everyone complains about the price now but if you order just a 12" meatball marinara its about 10$ its funny because within the last couple of years finding a decent lunch for even 10$ has become almost impossible. so in a way the 10$ footlong has become as good of a deal as the 5$ footlong was 20 years ago.
Had a lunch date at Subway (wasn't my choice, trust me) last year and the meal for two people ended up being close to $40. Ridiculous. The food was basically the same boring stuff they have sold for decades. Not at all worth that cost. Haven't gone back.
@fin59shaw that's all fast food now, unfortunately. People complain about the price but if you're paying full price you're doing it wrong. Every single fast food joint has an app with discounts. I dont fast food much but a couple of times a month I pay 2 bucks instead of 6.39 for a mcgriddle. The non-couponers must be subsidizing the rest of us.
I worked at a Subway in highschool, back in the late 90's. The only thing that we didn't slice fresh, daily, was the Pickles. Now, nothing is prepared fresh... It's all pre-packaged, so they can cut costs, and make more profit. This is how a company dies. They've done it to themselves...
@@minuteman4199 I would assume that. I don't know how much they cut fresh anymore but I'm fairly certain all of their meat is at least sliced in advance. I don't know about veggies because they have a very short shelf life once they're cut. I mean, they have a short life either way but it's significantly shorter once they're cut.
I worked at a subway in the late 90s. Very easy job. Staff cut all the veggies. Meats came in pre sliced. Staff proofed the breads etc. we were always busy. And I mean busy.
They couldn't have predicted Jared being a monster, but all that other stuff is 100% on them. They knew they were selling sandwiches that were too short, that their bread was too sugary, etc.
I'd forgive all that crap if it was still ~$5/footlong, but at their current prices (and arguably declining quality) there's absolutely no reason to ever go there, especially when Jersey Mikes exists Edit to clarify: would forgive _the declining quality and sugary bread, etc_ NOT Jared. He's a monster. Subway likely knew about it for at least a few years before he was arrested too, but they tried to keep him in check anyway instead of just dropping his ass like old garbage (saw a documentary on it, can't remember the title though)
@@mj.ray0898 Jerseey Mike's is even more expensive than Subway. The last time I got a 6" cheesesteak at Jersey Mike's, it was almost $15. *For a six-inch sub* I haven't been back since and don't plan to ever go.
The short bread was only because the employees weren't stretching out the dough longer, so they were really just getting an 11" which was wider than a 12". It was still bad optics, but the store wasn't really shorchanging people with that one.
That should be treated as a modern day extention of slavery and should treated as such. If you do that to employees as a business owner , it should be grounds to forfeit at least 5 years of your life in prison.
@SegmentW what makes it worse is that they did it to single mom's who they knew needed the money, then one finally wasn't going to stand for it and laweyered up. I think they had to pay $400k? It was a while ago.
WE used to have Subway in denmark.. Then the Danish franchise holders got tired of being treated like trash so around a quarter of them came together and created a new company called Sunset which then went on out compete Subway on the Danish market (even buying some Subway locations outright) To the point that Subway pulled out of the Danish market fully :P
Sunset has some great food for sure, their Hereford burgers is always a hit. I got fed up with the European Union so i moved out of EU and my birth country which is the same as yours, i still miss those burgers though.
I'll admit, I used to eat a lot at "Subway" back in the day. It still mystifies me as to how far they have fallen in quality and popularity after all those years in business. It seems to end up lost in the shuffle to other well-known and better quality sandwich shops.
They never had quality. Subway was always that place you went to after the club when they were the closest place to you & you needed something to soak up the alcohol.
They were never particularly good. Perhaps better than they are now, but honestly, they were just a ubiquitous fairly cheap place to eat. There were always BETTER sub shops.
The prices have gotten outrageous! Not to mention every sandwich tastes nearly the same, which coincidentally matches the smell when you walk into the shop.
Prices are the same at all of their competitors who are doing fine. Hell at the Publix where I live lines are long as hell and they cost more. The problem is their food always has tasted like garbage. When I was in college if they weren’t in the dorms and open at 2 in the morning everyone wouldn’t went to the Jimmy John’s across the street, which is what everyone did during the day.
Recall picking up an old classic of mine, Meatball Marinara as a teen (because it was the cheapest and most filling). Cost about $6.00 (one of their cheapest meat subs at the time)! Now that same sub is about $12.00-$14.00. Happily moving onto another sub-themed restaurant. Many thanks for the outstanding video, Weird History Food! Love the channel, btw.
The problem with Subway is their food is nothing special. Anyone could literally make it at home without any special equipment which is actually how they get so many franchisees. The only reason why I would eat it is if I got a really good deal and they conditioned people to expect that deal with $5 footlongs.
Tbh, its very easy to do hamburguers at home aswell. With air fryers its also pretty easy to make fries. The only fast food thats a litle more time consuming is pizzas, specially bc you need to make the dough in advance for it to ferment
This. Hell, yesterday I made my take on the Superspicy Sandwich from Crispin’s test from the Indigo Disk DLC of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Probably better than anything Subway could serve.
I stopped messing with Subway a couple of years ago. Way too expensive, and unless you load up on the veggies, you're eating mostly bread anyway. It's better to go to a local neighborhood deli or restaurant that sells subs rather than a national chain that's always looking to cut costs by giving you less and charging more...
What's wrong with it are the people who work there. Horrific customer service. I don't even feel comfortable walking up and ordering because they're so surly. Makes me wary of eating the food.
I'm not sure if it is the same now as when I worked there over a decade ago, but back then we were not given any breaks. So, most days that I worked, I was standing for 8 hours straight. Combine that with customers hurling insults as well as food and having people threaten to murder me and you can imagine that it wasn't always the easiest situation to maintain a cheerful disposition. I did always try to stay positive, cheerful and provide good service, but you can understand why others who faced similar situations wouldn't always be the most positive.
You saved yourself, then. The descriptions of HOW they made that seafood and crab is pretty disgusting. It's a LOT of mayo. Like gallons. It's possibly the least healthy thing they sold, and that's hard to do at Subway
There's a Subway in our WalMart, ironically next to the store's deli, which I walk past to get fresher vegies, bread and cold cuts than Subway ever serves....and this is WalMart mind you.
One thing missing from their growth here is their franchising cost - a franchisee could open a new Subway for a tenth of the cost of, say, a new McDonalds. It was just SO much cheaper to open up new Subway locations than it was for any fast food chain of a similar size.
6:41 this absolutely did not surprise Subway. Subway knew for a long time of his abuse of children, and remember that he toured several schools to speak at assemblies to children. This is public knowledge so I'm not sure why you would phrase it that way.
I used to eat there often. They were convenient. It seems many of the locations no longer seem convenient. They also seem a whole lot more expensive than back in the day.
It baffles me that Subway is still as successful as they are. First, they were the quality option (They really WERE good in the late 90s/early 2000s). Then they were the cheap option. Now, they're expensive and sub-par. And almost every Subway I know has a place like Firehouse/Jimmy Johns/Jersey Mike's nearby, which either have better food or cheaper prices. Not to mention there's so many Subways around that in some places, they eat into the business of OTHER SUBWAYS...
The customer service is terrible. They changed the recipes and made the The Sweet Onion chicken teriyaki way worse. The serving portions got smaller, and the prices got outrageous. Everything has some kind of very strong chemical taste. Sub is not worth going to across the nation ever.
The current taste of their so-called Sweet Onion Teriyaki (SOT) chicken is barely perceivable from what it once was. I remember when I would bring home a sub or two, while in the car, the strong aroma was quite noticeable, and when I would place it in the fridge to have later on the same day or on the next day or two, it smelled up the fridge BUT in a good kinda way, and then one day, I immediately noticed that the flavor had diminished greatly, and late last year, I got an SOT chicken sub that had zero flavor, making it just a veggie (lettuce + tomatoes) sandwich. UGH! Not food taste-related, the only thing that Subway corporate has done lately that is a positive change for the customers, is listing the Subways that are participating in special deals/discounts that are advertised online/in-the-app only. I remember the sheer frustration when I would try to place an online order, expecting to get the deal that was advertised, only to get a notice that this or that Subway is not participating.
Back in the 80s in Canada when Subway was new I loved their product. Now, like every fast food, the quality isn't there and the value for money isn't there. I rarely go anymore.
Well, I worked there for three months in the 2020s. I think stuff went wrong when they went 'whenever the expiration date is there, just smell the filling, if it smells good, just put a new sticker on it'. Absolutely bonkers.
I attended the same high school that Jared Fogle attended. North Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. Now Jared is remembered as a boss fight in South Park: The Fractured But Whole.
Subway does that on purpose. Now, imagine you are a Subway franchisee. You have invested your life savings into opening your shop. And one day you see out the front window that Subway is opening another franchise across the road. And there's nothing you can do about it. That's exactly what they did and how they grew to so many stores. There isn't demand for that many subs. Of course. But Subway was after the franchise fees paid when a new store opens.
@@LatitudeSkyconversely, McDonalds is very picky about locations. Typically corporate will own the property and rent it to the franchisee. Therefore their balance sheet is HEAVY on real estate, where location is the #1 factor.
@LatitudeSky It's actually far worse. Subway's franchise cost is purposely among the lowest, from $116,000-263,000. McDonald's is 100 times that amount. Profit from their 8% royalty, near highest. Boosting location total without regard to cannibalization was their goal, an executive saying in 1998 "(w)e put them up any f---ing place we could." Franchisees are prohibited from taking Subway to court, can only submit to corporate arbitration. Since 2016 lost 7000 locations, Starbucks just surpassed with most locations.
@@jacobawojtowiczNail on the head! 40% of their income is rent, only a small part of which is adjusted for sales. So over last 10 years revenue is -11%, but profit is +31%, share price +187%.
2:46 I live near this Subway, and it is WILD. It’s a 24 hour Subway, and it’s at the corner of George St, the street with all the bars in the place with the most bars per capita in the world. But it gets better, it’s also adjacent to the only 2 taxi stands in the whole downtown. The only other fast food locations are a burrito spot across the road or a poutine shop a well walk away. Mix all this together and, if you’re a wrestling fan, any given Saturday night at 3AM puts the last last couple of Royal Rumbles to shame.
Subway isn't bad. But it's not great either. I've never had a great sandwich there, and i've also never had a terrible sandwich that I would complain about. It's the prime example of what you would call mediocre food. And i'll buy it when I can get a deal on it. But I don't think it's worth it at full menu price. And there's too much competition to justify the crazy amount of subways that exist. I think there's more subways within 5 miles of me than there is mcdonald's. I'm in a more rural area, there's only one mcdonald's within that range of me, but I think there's 3 subways in that same distance. If i'm in the mood for a good sub, I would take jimmy john's all day. But jimmy john's is pretty expensive, and they rarely run deals or promo codes anymore. So sometimes i'll settle for subway when I can get a 7 dollar footlong. I'm sure that's how a lot of people feel and that's not good for subway as a business.
You consider $7 a good price for a sub when you need to drive 5 miles ? Why ? The ingredients are worth $2 tops, and it takes less time to make it than to drive that distance.
Exactly, It's convenience food. If I'm a road trip or at a mall and get hungry. Sure, I might have subway. But I'm never ever going to go "I sure feel like going out and getting Subway tonight!" It does what you need it to do, nothing more.
@ yeah, the 5 dollar footlong was a better deal. But let's be fair here. Where else can you get a 12 inch sub for 7 dollars, especially one that lets you add so much custom stuff at no extra charge?. Literally everything you buy is more expensive than it was a few years ago with no exceptions. So I dont think it's really fair to single out subway for raising their price by a couple dollars. Jimmy johns doesn't have a foot long, but if you get their "Giant" 16 inch sandwich, it's damn near 20 dollars. Like 17 or 18 bucks. If you do the math, it would still be like 15 if it was 12 inches like subway''s footlong. So yes, it is better but it is more than double the price of subway even after subway raised their price.
@ I also didn't say that subway was 5 miles from me. I said there is 3 within a 5 mile range of me.. Kind of different. The closest one is about 2 miles. Also, driving 5 miles in a rural area is absolutely nothing. You can drive 5 miles from where I live faster than you can drive 1 mile in a crowded city. No red lights, barely any traffic and a 55 mph speed limit. 5 miles will probably take less than 10 minutes to get there.
A big part of the problem is how they treat their franchisees and how they'll flat out screw them over. That on top of crowding markets. I live in Chicago and until a few months ago I had 3 Subways within 8 tenths of a mile of me. And of the two left now, one keeps getting hit with claims they're undercutting how much meat people get while overcharging.
No I don't agree. I heard it was the franchisees complaining about the $5 footlong that made them get rid of it. That's the thing 99% of all customers miss the most about subway. The thing that the franchisees were complaining about. There are petitions online to bring back the $5 footlong menu.
@@shadycnetwork there was a lawsuit out in California about how corporate was screwing over franchisees, including doing stuff like forcing them to sell to other franchisees.
@@Tvaikah Was gonna say that one of the Jersey Mike's near me is so popular that the only way to get it during the lunch rush is to order in advance. Line is out the door.
Subway used to be different back in the 90’s and early 2000’s. The prices where good, the ingredients where tastier and fresher. $5 foot subs where around, it wasn’t bad for the price. Now it’s so expensive and the quality really plummeted. It’s like eating cardboard and artificial veggies and meats. Terrible.
Because the bread they use now is too small for the V cut. They made the sandwiches smaller at the same time they made them more expensive... they could have probably gotten away with one or the other...but both???
Realistically, all the false advertising and actual health related problems are completely valid reasons for their decline, but the Jared thing? The way people will blame Subway as though they were somehow supposed to know this guy inside and out is pretty ridiculous. Other than being a convenient marketing gimmick for them he had literally nothing else to do with Subway, people getting mad at the company over the stupid shit he was getting up to is weird.
Ive been to subway twice in the past 6 months. 2 different stores on opposite sides of new york state ( about 120 miles apart ) both times they didn't have lettuce!!!!
In my area most of the subways didn't survive the pandemic. Those that did are horribly understaffed so service is slow despite the staff clearly doing the best they can. However for me personally I can't stand the new layout of their menu with "Jersey Numbers" as it makes ordering just that more of a hassle instead of having a traditional #1 sandwich, #2 sandwich, etc...
My go to in the early 2000s, I’d go there twice a day nearly daily. Worked there briefly part time mid 2000s. Today I have no desire to eat there at al. BTW welcome back to my favorite, most awesome announcer on Weird History.
As Jared lost weight, the Subway shareholders and upper executives got fat. Now it's time for them to go on a hard diet and recycle the revenue back into the business.
When it comes to Subway, my go-to is "Go to Jersey Mike's instead." Also, what is it with Seattle and foodborne illness outbreaks making national news? Jack in the Box leaps immediately to mind for instantly putting the term "E. coli" into the public consciousness in 1993...
What I feel happened is at one time, Subway was the only game in town for a "sub style" sandwich. Nowadays, there are many competitors, including Jimmy John's, Jersey Mike's, and Firehouse Subs, all which focus more on quality.
A Subway opened near my house. I was addicted to it for years...would frequently pass by to pick up a sandwich after work on my way home. They were good AND cheap. Then, they slowly stopped being cheap, and I steadily stopped going. Then they nixed my favorite sandwich ingredient, and the few times I've tried to substitute it have been meh at best. Now, my local Subway is long gone, and I'm always met with disappointment whenever a craving hits me hard enough to attempt to get one from one of the other stores.
The best day of my life was when I found a subway franchise in Pusan Korea. I asked the owner if he could just give me bread, but he said no. Korean bread was rice flour, so not the same. So I bought a ton of subs and sold them to my Canadian friends. Thanks friend
Jared Fogle came to speak at my middle school in 2002 or 2003, bc one of my classmates’ parents owned all the franchises in town they arranged to make it happen. It makes me shudder and cringe to think about it now. Knowing what a monster he is.
As Jared lost weight, the Subway shareholders and upper executives got fat. Now it's time for them to go on a hard diet and recycle the revenue back into the business.
They changed their meatballs into a mixture of pork and beef instead of just beef, and I didn't care for it. Bacon and Sausage are nice, but I'm not a huge fan of pork. The only other sub worth ordering is the cheese steak, but it's too expensive. You can get a pack of four steaks that crumble and cook within minutes from Walmart. Plus the rolls, cheese, and onions, you basically have four steak subs for the price of one. Sorry, but Subway fails. If you don't have a higher quality product then what you can make at home, then it's not worth eating out.
Anyone else notice the date mistake? They changed the name in 1968 which must have helped because they opened a second Subway in 1966?… Clever business model…
Subway was the absolute best lunch option for a few years when I was younger. 5 Dollar foot long was a great deal. I also remember getting the Chicken Bacon Ranch foot long for under 10 bucks for a long time. I miss being able to afford lunch.
I used to eat subway 2 or 3 times a week during my lunch break when I used to live in America. After I moved away and had a bad allergic reaction to one of their sandwiches when I lived abroad I no longer eat there.
Tomato is still sliced fresh in the uk. My friend used to work there, she had to go in on Xmas day to take dougg out of the freezer and have the tomatoes sliced ready for opening
Recently I saw a subway commercial for a $5 snackwhich which looks like maybe the size of a burger but I’d be shocked if that’s true. When you see that compared to their $5 foot longs, which still feels so recent to many of us, it’s hard to try to draw people in for ‘value’ and we all know the quality isn’t there anymore. I ate subway so much my first year of university I actually gave up eating it for 2 years because the thought of it made me sick. Now it’s been like 4 since the last time I went and I really feel no draw. They also redid their whole menu to try to get people to order pre-made sandwiches with pre-selected toppings which just felt really against their whole shtick, I’m not sure if it stuck. I’m in Canada btw.
There's the whole Jared thing... but also it's the fact that you can make your own sub that's 5x better with ingredients found at any grocery store, for 5x less the price!
I remember being at a party where they had a Subway plate of six-inchers. I tried one, and I thought it was an amazing sub. But I've never had another sub at Subway that was barely more than edible. Maybe it was that particular store that prepared the plate? Their sandwiches have very little meat/protein, the bread is mushy grossness, and I don't think I've been in a Subway in almost 15 years now, if not more. If I'm going to get a sub from a chain, instead of a local place, it's going to be Jersey Mike's or Firehouse.
Back when they had the $5 foot long deal I ate a lot of subway. Cold Cut combo on Italian herb and cheese, with pepper jack, lettuce, pickles, pepperoncini, and Southwest chipotle sauce was my go to sandwich
Can't speak for other countries, but in Sweden Subway is fine. At least where I live. I always go with sunflower & pumpkin seed bread with turkey, spicy cheese, all vegetables except a kind of berry, garlic sauce and salt + pepper.
I'm in Germany and I still love it (not a regular customer though), of course not all issues are applicable to all locations, be it national or global. Beside getting more expensive that is.
I went to Subway last month and literally stood there in an empty restaurant and waited AN HOUR for the one worker to appear. I kept calling out "Hello." At least he gave me a discount and apologized, but I won't be back. Firehouse Subs is MUCH better!
Now, Subway is the food my drunk neighbor orders at 2 AM then forgets she ordered it and is too ashamed to pick it up. Your veggie delight is still in the lobby, MISS.
I remember they tried the same weight loss from Subway angle with another guy, a firefighter named Clay Henry. They only aired once or twice, but were then pulled…presumably because the jingle described him as “Clay Henry, a Subway man and a Jared fan”. For what it’s worth, Clay Henry’s Subway jingle sounds a lot like South Park’s James Cameron theme song.
Guess where the cost savings went? As Jared lost weight, the Subway shareholders and upper executives got fat. Now it's time for them to go on a brutal diet of no dividends, no perqs, and no cannibalizing franchisees to support stock prices. Top priority is to recycle the revenue back into the business.
The price is absolutely insane now! And the ingredients are absolutely nothing what they used to be. And the bread is trash now too. It’s a shame
Subway bread has so much added sugar that it is not even classified as bread anymore. It is classified as a dessert.
That's all Bidenomics! Give Trump some time--it's only been a week!
@ You need a psychiatrist that enjoys a challenge.
@IAmNotAFunguy we all better be rich by this time next year. Your savior promises a lot.
everyone complains about the price now but if you order just a 12" meatball marinara its about 10$
its funny because within the last couple of years finding a decent lunch for even 10$ has become almost impossible. so in a way the 10$ footlong has become as good of a deal as the 5$ footlong was 20 years ago.
They are a victim of a catchphrase TOO good. I still think about "$5 footlongs" when i see the current $12 prices 😢
Absolutely, me too, EVERY TIME! Must have coupons to eat there. No way pay full price!
@fin59shaw yeah and for some reason the coupons have stopped coming in the mail for me
Had a lunch date at Subway (wasn't my choice, trust me) last year and the meal for two people ended up being close to $40. Ridiculous. The food was basically the same boring stuff they have sold for decades. Not at all worth that cost. Haven't gone back.
@fin59shaw that's all fast food now, unfortunately. People complain about the price but if you're paying full price you're doing it wrong. Every single fast food joint has an app with discounts.
I dont fast food much but a couple of times a month I pay 2 bucks instead of 6.39 for a mcgriddle. The non-couponers must be subsidizing the rest of us.
Goodbye $5 foot longs. 😢
Hello $7 6inch subs 😡
I worked at a Subway in highschool, back in the late 90's. The only thing that we didn't slice fresh, daily, was the Pickles. Now, nothing is prepared fresh...
It's all pre-packaged, so they can cut costs, and make more profit. This is how a company dies. They've done it to themselves...
Same. I spent many hours slicing fresh meat when I worked there in 2000. It really has gone downhill...
I'm not a fan of subway but they do still slice most veggies fresh...at least in America.
Does it cut costs? Does it mean that there is less staff in the shop, because the owner must be paying more to have the ingredients come precut?
@@minuteman4199 I would assume that. I don't know how much they cut fresh anymore but I'm fairly certain all of their meat is at least sliced in advance. I don't know about veggies because they have a very short shelf life once they're cut. I mean, they have a short life either way but it's significantly shorter once they're cut.
I worked at a subway in the late 90s. Very easy job. Staff cut all the veggies. Meats came in pre sliced. Staff proofed the breads etc. we were always busy. And I mean busy.
They couldn't have predicted Jared being a monster, but all that other stuff is 100% on them. They knew they were selling sandwiches that were too short, that their bread was too sugary, etc.
I'd forgive all that crap if it was still ~$5/footlong, but at their current prices (and arguably declining quality) there's absolutely no reason to ever go there, especially when Jersey Mikes exists
Edit to clarify: would forgive _the declining quality and sugary bread, etc_
NOT Jared. He's a monster. Subway likely knew about it for at least a few years before he was arrested too, but they tried to keep him in check anyway instead of just dropping his ass like old garbage (saw a documentary on it, can't remember the title though)
@@mj.ray0898 Jerseey Mike's is even more expensive than Subway. The last time I got a 6" cheesesteak at Jersey Mike's, it was almost $15. *For a six-inch sub*
I haven't been back since and don't plan to ever go.
@@mj.ray0898 The name of the doco: Jared From Subway: Catching a Monster. Yeah, I Googled.
The short bread was only because the employees weren't stretching out the dough longer, so they were really just getting an 11" which was wider than a 12". It was still bad optics, but the store wasn't really shorchanging people with that one.
@@mj.ray0898exactly I wouldn't care if the product was crappy for $5. I don't expect gold at a $5 price range.
I worked at a subway in the cental coast of Calofornia, the franchise owners were sued for forcing people to clock out and continue to work.
That should be treated as a modern day extention of slavery and should treated as such.
If you do that to employees as a business owner , it should be grounds to forfeit at least 5 years of your life in prison.
@SegmentW what makes it worse is that they did it to single mom's who they knew needed the money, then one finally wasn't going to stand for it and laweyered up. I think they had to pay $400k? It was a while ago.
Bad business practices are everywhere, it's not a Subway thing. To this day, every single random person I speak to about wage theft has a story.
Subway is literally the worst place you could get a sandwich. The only thing they had going was low prices but even that is a thing of the past.
WE used to have Subway in denmark.. Then the Danish franchise holders got tired of being treated like trash so around a quarter of them came together and created a new company called Sunset which then went on out compete Subway on the Danish market (even buying some Subway locations outright) To the point that Subway pulled out of the Danish market fully :P
Sunset has some great food for sure, their Hereford burgers is always a hit.
I got fed up with the European Union so i moved out of EU and my birth country which is the same as yours, i still miss those burgers though.
Hell yeah 😎
I'll admit, I used to eat a lot at "Subway" back in the day. It still mystifies me as to how far they have fallen in quality and popularity after all those years in business. It seems to end up lost in the shuffle to other well-known and better quality sandwich shops.
They never had quality. Subway was always that place you went to after the club when they were the closest place to you & you needed something to soak up the alcohol.
Why is Subway in quotes? Do you usually call it something else?
They were never particularly good. Perhaps better than they are now, but honestly, they were just a ubiquitous fairly cheap place to eat. There were always BETTER sub shops.
The prices have gotten outrageous! Not to mention every sandwich tastes nearly the same, which coincidentally matches the smell when you walk into the shop.
Prices are the same at all of their competitors who are doing fine. Hell at the Publix where I live lines are long as hell and they cost more. The problem is their food always has tasted like garbage. When I was in college if they weren’t in the dorms and open at 2 in the morning everyone wouldn’t went to the Jimmy John’s across the street, which is what everyone did during the day.
The prices are cheaper than Jersey Mike's and Penn Station still.
And "every sandwich" doesn't taste the same. That's a taste bud issue on your part.
they are forced to pay people 20 dollars an hour here. food and fuel prices have skyrocketed. what do you expect?
Wow I wonder why subway’s skyrocketing popularity declined, surely they had a good spokesman to promote them
He hang with Diddy and r Kelly 🤣
You mean the Jiddler?
He ended his career like it started. By trying to get into smaller pants.
@@NeonRazer42 how have I never heard this joke in 10 years? That's gold
This will be Mistee Beast in a decade
Jared became a "minor" celebrity. Phrasing 😂
Late 90's was peak subway, everything was delicious
You're idea of delicious and mine are vastly different. 🤢
major problem now is their $5 foot long is $20 now lol
Recall picking up an old classic of mine, Meatball Marinara as a teen (because it was the cheapest and most filling). Cost about $6.00 (one of their cheapest meat subs at the time)! Now that same sub is about $12.00-$14.00. Happily moving onto another sub-themed restaurant. Many thanks for the outstanding video, Weird History Food! Love the channel, btw.
The problem with Subway is their food is nothing special. Anyone could literally make it at home without any special equipment which is actually how they get so many franchisees. The only reason why I would eat it is if I got a really good deal and they conditioned people to expect that deal with $5 footlongs.
nope, can't make it at home. Where do you buy meat that low quality?
Tbh, its very easy to do hamburguers at home aswell. With air fryers its also pretty easy to make fries. The only fast food thats a litle more time consuming is pizzas, specially bc you need to make the dough in advance for it to ferment
allowing Indians to own franchises.
This. Hell, yesterday I made my take on the Superspicy Sandwich from Crispin’s test from the Indigo Disk DLC of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Probably better than anything Subway could serve.
Its cheap for the price. Yes you can make everything at home
I stopped messing with Subway a couple of years ago. Way too expensive, and unless you load up on the veggies, you're eating mostly bread anyway. It's better to go to a local neighborhood deli or restaurant that sells subs rather than a national chain that's always looking to cut costs by giving you less and charging more...
What's wrong with it are the people who work there. Horrific customer service. I don't even feel comfortable walking up and ordering because they're so surly. Makes me wary of eating the food.
I'm not sure if it is the same now as when I worked there over a decade ago, but back then we were not given any breaks. So, most days that I worked, I was standing for 8 hours straight. Combine that with customers hurling insults as well as food and having people threaten to murder me and you can imagine that it wasn't always the easiest situation to maintain a cheerful disposition. I did always try to stay positive, cheerful and provide good service, but you can understand why others who faced similar situations wouldn't always be the most positive.
I haven’t seen anyone that looks remotely in a positive mood or good customer service there in at least 10-15 years.
I use to get the seaood and crab sub. Once they discontinued it, there was no reason to go.
Oddly I used to love that too - with tomatoes and salt/pepper. Nice to know one other odd ball out there...
You saved yourself, then. The descriptions of HOW they made that seafood and crab is pretty disgusting. It's a LOT of mayo. Like gallons. It's possibly the least healthy thing they sold, and that's hard to do at Subway
I worked there in ‘93. It was Krab and mayo. Nothing weird
@@LatitudeSky I know they mix their tuna & mayo 1:1. It was probably the same proportions for the crab & seafood.
I miss that seafood sensation subbing they bring it back I make start visiting again
There's a Subway in our WalMart, ironically next to the store's deli, which I walk past to get fresher vegies, bread and cold cuts than Subway ever serves....and this is WalMart mind you.
One thing missing from their growth here is their franchising cost - a franchisee could open a new Subway for a tenth of the cost of, say, a new McDonalds. It was just SO much cheaper to open up new Subway locations than it was for any fast food chain of a similar size.
6:41 this absolutely did not surprise Subway. Subway knew for a long time of his abuse of children, and remember that he toured several schools to speak at assemblies to children. This is public knowledge so I'm not sure why you would phrase it that way.
I used to eat there often. They were convenient. It seems many of the locations no longer seem convenient. They also seem a whole lot more expensive than back in the day.
It baffles me that Subway is still as successful as they are. First, they were the quality option (They really WERE good in the late 90s/early 2000s). Then they were the cheap option. Now, they're expensive and sub-par. And almost every Subway I know has a place like Firehouse/Jimmy Johns/Jersey Mike's nearby, which either have better food or cheaper prices. Not to mention there's so many Subways around that in some places, they eat into the business of OTHER SUBWAYS...
"Jared became a MINOR international celebrity" 5:35
The customer service is terrible. They changed the recipes and made the The Sweet Onion chicken teriyaki way worse. The serving portions got smaller, and the prices got outrageous. Everything has some kind of very strong chemical taste. Sub is not worth going to across the nation ever.
The current taste of their so-called Sweet Onion Teriyaki (SOT) chicken is barely perceivable from what it once was.
I remember when I would bring home a sub or two, while in the car, the strong aroma was quite noticeable, and when I would place it in the fridge to have later on the same day or on the next day or two, it smelled up the fridge BUT in a good kinda way, and then one day, I immediately noticed that the flavor had diminished greatly, and late last year, I got an SOT chicken sub that had zero flavor, making it just a veggie (lettuce + tomatoes) sandwich. UGH!
Not food taste-related, the only thing that Subway corporate has done lately that is a positive change for the customers, is listing the Subways that are participating in special deals/discounts that are advertised online/in-the-app only.
I remember the sheer frustration when I would try to place an online order, expecting to get the deal that was advertised, only to get a notice that this or that Subway is not participating.
Back in the 80s in Canada when Subway was new I loved their product. Now, like every fast food, the quality isn't there and the value for money isn't there. I rarely go anymore.
Well, I worked there for three months in the 2020s. I think stuff went wrong when they went 'whenever the expiration date is there, just smell the filling, if it smells good, just put a new sticker on it'. Absolutely bonkers.
Quality went down, prices went up, competition came along.
I attended the same high school that Jared Fogle attended. North Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. Now Jared is remembered as a boss fight in South Park: The Fractured But Whole.
lol wtf is wrong with you... That's NOT what jared is rememberd for by most people AT ALL. wow
There is zero reason to ever go to current subway. It’s a thing of the past at best.
Subway over saturates their markets.
For example, our city of 50,000 has 2 Goodcents, 1 Jimmy Johns, and 23 Subways within about 5-7 miles around me.
Subway does that on purpose. Now, imagine you are a Subway franchisee. You have invested your life savings into opening your shop. And one day you see out the front window that Subway is opening another franchise across the road. And there's nothing you can do about it. That's exactly what they did and how they grew to so many stores. There isn't demand for that many subs. Of course. But Subway was after the franchise fees paid when a new store opens.
@@LatitudeSkyconversely, McDonalds is very picky about locations. Typically corporate will own the property and rent it to the franchisee. Therefore their balance sheet is HEAVY on real estate, where location is the #1 factor.
@LatitudeSky It's actually far worse. Subway's franchise cost is purposely among the lowest, from $116,000-263,000. McDonald's is 100 times that amount. Profit from their 8% royalty, near highest. Boosting location total without regard to cannibalization was their goal, an executive saying in 1998 "(w)e put them up any f---ing place we could." Franchisees are prohibited from taking Subway to court, can only submit to corporate arbitration. Since 2016 lost 7000 locations, Starbucks just surpassed with most locations.
@@jacobawojtowiczNail on the head! 40% of their income is rent, only a small part of which is adjusted for sales. So over last 10 years revenue is -11%, but profit is +31%, share price +187%.
@@jacobawojtowicz McD's is a real estate conglomerate that happens to sell hamburgers.
2:46 I live near this Subway, and it is WILD. It’s a 24 hour Subway, and it’s at the corner of George St, the street with all the bars in the place with the most bars per capita in the world. But it gets better, it’s also adjacent to the only 2 taxi stands in the whole downtown. The only other fast food locations are a burrito spot across the road or a poutine shop a well walk away. Mix all this together and, if you’re a wrestling fan, any given Saturday night at 3AM puts the last last couple of Royal Rumbles to shame.
What up LaCrosse
Subway isn't bad. But it's not great either. I've never had a great sandwich there, and i've also never had a terrible sandwich that I would complain about. It's the prime example of what you would call mediocre food. And i'll buy it when I can get a deal on it. But I don't think it's worth it at full menu price. And there's too much competition to justify the crazy amount of subways that exist. I think there's more subways within 5 miles of me than there is mcdonald's. I'm in a more rural area, there's only one mcdonald's within that range of me, but I think there's 3 subways in that same distance. If i'm in the mood for a good sub, I would take jimmy john's all day. But jimmy john's is pretty expensive, and they rarely run deals or promo codes anymore. So sometimes i'll settle for subway when I can get a 7 dollar footlong. I'm sure that's how a lot of people feel and that's not good for subway as a business.
You consider $7 a good price for a sub when you need to drive 5 miles ? Why ? The ingredients are worth $2 tops, and it takes less time to make it than to drive that distance.
Exactly, It's convenience food.
If I'm a road trip or at a mall and get hungry. Sure, I might have subway.
But I'm never ever going to go "I sure feel like going out and getting Subway tonight!"
It does what you need it to do, nothing more.
@@MuaddibizeI mean it's definitely not two dollars of ingredients. Have you seen the cost of deli meat?
@ yeah, the 5 dollar footlong was a better deal. But let's be fair here. Where else can you get a 12 inch sub for 7 dollars, especially one that lets you add so much custom stuff at no extra charge?. Literally everything you buy is more expensive than it was a few years ago with no exceptions. So I dont think it's really fair to single out subway for raising their price by a couple dollars. Jimmy johns doesn't have a foot long, but if you get their "Giant" 16 inch sandwich, it's damn near 20 dollars. Like 17 or 18 bucks. If you do the math, it would still be like 15 if it was 12 inches like subway''s footlong. So yes, it is better but it is more than double the price of subway even after subway raised their price.
@ I also didn't say that subway was 5 miles from me. I said there is 3 within a 5 mile range of me.. Kind of different. The closest one is about 2 miles. Also, driving 5 miles in a rural area is absolutely nothing. You can drive 5 miles from where I live faster than you can drive 1 mile in a crowded city. No red lights, barely any traffic and a 55 mph speed limit. 5 miles will probably take less than 10 minutes to get there.
They put those metal lids to hide their sponge chicken and smaller portions.
I used to eat at least once a week on Subways. Nowadays they are simply too expensive.
A big part of the problem is how they treat their franchisees and how they'll flat out screw them over. That on top of crowding markets. I live in Chicago and until a few months ago I had 3 Subways within 8 tenths of a mile of me. And of the two left now, one keeps getting hit with claims they're undercutting how much meat people get while overcharging.
No I don't agree. I heard it was the franchisees complaining about the $5 footlong that made them get rid of it. That's the thing 99% of all customers miss the most about subway. The thing that the franchisees were complaining about. There are petitions online to bring back the $5 footlong menu.
@@shadycnetwork there was a lawsuit out in California about how corporate was screwing over franchisees, including doing stuff like forcing them to sell to other franchisees.
I worked at a Subway that ran out of bread, which is important for sandwiches.
🤯
But it was a win-win for low-carb and keto customers.
I used to love Subway. Nowadays Firehouse and Penn Station subs are my go to places for a submarine sandwich.
Jersey Mike's too.
But all of them are well pricier than Subway.
@@Tvaikah Was gonna say that one of the Jersey Mike's near me is so popular that the only way to get it during the lunch rush is to order in advance. Line is out the door.
Everything That Went Wrong With Subway: Terrible food.
You are 100% correct. Nobody would care about the scandals if the food was still good and cheap.
The subway down the street just got evicted from their location for being 6 months behind in rent
Subway will forever and always be associated with Jared -"I had a little boy it was amazing"- Fogle no matter what and thats a good thing!! 😂
It all started to go down hill when they withdrew the stamp card for free stuff after you buy enough stuff.
"things cant go any more wrong now"
jared: hold my hardrive
This is my new favorite channel on here!
I'm surprised that they haven't completely shut down yet. One thing is for sure, Scrubway won't be surviving this decade.
I'm sorry but is that person at 09:53 eating their sandwich lengthwise
Subway used to be different back in the 90’s and early 2000’s. The prices where good, the ingredients where tastier and fresher. $5 foot subs where around, it wasn’t bad for the price. Now it’s so expensive and the quality really plummeted. It’s like eating cardboard and artificial veggies and meats. Terrible.
Jared at least made for a good South Park boss in Fractured But Whole...
The downfall all started when they got rid of the V cut
Because the bread they use now is too small for the V cut.
They made the sandwiches smaller at the same time they made them more expensive... they could have probably gotten away with one or the other...but both???
Realistically, all the false advertising and actual health related problems are completely valid reasons for their decline, but the Jared thing? The way people will blame Subway as though they were somehow supposed to know this guy inside and out is pretty ridiculous. Other than being a convenient marketing gimmick for them he had literally nothing else to do with Subway, people getting mad at the company over the stupid shit he was getting up to is weird.
ive found at least here in Australia that subways vary depending on how cheap the franchisees are with sourcing their ingredients
I really have no plans on eating at Subway anymore, they are too expensive and skimp on the meats so badly that my last one had more mayo than turkey
Ive been to subway twice in the past 6 months. 2 different stores on opposite sides of new york state ( about 120 miles apart ) both times they didn't have lettuce!!!!
Subway is annoying and not even really good like that
In my area most of the subways didn't survive the pandemic. Those that did are horribly understaffed so service is slow despite the staff clearly doing the best they can. However for me personally I can't stand the new layout of their menu with "Jersey Numbers" as it makes ordering just that more of a hassle instead of having a traditional #1 sandwich, #2 sandwich, etc...
My favorite narrator is back :)
My go to in the early 2000s, I’d go there twice a day nearly daily. Worked there briefly part time mid 2000s. Today I have no desire to eat there at al. BTW welcome back to my favorite, most awesome announcer on Weird History.
Jared didn’t come off as a regular person. He came off as kind of a loser, which many people wanting to lose weight felt like and related to.
As Jared lost weight, the Subway shareholders and upper executives got fat. Now it's time for them to go on a hard diet and recycle the revenue back into the business.
When it comes to Subway, my go-to is "Go to Jersey Mike's instead."
Also, what is it with Seattle and foodborne illness outbreaks making national news? Jack in the Box leaps immediately to mind for instantly putting the term "E. coli" into the public consciousness in 1993...
Jersey Mike's is so good, and you get a great sub for a fair price. Yum! 🤤🤤🤤
What I feel happened is at one time, Subway was the only game in town for a "sub style" sandwich. Nowadays, there are many competitors, including Jimmy John's, Jersey Mike's, and Firehouse Subs, all which focus more on quality.
A Subway opened near my house. I was addicted to it for years...would frequently pass by to pick up a sandwich after work on my way home. They were good AND cheap. Then, they slowly stopped being cheap, and I steadily stopped going. Then they nixed my favorite sandwich ingredient, and the few times I've tried to substitute it have been meh at best. Now, my local Subway is long gone, and I'm always met with disappointment whenever a craving hits me hard enough to attempt to get one from one of the other stores.
Subway sandwiches range from $12 to $17, once the $5 footlong went away, I stopped eating there.
Dude they have coupons that make them way cheaper
The best day of my life was when I found a subway franchise in Pusan Korea. I asked the owner if he could just give me bread, but he said no. Korean bread was rice flour, so not the same. So I bought a ton of subs and sold them to my Canadian friends. Thanks friend
Jared Fogle came to speak at my middle school in 2002 or 2003, bc one of my classmates’ parents owned all the franchises in town they arranged to make it happen. It makes me shudder and cringe to think about it now. Knowing what a monster he is.
As Jared lost weight, the Subway shareholders and upper executives got fat. Now it's time for them to go on a hard diet and recycle the revenue back into the business.
They changed their meatballs into a mixture of pork and beef instead of just beef, and I didn't care for it. Bacon and Sausage are nice, but I'm not a huge fan of pork. The only other sub worth ordering is the cheese steak, but it's too expensive. You can get a pack of four steaks that crumble and cook within minutes from Walmart. Plus the rolls, cheese, and onions, you basically have four steak subs for the price of one. Sorry, but Subway fails. If you don't have a higher quality product then what you can make at home, then it's not worth eating out.
Anyone else notice the date mistake? They changed the name in 1968 which must have helped because they opened a second Subway in 1966?…
Clever business model…
The main problem for me, is the rise of better, more affordable sub shops. I would much rather spend my money at Firehouse , or Jersey Mike's
Subway was the absolute best lunch option for a few years when I was younger. 5 Dollar foot long was a great deal. I also remember getting the Chicken Bacon Ranch foot long for under 10 bucks for a long time. I miss being able to afford lunch.
Pizza Marine could be the name of a pizza sub which those are pretty tasty if they don't put too many pepperonis on them.
I used to eat subway 2 or 3 times a week during my lunch break when I used to live in America. After I moved away and had a bad allergic reaction to one of their sandwiches when I lived abroad I no longer eat there.
You're not missing anything. America continues its downward spiral.
The bread is nowhere near as wide now they struggle to keep ingredients in the sandwich when the old style bread was wide enough to hold everything in
"Jared became a *_minor_* international celebrity." 🤣
Last time I ate at a subway, it was the worst food poisoning I think I have ever had. No thank you going forward.
My goto: Turkey, Roast Beef, Tomato, Onion, Spinach, on a footlong roll via Publix Deli. or a Meatball sub from a local Italian.
When I was a kid circa 2004 it was so good they even had kids meals with toys. I got a courage the cowardly dog toy from subway.
I haven't been to subway in probably 5 years. Way overpriced for what it is
Tomato is still sliced fresh in the uk. My friend used to work there, she had to go in on Xmas day to take dougg out of the freezer and have the tomatoes sliced ready for opening
This video just makes me want a meatball marinara sub 😂
Recently I saw a subway commercial for a $5 snackwhich which looks like maybe the size of a burger but I’d be shocked if that’s true. When you see that compared to their $5 foot longs, which still feels so recent to many of us, it’s hard to try to draw people in for ‘value’ and we all know the quality isn’t there anymore. I ate subway so much my first year of university I actually gave up eating it for 2 years because the thought of it made me sick. Now it’s been like 4 since the last time I went and I really feel no draw. They also redid their whole menu to try to get people to order pre-made sandwiches with pre-selected toppings which just felt really against their whole shtick, I’m not sure if it stuck. I’m in Canada btw.
There's the whole Jared thing... but also it's the fact that you can make your own sub that's 5x better with ingredients found at any grocery store, for 5x less the price!
Lmao they updated the thumbnail and took Jared off 😂
I remember being at a party where they had a Subway plate of six-inchers. I tried one, and I thought it was an amazing sub.
But I've never had another sub at Subway that was barely more than edible. Maybe it was that particular store that prepared the plate? Their sandwiches have very little meat/protein, the bread is mushy grossness, and I don't think I've been in a Subway in almost 15 years now, if not more.
If I'm going to get a sub from a chain, instead of a local place, it's going to be Jersey Mike's or Firehouse.
Back when they had the $5 foot long deal I ate a lot of subway. Cold Cut combo on Italian herb and cheese, with pepper jack, lettuce, pickles, pepperoncini, and Southwest chipotle sauce was my go to sandwich
I don't understand why it's so hard to not put sugar in the bread.... It will rise just fine without sugar! We don't need donuts for bread!!!
It's a cheap way to make food taste good
@Ash_Wen-li Bread is good without sugar. Especially when you need it for sandwiches! I don't want my Italian beef sandwiched in a cookie😵💫
Good video 😊
Can't speak for other countries, but in Sweden Subway is fine. At least where I live.
I always go with sunflower & pumpkin seed bread with turkey, spicy cheese, all vegetables except a kind of berry, garlic sauce and salt + pepper.
Sweden probably has stricter regulations on food service than in the U.S. The U.S. has become a giant landfill pretending to be a country.
A Car Actually Went Through Our Subway In Kilmarnock, VA & It Was Closed For YEARS! It Reopened Several Months Ago
I'm in Germany and I still love it (not a regular customer though), of course not all issues are applicable to all locations, be it national or global. Beside getting more expensive that is.
Sucks for you. In United States we have real sub/sandwich shops. Subway is garbage.
Subway needs to bring back $5 footlongs !
I went to Subway last month and literally stood there in an empty restaurant and waited AN HOUR for the one worker to appear. I kept calling out "Hello." At least he gave me a discount and apologized, but I won't be back. Firehouse Subs is MUCH better!
There's very little meat in these gym mats!
Immediately after the video finished, UA-cam showed me a Subway ad.
Knowing what we know bout Jared now, calling him a "Minor international celebrity" is wild.
Subway sandwiches are so sad and depressing. No thank you.
Now, Subway is the food my drunk neighbor orders at 2 AM then forgets she ordered it and is too ashamed to pick it up. Your veggie delight is still in the lobby, MISS.
Wow, "hey, I want to go to school and become a doctor", "screw that, here is some money to sell some sandwiches". That is insane
I got really bad food poisoning from Subway many years ago and have never eaten at one since, nor would I ever want to ever again.
I like Firehouse Subs more personally, plus the donation to US Firehouses is nice too
I remember they tried the same weight loss from Subway angle with another guy, a firefighter named Clay Henry.
They only aired once or twice, but were then pulled…presumably because the jingle described him as “Clay Henry, a Subway man and a Jared fan”.
For what it’s worth, Clay Henry’s Subway jingle sounds a lot like South Park’s James Cameron theme song.
Subway cut costs at every single opportunity and in turn cut themselves out of the market
Guess where the cost savings went? As Jared lost weight, the Subway shareholders and upper executives got fat. Now it's time for them to go on a brutal diet of no dividends, no perqs, and no cannibalizing franchisees to support stock prices. Top priority is to recycle the revenue back into the business.