager and part time assistant manager for 13 years, and I would agree with your reasons here. Some of the controversies were just dumb since the bread we baked sometimes were shorter than other pieces so yes sometimes they weren't exactly a foot long. Also, the Tuna scandal was dumb, we used large cans of a tuna and mayonnaise and that was all that was in the Tuna.
i like subway -- but hate the owner operator's --- they are mostly indian and thier cleanliness practices scare me so i avoid them :( but i want one .... subway is not clean the cashier makes your food and doesnt wash thier hands over and over
@@UNIQUEONE-eb8zs sounds like the Subways in Africa. all Indian-owned and cleanliness is very questionable...like cockroaches perusing the vegetables when they open up the glass door. 🤣 still haven't gotten sick though!
I heard the guy who photoed the 11" sub was more like "Look at this, it's an inch short LOL" and not "They're stealing from their customers!"
I don't think the 11" picture was the main problem with the controversy. I think the issue people had a problem with was Subways response to it. Something along the lines of "It's unreasonable to expect an item advertised as 'footlong' to actually be a foot long." I think the whole issue would have gone away if Subway made a statement similar to yours. Just say "Hey, thanks for pointing this out. Due to variances in preparation, the bread doesn't always reach the 12" mark, but rest assured, you are still getting the same amount of bread/sandwich."
I think Subways responses, or lack thereof, are at the core of their negative perceptions that they've garnered.
Did you ever meet Jarod Fogle?
Another problem for Subway is that many competitors sprung up (Jimmy John's, Jersey Mike's, etc) that used to be a quality vs price tradeoff. Over the years, that price gap has shrunk while the quality gap remains almost the same.
The competition sells a much better sandwich at a similar price point. I haven't been to a Subway in 8 years and never plan to go back.
Jimmy johns is worse than subway, worst sandwhiches ever.
I'm now a Jimmy John's fan after one opened up near my work.
Yeah, Jersey Mike's especially has really made an impact. About the same price, but just better. Jersey Mike's also gets a lot of business from catering, especially for big office parties, that I've not seen Subway do as much.
In the small town I live in Washington State We have three subway stores. It's kind of crazy!
I used to go to subway multiple times a week for YEARS! I got the same things every time I went because I'm that kind of person. They got rid of the southwest sauce and replaced it with Baja sauce and I never went back again
The Subway down the street from me was closed nearly 2 years ago by the Health Department. Subway is so poorly run it's still sitting there locked up and listed as "temporarily" closed. No secret why they failed: brought in a bunch of bad franchisees and corporate skimped on food quality to the point that no one even trusts their products to be what they say they are.
I have to say their height in 2008 was a big deal for me and my family. It was one of the few places we could afford to "go out" for a lunch or dinner. A sub chips and drink for around $7 per person was pretty nice for families as much as anyone else who wanted to get a decent meal for under $10.
It costs between $80-$100 CDN for my family of 4 to eat out at Subway.
For comparison, I can go to my local Chinese food restaurant and get a takeout dinner for four that feeds us both a dinner and leftovers for lunch for $70.
It baffles me sometimes that people talk about needing cheap value for their family and are eating out. Cook at home, people. Or at least learn to, saves money and tastes better
@@7secondhero842weird ass comment
Kids are enjoying eating out so good parents always tries to take them out even if they dont have money for it
It just baffles me
@@7secondhero842 I don't think you've eaten at a lot of peoples homes. I've had some terrible experiences !😝😜😛
@@7secondhero842 It baffles me that you think because they mentioned that they wanted to eat out that you assume they don’t also cook at home??? It’s incredibly classist because you are implying that being in a financially difficult situation means you are not allowed to want to experience eating out every now and then, especially if you can have that as an affordable experience. It’s really sad that wanting to give your family (or even just yourself) a treat like a lunch/dinner out is something you think you are only allowed to do if you are doing well financially (something that, in the USA, often depends on luck with who you were born to and not just merit or “hard work”)
I once lived in the UAE for about 6 months. Subway was very popular along with McDonalds, KFC, and Hardees of all things.
I’m gonna preface by saying that I worked at Subway for 6.5 years (From 2017 to 2023). I can understand Subway was getting stale, but the direction they are going is objectively worse.
They are alienating their consumers by going the “recipe” route, because Subway’s redeeming quality that differenciates it from other fast food chain is about being able to make your own sandwich by picking your ingredients.
The new Subway Series is an excuse to scam their customers by selling them extras like bacon and cheese disguised as new subs, without any actual discount (do the math, you can make the exact same sub with the same ingredients for the same price with *make your own sub* )
They did the good old “We changed, come back” promotion last year, just like your abusive ex who promised he has changed and begs you to come back, but then you discover its all the same BS.
I really don’t like the way Subway is steering their business, even if business is “better”, I think they’ll def destroy their reputation and lose all their customers the way they are going.
Despite them going the "recipe route", I still always order my own personal preference sub, rather than going off the menu. I still like Subway and still occasionally get it for lunch. But I'm disappointed that they got rid of the Sweet Onion sauce (the Sweet Onion Teriyaki sauce just isn't the same) and the "seafood and crab' mix. That was my favorite thing at Subway that I would not only get in a sandwich, but on salads. I can honestly say that them getting rid of the seafood and crab (yes, I know, it was imitation crab, but I still loved it) as well as the Sweet Onion sauce (they literally could have bottled and sold that stuff because it was so damn good) has cut my Subway visits nearly in half.
@@brackish2386 I liked it. *shrug*
@@brackish2386 I dunno what they added to the menu in the USA since i'm based in Canada, but they did add a few ingredients to the menu here, which is always a good thing. except that some of those ingredients (fresh mozarella, pesto, capicollo, and brisket BBQ) are just crazy expansive for what they are.
One pricy ingredient and filler - that’s the recipe
Even before founder Fred DeLuca died, Subway was becoming stale to me. This new 2021 ad campaign doesn't matter, and can't hide the fact their sandwiches are more blah vs. other chains(like Jersey Mike's) and mom and pop sandwich places.
The final straw for me is that Subway has decided to put a metal cover over on the glass lid on their meat section. It happened just a couple weeks ago and they're soon going to literally cover the entire assembly view so you wouldn't know if that person is cross contaminating the food or something.
This is ridiculous on top of their recent price increase, and their smaller portions, it's no longer justifiable to simply go there for a "foot-long" and pay over $10 for it!
Yeah, my local Subway did that, too. From what I understand, the owner didn’t want to do it, but was made to do so by corporate. The day it was installed, a deaf guy came in and was disappointed that he wasn’t able to point to what he wanted.
I thought that was just a stupid local thing. First it was the dumb ads in front of it, now metal. 😂
I wondered as well…
They did it at ours too. Half the time me and my buddies would decide what we wanted on the sandwich while there. How the fuck am I meant to put together the custom sandwich that YOU ADVERTISED when you _hide the options_ from your customers? My only haphazard guess as to why is that so you have less chance to complain about them putting a pittance amount on the damn sandwich.
Anyway, the first day we went and they had that damn screen put up, we decided to speak with our wallets and haven't ate there since.
Omg the same thing happened to the subway I always went to! I was mad because, how the heck am I supposed to know that what I'm ordering is correct? Also, this can be a major constraint for new customers.
I went into a newly opened UK subway a couple months ago around 12:30. After waiting behind one person in the queue for over 5 minutes finally ordered but was told they hadn't started heating the meatballs yet and would be a 20 minute wait, I asked about a second thing but they'd only make it on flatbread not a sub. Ended up walking out, was just a bit of a shambles with the oldest staff member I could see looking barely 18
I live in a suburb outside of Chicago and all the subways around here are owned by middle eastern people. Me and my family stopped going because not only do the owners and middle eastern workers have the worst attitude towards customers they also have no problem selling you expired bread and meat for 15 bucks a sub, on top of that the subways were always dirty. I haven't had subway in over 5 years and I will never go back.
I'm British so I might have a slightly different take, but I used to be a real advocate consumer of theirs. I went there every day for lunch for about 5 years in my first job. I actually liked that their menu never changed, as there was enough choice to begin with that I quickly found my favourites. What I didn't like was, starting shortly before the pandemic, it seemed like their quality absolutely divebombed. One of their big things was about being 'fresh', and it just didn't seem like it any more. Then, in the intervening years, the price has gone up like crazy. So now you have a less good product that costs more. The nail in the coffin for me was the new menu - it totally goes against the idea of having your sub exactly how you like it (have it your way, to steal a slogan). Yeah you can do 'make your own' now, but they've removed a lot of my favourite ingredients off the menu, and it seems like an afterthought that'll be done away with soon enough.
Yeah, it's the exact same in the US. Went there a year ago and it just wasn't the same. Different menu items, less fresh, more expensive, less customization.
I personally don't like how the new sandwiches have numbers that are all over the place. They aren't listed as 1, 2, 3 like most fast food places. Instead, it's 22, 45, 6 (I guess because of the sports jersey gimmick?), so oftentimes both me and whoever is making the sandwich get confused by what I'm referring to.
Was completely confused at the menu last time I went. Used to go all the time. Haven't been back
Totally agree, subway died for me with the Series menu change - my favourite subs disappeared and whilst I could theoretically create them from scratch, it would cost prohibitively more to do so - and I hate the change of emphasis away from the customisation that used to be the core offering. I’ve boycotted the place ever since with the exception of a couple of visits to spend points I’d built up on my loyalty card, but even spending those has been frustrating as I haven’t been able to get exactly what I want!
I was a former Subway employee, and my easy answer as to why they fell the fuck off is management. I worked at mine for 2 years under an excellent manager who somehow balanced the good of the company with the good of the workers. Also they really cared about the store and the customers that we'd get. Then they decided to leave for a higher paying job, and the replacement that higher managment placed in our store managed to fuck it all up in JUST 3 DAYS!!! Bad sandwiches. Dirty lobby. Withholding of tips. Other shit I don't wanna think about. All it took was 3 days of the new Subway corporate boot-licking Goons to run the location into the ground and for me to leave. I miss working at Subway, but definitely don't miss the upper management
I work at Subway currently and its the 2nd best job ive ever had
@@juandacableman and that's a good thing! I'm happy for you. Hell, I'm extremely nostalgic for my own time with Subway, if my first video on my channel is any sign of that. But yeah, the higher management with the DMs and Franchise owners are what really tank Subway as a whole. I guess my love for Subway is what has me not afraid to shit talk it from time to time.
@@Patrick-nodakthat's the point they might be making in saying that the person they worked for had a way of calimg down the higher-ups while hyping up the worker to put forth their best efforts.this kinda thing is what makes working for someone or some place important to people like a teacher who makes the lessons fun and not just a work sheet with little to no explanation but instead you get the crazy Chem teacher who sets stuff on fire the put the flame out with liquid nitrogen
The cleanliness and smell is terrible now
I'm sorry for your bad experience but that's your store. Not the entire company.
A big issue I’ve seen is that even if u see an ad in tv for a deal because the stores are individually owned, and they’re not making money so they don’t accept the tv deal.
DeLuka got leukemia after eating a lot of Subway sandwiches. Those sandwiches made my blood pressure go up so I never ate very many of them. I never had that reaction to the many burgers and fries I ate.
The fact that there are more Subway than McDonald's locations blew me away. There used to be four Subways near me and now there are none. Meanwhile, there are still three McDonald's near me. Subway just isn't a thing where I live anymore unless you drive for a long while.
In the 90 early 2000 McDonalds was everywhere but the push for healthy food happen and McDonalds got pushed out of places like Walmart and such.
@@MegaDarkness5000nope it costs way more to franchise a MCDs than Subway. Old numbers because Im not that interested to look it up but it was 50k to open a subway and 600k to open a mcds. Funny how the push for healthy food drastically increased obesity in america too 🤷♂️
@@BrianK-zz4fk Not disagreeing with the change to more healthy foods thatwas a good change, it just that McDonalds was in retail stores like Wal-Mart in 90s to early 2000 which switched over to Subway has the years gone by.
@@MegaDarkness5000 so this more healthy move has added to higher rates of obesity got it 😂
The footlongs are between $13-15 which are ridiculously expensive. A few years ago they sent coupons into the mail which made the footlongs $7-8 and the 6 inch $5-6 more affordable. Now the sandwiches are more expensive and they no longer offer any coupons for discounts.
The pricing does not match the quality, that's for sure.
I still get coupons in the mail, including for $6.99 footlongs.
I still get the coupons. None of the Subways I ever go to will accept them. Some even have signs on the door "we do not accept coupons". I just get back in my car and go elsewhere.
I call cap. I get coupons in the mail all the time for subway
We get coupons monthly, you can even use the online code on a physical coupon and also in store. We get the 3 foot longs for 17.99 and 2 foot longs for 12.99 for our family of five on a lazy night using the app and pickup waiting at the door with no angry teenagers to interact with loathing you for coming in.
A couple of years ago, I had a foot-long sandwich, an Italian BMT I believe it was, and a couple of hours later had to poop. Instead of a turd the entire foot-long sandwich was floating in the toilet bowl completely intact. It freaked me out so bad I never went back.
I was a youngster in Subway's heyday and I'll just say that my family wasn't a big fan. I think we were big on pretty healthy home cooked meals in the first place, so on the less common occasions we ate fast food we were just gonna go all out on the "cheat day" we were having and get either burgers or pizza.
I myself had the image of sandwiches being kind of a boring meal you only ate out of convenience until I ended up trying a Potbelly sandwich on a trip, and then later again when a Which Wich opened up in my area. I do eat Subway occasionally, I've never just outright avoided it, but I usually only get it if there's not anything else I particularly want nearby.
My problem with Subway is now they ask for tips while driving the price too high. I ordered two and a half sandwiches and it was $40 and they asked for a tip.. also they messed the order up. I had just enjoyed a very nice meal downtown Nashville with duck, and entrée and dessert for $50 for two. It made Subway feel like a rip off.
Just because they're asking for tips, don't mean you got to give it to them 🤦🏿♂️
After they started asking for Tips I never went back.
@@pp3k3jamailNo one wants to be harassed or deal with the attitude they give when you hit no tip on the machine.
I’ve heard tons of ppl talk about the attitude they get, plus this is a shaming tactic, they know they don’t deserve a tip for this low skill low effort job. But if you make someone have to hit no tip in front of workers it is an attempt to shame you into leaving one.
@@ThePhilippinePipeDream Aint no one shaming yo ass for not tipping they do not GAF
@@ThePhilippinePipeDream dude what are you talking about I go into Subway get my sandwich, then I put my card in the pay machine and then it says if I want to give them a tip or not they don't give you no attitude what type of Subway you go to bruh?
I am a current subway employee of almost a year and here’s what I have to say
Keep in mind My subway is part of a large franchise of 16 subways so some things may be specific to that.
The prices vary widely from location to location. I work at a subway in a rich suburban area and our prices are about 15-16 per footlong but you can drive 5 miles down the road and go to a different subway (different owners) and get a footlong for 13-14 I have had countless people literally walk out and leave there sandwiches after I told the the price, usually low to mid 40s for 3 subs
Also, subway is trying to completely shift to a more traditional ordering style where you order, and then wait for it to be done. We even have specific training to ask someone what they want and then ask them to meet us at the register. And this is why they are shifting to the “subway series” where the sandwiches are completely made with meats, cheese, veggies, and sauce. That way there is no ordering each individual item you want. Also, just a few weeks ago they put up a big metal cover over the meats so the customer cannot see us making their sandwich at all until we get to the veggies. I assume this was all done to cut down on wait times which can get bad sometimes up to 15 min.
Earlier this year (I think around April) they made a change to the menu where now every single sandwich comes with extra (2x) cheese which of course allowed them to charge more because, don’t be fooled, the sandwiches on the subway series are the exact same price as if you were to do a build your own with the same ingredients.
I have seen many people in the comments complaining about the bread quality and I would like to point out that that is very specific to the location and as far as I can tell there hasn’t been a change to the way our bread has been made. Since we make the bread ourselves, we make mistakes. Sometimes we under or over proof it, sometimes we can burn or under cook it, sometimes the night crew doesn’t pull the bread dough out of the freezer meaning the opener (one person by the way) has to just make it with frozen bread which leaded to really flakey and bad bread. Trust me, especially when you hire mostly high schoolers and teenagers they are going to make mistakes. And when we have to throw away bread that is more than one day old, we just have to use whatever bread we have because without bread we don’t have a menu.
But do they explain WHY they move to this new business model? And why the metal cover??
I noticed the 2x cheese thing last time I went and I thought they were just ripping me off. I mean they were, but I didn't know it was a corporate decision, good to know. I don't think this business model is going to work for them. Cheep and ok was kinda the sweet spot for me.
The bread is fine. I use the coupons that they send out in the mailer every week and get my foot-longs for $8.95. It's not a bad deal. But I still don't understand why they put the metal cover over the meat and cheese section. What's going on back there? What is it that they don't want us to see?
[ CORRECTION: The coupon gets a foot-long for only $6.99. It's a great deal. I can't imagine paying $15 or $20 as some people in the comments are claiming. That's crazy! ]
I one time ordered a roast beef sandwich, instead of roast beef they put a mouse in the bun. I wouldn’t have noticed but when I took my first bite the mouse scampered out of my mouth. Now when I go there, after I order I remind them to hold the mouse.
My local subway is always busy at lunch , endless Uber eats orders coming through as well
My hometown had an anti-franchise restaurant law, so the only fast food restaurant we had for a long time was a single McDonald’s, which had been built before the law. Then in 2003 or 2004, we finally got a Subway, and that was so cool to all of us middle schoolers. They managed to skirt the anti-franchise law by being located in an enclosed shopping plaza, so it technically didn’t count. They must have been really determined to get those locations!
Where did you live, Bomont, the town from Footloose?
What kind of town is THIS you lived in?!
I believe his story. In Marble Falls Tx, the EDC just utilized 2 million dollars in tax revenue to buy a piece of property out from under a company that wanted to open a car wash. Since the people at the EDC didnt want a car wash there they out right offered the owners above market value. Its sick the way cities are operating now.
@@JL-sm6cgSounds like the kind of town that cares about its businesses, and by logical extension, the people of the town and the immediate area, as opposed to global megacorps.
@@emilyadams3228 so much so it keeps out companies that maybe people WANT?!
I used to frequent Subway a few short years ago because their food quality and quantity to price ratio hadn't totally deteriorated like a lot of other fast food places. I walked into a Subway a week ago after about a year and a half away and noted the $8-9 six inch sub and $15-16 12 inch sub. I turned around and walked out. I was expecting an increase but like everywhere else, they've priced themselves out of my ballpark. Looks like I'll be doing a lot of eating at home and packing a lunch in the future.
It seems the last bastion of true 1 dollar and value items is Taco Bell...they may win the Franchise War yet
For that price, you can buy all the ingredients to make a better quality sandwiches for a week
Check out your local grocery store. Mine has a lot of prepackaged sandwiches and lunch items for pretty reasonable prices.
Yup. In my country, local supermarket chain has taken over the sub market. They make their own; bread comes from their own bakery inside the stores, as do other ingredients. It's cost-effective and thus the pricing is decent too. Sure you can't customize your own but a whole stuffed baguette for 6 euros? It absolutely draws crowds.
The prices vary widely from location to location. I work at a subway in a rich suburban area and our prices are about 16-17 per footlong but you can drive 5 miles down the road and go to a different subway (different owners) and get a footlong for 13-14 I have had countless people literally walk out and leave there sandwiches after I told the the price, usually mid to high 40s for 3 subs
When Subway did away with roast beef, that’s what hurts Subway
Was there a couple days ago, a single sandwich with no extras, no sides, no drink. It cost me $18 before tip.
as a person from europe, i mainly went to subways with my friends because of their cheap deals. when the 5€ footlong deal ended and prices became much more comparable to other fast food locations like mcdonalds and burger king, we started to have a healthy mix of places we get food at. after the rise in prices and the drop in quality, i only rarely go to subways now.
there was also the court ruling in ireland that subway couldn't label their sandwiches as "bread" anymore, which got considerable news coverage in europe and severely hurt subway's image.
Lmao that's hilarious, Company Man didn't even mention the scandal that alleged that their bread was partially made out of the same material used in yoga mats.
I honestly can't fathom (aside from it just being cheap) why Europeans would like something like Subway. European bread it alone far superior to what Americans call bread. And the sandwich comes from the UK. I'm sure I could easily find a far superior (though a bit more expensive) sandwich in Ireland than anything Subway makes.
@@Sabundylmao Europeans making fun of American bread is hilarious because everytime there is normal bread in the deli and they never ever highlight that lol. Euros are hilarious in their misconception of America
That ruling was such big news it even reached the U.S. According to the ruling, the bread had to be labeled as "cake" because of the sugar content.
@@Sabundy "...to what Americans call bread" Oh, so you're so snooty you won't even acknowledge American bread as such? Give me a break!
I worked at a Subway when I was in college. We were called sandwich artists. It was a good experience. They gave me a one year anniversary pin. I stayed with the job for 3 years.
Stopped going after soccer player lady included in add, but also found stores inconsistent from one to another, some had minimal tuna in the tuna sub, moved on to other places for subs.
Turkey Ham and cheese with mayonaisse, mustard, oil & vinegar, salt & pepper, lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, on toasted Italian herb and cheese bread. YUMMY!
I was just at Subway and now they are hiding all their meats with a steel lid so you can't even see what you may be about to have even when it's opened. And then said they're going to be doing the same with the topping too. Apparently this was a corporate company wide decision. I don't think this is going to go over well with most customers. Everyone knows that when you walk into a Subway you get to see (and even decide in the moment) what you want to have.
As someone who hasn't eaten at Subway in ages but eats burritos all the time, isn't that normal?
No lids makes it more likely flies might land on the food, or that a clumsy prep person might cross contaminate the ingredients.
Don’t spread misinformation, that’s not true. Just had Subway today, everything was open, the meats the veggies..
@@BigDaddyDD Because the change hasn't affected all locations and I never said that it had. I'm telling you what happened when I was there and what I was told by the employees at that particular location. They didn't like it either but they said it was an order by corporate management and that they'll soon be covering the toppings as well so nothing will be visible even when opened. Do I have a reason to lie?
Some locations in KY have the metal lids as well
I’ve been a years long customer of subways. Because of the price hikes I don’t go as much. Also the unsightly awful steel lids is the final nail in their coffin. Before the steel lid they tried covering the food with a dense stick on plastic liner with their their brand and menu items printed on it. I asked about it and they said corporate decision. Subways probably spent millions on these unnecessary steel lids. It will make longtime customers like myself to stop patronizing them. Paying millions to professional athletes to do commercials is not helping either. Use regular people to do your commercials and stop covering the food and subways might keep customers from going elsewhere.