The assignment this time? Subway, the sandwich shop that’s about to overtake McDonald’s in store locations next year. Didn’t see that one coming. But I like what eventually came, especially the comments.
Step Aside McDonald’s: Why Subway Has the Most Fast Food Stores in the Country
Restaurant upstart Subway, riding high on the marketing message of healthy fast food, will overtake its titanic competitor McDonald’s in American store locations by the end of 2009, with a shocking total of more than 32,300 outlets.
That’s something few consumers could imagine before the sandwich chain piggybacked on huge weight loss of morbidly obese Jared Fogle — who lost 245 pounds by exercising and eating only its sandwiches, in contrast to Super Size Me’s Morgan Spurlock, who got fat and sick eating McDonald’s grub. People are always trying to find new ways to help them lose weight that doesn’t mean stopping them from eating. In fact, there are Gundry MD olive oil reviews that discuss how olive oil can aid in losing weight as well as keeping the heart healthy, which is a necessity for people who are overweight, so this was a phenomenon.
In the process, Subway has managed to carve out a lucrative niche in a perfect storm of fast food and economic recession. Now, Subway has emerged as a healthy alternative in the market place, partially because its modest business model allows it to crawl into the nooks and crannies of our far-flung country that cannot sustain stand-alone restaurants like McDonald’s, which depend heavily on drive-through business for its earnings. Of course, as so many people are looking for that healthier option these days, Subway proved to be the ideal place to go. However, there are other food shops that are looking to compete with these large franchises. For example, shops like Larry’s Giant Subs are creating healthy subs and sandwiches for affordable prices. They are steadily increasing the number of stores that they have, bringing these subs to more people. To try one of these subs, it might be worth searching the internet for sandwich shops near me to try and find one in your local area. Sometimes, it’s better to support smaller businesses instead of those bigger fast-food chains.
However, we can’t deny Subway’s success lately. “It’s amazing,” AlterNet’s executive editor Don Hazen said after a recent trip. “I found Subways at obscure corners of national parks in southern Utah and attached to convenience stores on Indian reservations in Navajo country, where there were no other fast-food spots within 50-100 miles.”
To be fair, Subway has miles to go before it makes nearly as much money as the late Ray Kroc’s powerhouse, which pulls in around $2 million per store, compared to Subway’s $445,00 per shop.
But when it comes to the fast-food game, there’s something to be said for ubiquity, especially during a recession. But is the meteoric rise of Subway really a byproduct of a marketplace more in tune with health than before? Is Subway a fast-food success because it offers a healthy alternative to the calorie-packed, fat-riddled burgers of McDonald’s and more?
“That’s part of it,” explained Subway spokesman Wes Winograd, whose company’s motto has been “Eat Fresh” since 2001. “That’s the ‘fresh’ side of it. The idea of Subway as a healthy alternative came from the fact that we don’t fry anything. There’s lots of veggies on the sandwiches. The meats are low fat. Things like that.”
But the other part of the equation, Winograd said, is public participation, from the sandwich-making to the franchise-building, and all the way to the marketing. “All of our locations are franchise owned,” he said. “The sandwiches are made in front of you. The customer participates in what’s put on the sandwich, as opposed to other restaurants, where food comes out of the back room.”
Those often unsanitary back rooms, and compromised boardrooms, took a serious hit within the last five years after the films Super Size Me, Franny Armstrong’s McLibel and Richard Linklater’s nasty Fast Food Nation, based on the damning book of the same name by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser, were released.
That anti-McDonald’s zeitgeist took serious hold as Subway’s persistent marketing of Fogle, which caught fire starting in 2000, was peaking.
The result was a perfect storm of bad publicity for conventional fast-food shops and an open door for upstarts like Subway, whose plate-glass serving stations were loaded with more vegetables than meats and were symbolized by an average Jared ready to transform himself, and the company, into an advertising dynamo.
“When Jared came on the scene, things just got out of hand,” Winograd recalled. “It really put us on the map. He had lost 245 pounds on a diet that he designed, which included eating nothing but Subway for about a year and combined with exercise. He went from morbidly obese to healthy, so we put him in some commercials, and it resonated with consumers. People to this day write and tell us that they were inspired by him. People related because he was a regular guy. We didn’t ask him to lose weight.” Exercise and portion control are the two main factors into weight loss and this man seemed to have a lot of self control for this. Perhaps this man also used the help of supplements such as activatedyou as well, because he must have needed other nutrients than those supplied in a subway. These would have also helped with normal bodily functions and systems to run smoothly. Nutrients are essential in weight loss because they increase metabolism, muscle gain, antioxidant intake, and many other things. A high level of energy is required while exercising, and a limited diet is consumed when losing weight. Due to this, supplements are available to help people lose weight and keep fit and healthy by filling the nutritional gap in the body. People have the option to choose from a wide range of these products online and offline, so that they can match their requirements. As an example, those looking to build lean muscle while trying to lose weight may want to consider plant-based protein supplements (like High Impact Plant Protein) that tend to boost energy and provide muscle growth. It’s a possibility that he might have used supplements, but however this man achieved his goals, he deserves a medal!
Of course, Subway didn’t ask him to tell customers that it might be impossible to lose weight eating nothing but Subway’s subs either. A quick look at the calorie count of some of Subway’s many sandwiches can convince anyone good at rudimentary math that simply foregoing McDonald’s for Subway is about as healthy as the once-fabled Atkins diet.
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