From Sandwich Shop to Subway

“Becoming a franchisee is an odd combination of starting your own business and going to work for someone else” (Schlosser 94).In Eric Schlosser’s Non-fiction book, Fast Food Nation, Schlosser reasons that fast food has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, started an obesity epidemic and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. While the idea of a franchiser/ franchisee relationship appears to be nothing but beneficial, it has a serious drawback, which is the release/ acceptance of certain issues out of each party’s control. This, in turn causes other companies to try to develop new ways of forming this relationship. Subway, for example uses “Development Agents” to help ease tensions.

It was founded in Winter Haven, Florida in 1930 by the inspiration of Georges W. Jenkins who was a successful manager at the “Piggly Wiggly Market.” His Dream was to make a difference among other corporations; therefore, Jenkins decided to put together associates and customers’ efforts to help him expand a single store to one of the largest employee-owned grocery chain in the United States of America. Publix’s success is due to its value proposition that makes the store unique, where shopping is always a pleasure, for customers that value high quality in every aspect of the company despite high pricing. In order for Publix to gain and sustain its competitive advantage, the founder captured his employee’s loyalty by giving shares to the early ones in the company. Also, he offered a “Bogo” program on about forty items every week (buy one and get one free). Publix differentiates itself in terms of service, quality and price. (Anders: missing cite

In order to understand how each of these sub shops position their brand it is important to understand the history of the company. Let us start with Jimmy Johns. Jimmy John Liataud started Jimmy John’s in 1983, concentrating not only on developing sandwiches from his own recipe, but also stressing “freaky fast” delivery (History, nd.). This appealed to students in the nearby Eastern Illinois University (History, nd.). Subway, was started by Fred DeLuca with financial help from Dr. Peter Buck, in 1965, as a way to pay from his med school education (Subway, nd.). DeLuca needed to learn the basics of business, as well as the importance of serving well made, high quality products, providing excellent customer service, while keeping operating costs low and finding great locations (Subway, nd.).

The franchise business that I identified is Jimmy John’s Sandwiches. Jimmy John was founded in 1983 by Jimmy John Liautaud in Charleston and is one of the fastest growing franchise is the United States with 2720 units in 43 states and 1,170,866.00 annual sales in 2016. They make fresh sandwiches that can please the masses. From slim sandwich, vegetarian, to a gargantuan sandwich piled with salami, smoked ham, roast beef, capicola, turkey, provolone cheese and vegetables piled high on a fresh homemade French bun.

It has over 290 branches across 15 Southern and Midwestern states. It is a private corporation that is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio; where its first ever branch was opened in 1985 by Jeff Osterfeld. It is said that the idea for an East Coast sub restaurant came to Jeff when he visited Philadelphia and saw the popularity of the cheesesteak sandwich.

Tom needs to take time off of work to spend with his wife and to start a family of his own. 90 hours a week was far too taxing both physically and mentally for him.

The story of the foundation of the first Subway restaurant started in 1965 by the 17-year-old Fred DeLuca who, seeking to earn money for college, decided to take a $1000 loan and opened a submarine sandwich shop that eventually grew into the number-one restaurant chain in the world. The young man was willing to earn some money to have

In 1983, Jimmy John Liautaud perfected his award-winning bread and opened up his first Jimmy John’s restaurant. Jimmy John did not have a lot of money to start out his company and he was even unable to pay for an ice machine in his restaurant. His goal to expand the restaurant was to go around sampling his sandwiches and letting customers know about his cheap prices and that he delivered. This is still something the company is prided on

In 1883 Bernard (Barney) Kroger invested 372 dollars that consisted of his life savings to open the first ‘Kroger’ grocery. That first store, located at 66 Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati, would soon turn into the giant retail chain that consists of nearly 2,500 stores all over the country and most recently produced sales of over 76 billion dollars. Barney Kroger was revolutionary in the formation of the modern grocery, in that he was the first grocer to have his own bakery, as well as selling meat and other groceries all under one roof. Kroger was also the first to manufacture the products that he in turn sold in his own store. This was the beginning of what is today one of the largest food manufacturing companies in America.

According to the company’s website, Panera Bread was founded by Louis Kane and Ron Shaich in 1981 as Au Bon Pain Co., Inc.  Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, the company flourished along the eastern coast of the United States and internationally, eventually becoming a dominant player in the bakery-café market.  In 1993, the company acquired Saint Louis Bread Company, a chain of 20 bakery-cafes located around the St. Louis area.  After a comprehensive re-staging of Saint Louis Bread Co., the company managed to increase average unit volumes by 75 percent and changed the concept’s name to Panera Bread.  By 1997, it was clear that Panera Bread had the potential to be one of the top brands in the nation.  Since then, Panera Bread’s stock has skyrocketed to a current market

I can see how Firehouse Subs portrays the company as a more upscale place to eat than Subway. I personally love Firehouse Subs and I am willing to pay a little more to eat there versus wanting to eat at Subway. The brand could use a little something. The company was formed to be a low-cost franchise and to offer sandwiches at affordable prices (Kosman, 2017). Just this year, Subway has started with their new designs of brighter colors, more up to date furniture, and decluttered the lobby (Whitten, 2017). If the company was founded on affordable prices, then maybe they should just stick to that. Otherwise, they may be like the example in Chapter 5 of “The Miller, His Son, and Their Ass” and end up as they did and lose their ass (Strategic

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report provides an in-depth analysis of the conduct of a market research project exploring customer expectation, satisfaction and behaviour in relation fast food restaurants. Particular attention is paid to Subway restaurants outlining the key strategies needed in order to increase popularity and therefore visitor numbers.

-As a subway franchisee I do not see myself as a business owner but as a member of a team that

Subway Sandwich, as presented in the Case Study presented in the Marketing Management MGT 551 class, is an undisputed market leader in a segment that is “firmly established as a nationwide food item for which there is plenty of room in all areas” (University of Phoenix, 2008). However, with a growing competition, changing consumer trends and increased product specialization, Subway’s real strategic marketing challenge is to be able to develop and maintain a differential advantage while sustaining sales growths and profitability.

The success of Subway started in 1965, when Fred Deluca took an advice from family friend Peter Buck, to open a sandwich shop to earn more money and to pay for his education. The first Subway branch opened in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Their target was to open 32 restaurants in ten years,