Subway (restaurant)

Subway is the name of a multinational restaurant franchise that mainly sells sandwiches and salads. It was founded in 1965 by Fred De Luca and Peter Buck. The corporate name of Subway is Doctor's Associates, Inc. (DAI). The company has 26,105 franchised sandwich restaurants in 84 countries as of May 8, 2006 and is the fastest growing franchise in the world. This rapidly growing chain added over 2,000 locations in 2005.

Subway's main operations office is in Milford, Connecticut, and five regional centers support Subway's growing international operations. The regional office for Europe's 1,000 stores is in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Australia and New Zealand, with over 1,100 outlets, is supported from Brisbane, Australia. The 300 Middle Eastern locations are supported from Beirut, Lebanon. Singapore supports the 300+ Asian locations. The Latin America support center in Miami assists over 1,100 restaurants.

Many restaurant analysts attribute Subway's fast growth to the growing concern on health by restaurant customers, a trend that Subway has taken advantage of in its marketing. In 1999, an Indiana University student named Jared Fogle lost 245 pounds (110 kg) with a diet made up mostly of Subway sandwiches combined with excercise. The story is used by Subway as a large part of their marketing campaign. Jared has emerged as a spokesman for Subway, furthering their image as a health-conscious restaurant chain.

History

In 1965, Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck opened their first location in Bridgeport, Connecticut as a stand at the University of Bridgeport and named it "Pete's Super Submarines". Soon thereafter the name was changed to "Pete's Subway" and then to "Subway". The chain used the New York City Subway as its decorative motif (old New York City subway maps and skyline views of Manhattan dot their interior wallpaper of most stores from before the late 1990s, when newer stores and remodeled older stores took on a more stylish food environment), and has a sandwich named the BMT after the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit subway line, although in advertising this has been described as "Bigger, Meatier, Tastier." After the success of Subway, Fred De Luca wrote a book titled "Start Small, Finish Big: 15 Key Lessons to Start—and Run—Your Own Successful Business" in 2001. Subway has been voted as #1 franchise in Entrepreneur magazine 14 times as of 2006. - "The SUBWAY® restaurant chain has again been ranked the number one franchise opportunity in Entrepreneur magazine’s 27th Annual “Franchise 500” rankings for an amazing 14th time in 18 years."

Operations

Subway uses the advertising slogan "Eat Fresh" to explain how every sandwich is made on fresh baked bread, using fresh ingredients, in front of the customer to their exact specifications.

In 2000, Subway added seasoned breads and a line of gourmet sauces to its menu. In 2003 Subway switched back from Pepsi products to Coca Cola products. In 2004, Subway gave customers the option to have their sandwiches toasted in response to increased competition from rival sandwich chain Quiznos Sub, which popularized toasted sandwiches.

In addition to traditional restaurants, Subway operates in many non-traditional locations. For instance, there are over 900 Subway locations inside of Wal-Mart stores and 200 on military bases, including several in Iraq, in addition to one located inside The Pentagon.

There is at least one adults only Subway located at Foxwoods Resort & Casino. It is accessible only after entering a gaming area which is restricted to guests 21 and over. In 2006, the first kosher Subway restaurant opened in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.^* Jared, who is Jewish, was in attendance at the opening. This joined at least two Subway restaurants in the United States serving a halal menu.

In addition to its strong positioning as a more health-conscious restaurant, much of Subway's rapid growth can be attributed to its somewhat unique business model. Unlike most franchisors, the parent company does not operate any restaurants. Local franchisees operate the stores, and in most markets Subway enters into a contract with a franchisee to be its Development Agent for that market. The Development Agent is then responsible for developing new locations, evaluating stores on a monthly basis, and assisting franchisees with whatever needs they may have. 8% of sales at each location go to royalties, while 4.5% of sales go into a fund, the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, also known as SFAFT which is operated by a board of directors voted on by Subway Franchisees.

Among lawyers, Subway has become well-known for its aggressiveness in enforcing the arbitration clauses in its franchise agreements. One case even went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court (and the company won). See Doctor's Associates, Inc. v. Casarotto, .

Subway is the corporate sponsor for two NASCAR Nextel Cup series stock car races: the Subway Fresh 500, held at Phoenix International Raceway; and the Subway 500, held at Martinsville Speedway. In addition, Subway is the primary sponsor of the NASCAR Nextel Cup number 16 car, driven by Greg Biffle. Biffle has appeared in advertising for Subway along with his Crew Chief Doug Richert. They also sponsor a pro-cycling team.

The Subway menu

Subway menus vary by store, by country and by state — in Muslim countries omitting ham and other pork coldcuts — but retain core items which are included at every store. The main food sold by the store is Submarine sandwiches. Like other fast-food restaurants they offer limited time offers or LTO from time to time. In addition to their standard menu, Subway also offers catering for all types of occasions. They offer 3ft and 6ft subs while also offering a sandwich platter. These giant sandwiches can be ordered in bulk and to nearly any specification, something in which Subway has promoted as apart of their campaign to personally tailor each and every sandwich to a customer's individual taste.

Sub Club program

For many years, Subway restaurants offered a customer rewards program called the "Sub Club". Customers would receive special stamps with the purchase of a full-sized sandwich, earning one stamp for a six-inch sandwich and two for a foot-long; small cards called "Sub Club Cards" were also provided for customers to paste the stamps onto and keep them collected in an orderly fashion. Originally, stamps were redeemable for a free standard sandwich (charges for extras such as double meat or extra cheese still applied) with no other purchase required--twelve stamps for a free six-inch, and twenty-four stamps for a free foot-long. A Sub Club for kids was also established, with one stamp earned for every children's Value Meal purchased, ultimately earning a free children's meal for eight stamps. Later, the regular Sub Club was altered to eight stamps earning a free six-inch, and sixteen stamps for a free foot-long, with the added condition that a 21 ounce or larger drink must be purchased to redeem the stamps. In 2005, Subway announced that the popular Sub Club customer rewards program would be phased out due to counterfeiting. Another reason, which was not stated by the company, for the discontinuation of the program was that there was a large amount of internal theft of stamps by Subway employees and affiliates, including the sale of rolls of the stamps online at places such as eBay. Customers will also be able to get 40 cents per stamp during a phase-out period which varies by market.

A new program, which was tested in some markets over the past few years will replace the Sub Club program with an electronic swipe card, which will also be able to be used as a gift card. Different markets will have different launch dates, but most markets will be operational by June 1, 2006.

In June 2006, Subway will replace their paper gift certificate program with a plastic electronic swipe card system, although older paper gift certificates will still be honored indefinitely.

In Canada, this included discontinuing the CAA discount.

Criticism

The book Fast Food Nation is critical of Subway's franchising policies. It claims that in the 1990s, Subway was involved in many legal disputes with franchisees, usually over encroachment (overly aggressive expansion, in which two restaurants are so close in location that they end up competing with one another), and high royalties.

The book blames the "Development Agents", who are given the task of growing the company regionally. They are rewarded greatly for profits and punished for losses, so it is claimed that it is in their best interest to saturate markets with Subway restaurants in a region, despite the effect it will have on an individual one. Although this may lead to lower profits per Subway, it leads to overall higher profits in the region, and therefore the entire chain.

Subway is also criticised by health food specialists, who claim that Subway sells 'trick food' and hides the fact that many of its food items contain high levels of calories, fooling customers by the "less than 6 grams of fat" signs commonly shown in ads or in stores worldwide. On their website, Subway.com the group specifies that a diet of Subway food will incur little or no weight loss.Individuals lost weight by exercising and eating a balanced, reduced-calorie diet that included Subway sandwiches with 6 grams of fat or less. Their results are not typical. Your loss, if any, will vary. Subway Restaurants does not endorse the diet Jared created and cautions anyone embarking on a weight-loss plan to consult their physician

Pop culture and Subway

Subway began appearing in movies and television heavily during the mid-1990s.

In the 1989 film Lethal Weapon 2 the characters Martin Riggs (played by Mel Gibson), Roger Murtaugh (played by Danny Glover) and Leo Getz (played by Joe Pesci) go to a Subway drive thru. However Leo is mistakenly given a Tuna sandwich which he does not like to eat. This resulted in Leo going into a tantrum including Leo saying the well known catchphrase "they f*** you at the drive thru".
In the 1993 parody film Hot Shots! Part Deux, a Subway appears in Tibet, from which Richard Crenna's character orders a "pig-snout sandwich". An HBO spoof documentary of the making of the film, A Filmmakers' Apology, also features the restaurant, which director Jim Abrahams supposedly works at while the film's production is shut down. Producer Pat Proft orders a sandwich from him.
In the 1993 Saturday Night Live spin-off film Coneheads, the characters portrayed by Chris Farley and Michelle Burke dine at a Subway, wherein Burke's character, Connie Conehead, appears to eat an entire "footlong" sandwich in four to five bites.
In 1995, Subway teamed up with the producers of the Jim Carrey film When Nature Calls for product placement advertising (a billboard advertising the chain can be seen as Carrey's character drives through Africa). At the time, Subway ads also featured trivia from the movie.
The Adam Sandler comedy film Happy Gilmore, released in 1996, featured Sandler's character Happy Gilmore using his celebrity status as a golfing pro to sell Subway sandwiches. Included in his commercial is the "cold cut combo" sandwich. As compensation for the commercial, Gilmore receives a fictional "free Subway for life" card, allowing him to eat free at any Subway restaurant. In addition, the Gilmore character can be seen with Subway t-shirts and even a Subway sponsored golf bag throughout the film.
The 2002 Mike Myers film Austin Powers in Goldmember saw the character of Fat Bastard lose a great deal of his signature weight after going on the "Subway diet," an obvious parody of that which was undertaken by Jared Fogle.
In the 2005 movie Just Friends, one of the lines by Mr. Palamino (Barry Flatman) says: "How did you lose all that weight? Like that dork from Subway did?" This is a reference to Subway's spokesman Jared Fogle.
Subway has long had a sponsorship deal with World Wrestling Entertainment that continues to this day. In 2002, after the WWE split up its rosters into two brands, the GM's of those two brands at the time (Eric Bischoff for WWE RAW and Stephanie McMahon for WWE SmackDown!) were in a dispute over the one being on each other's show, as well as the show's respective roster during the two brand's free agency period. Upset that Stephanie showed an ad for SmackDown! during a RAW commercial break, Bischoff fired back later that week by appearing in an "ad" for Subway during a commercial break for SmackDown!, with Bischoff saying how much he loves Subway and was eating a sub during the "ad".
Subway has closely associated itself with fitness programs such as The Biggest Loser, and has been one of the program's largest sponsors since its debut in 2004.
In a 2005 episode of Arrested Development Tony Wonder (Ben Stiller) tells Buster Bluth (Tony Hale) and G.O.B. Bluth (Will Arnett) to "Have a free round of drinks courtesy of Tony Wonder." He then produces a half-completed Sub Club card.
Comedian Mitch Hedberg references Subway in a number of stand-up jokes, including one joke about ducks and how they eat for free at Subway.

References

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Subway (restaurant)