they brought the quality down to match the 5$… did they bring it back up to be worth 14?! i kinda doubt it
Not only that, they lowered the quality at the same time. I remember when a subway sandwich was still kinda gross, but at least it was filling and you could have a decently healthy calorie dollar if you ordered right. Now, half the weight of your sandwich is in that super sweetened bread and the meat portions are tiny
I’ve been to Subway twice in the last twenty years. Both times the shop was understaffed and it took more than half an hour to get our meals, and they weren’t even good compared to other sub chains that cost less, let alone the local non-franchise sub shops.
The last attempt was a few years before COVID. I can’t imagine how bad it is now.
My wife and I walked into a Subway recently to use the restrooms. Not an employee in sight. Did our business and walked out without seeing a single person. I would have thought they were closed had the lights not been on and the door unlocked. Don’t know how they stay in business.
Last time ive seen a subway sandwich that wasn’t gross looking was in the 90s
I don’t get it anymore because I can make it way cheaper and better at home, but a flatbread turkey and pepperjack sammich with olives, cucumbers, spinach, onions, peppers, and their chipotle sauce is actually pretty dope looking. And it tastes wonderful. But not for 15USD.
super sweetened bread
Fun fact: it’s so sweetened that the Supreme Court of Ireland (SCOI is a fun acronym) reclassified it as cake.
Also, Subway chicken is only 50% chicken.
To find out what the other 50% is, listen to the latest episode of my podcast Subway Exposure!
Just kidding, I don’t have a podcast. It’s soybeans.
the tuna was also found to not be tuna.
That was just a rumor. Not that it isnt disgusting. I used to like it until i got a double meat version ans wondered wtf this pasty garbage was in my mouth. Disgusting!
It’s soybeans.
If that’s true I really wish they’d just start offering a tofu option at Subway so I don’t just have to get vegetables in bread lol
Was it Taco Bell people were complaining that the meat filling isn’t ground all ground beef? I was like sweet I’d rather it be seasoned veggie delight anyway. Meat quality is not the draw of Taco Bell.
Yea. Taco Bell Seasoned meat has been a seasoned freeze-dried tofu and beef blend for decades now.
Taco Bell claims 88% beef with water and seasoning composing the rest.
All I know is they probably add a lot of textured vegetable protein to the mix to save money, since it comes in bags and isn’t made in-store.
I don’t trust their labels all too much because it’s all too even to be natural.
Probably them too but my memory is that Jack in the box tacos were soy, not sure if that’s true, but it sounded right for the two tacos / $1 back in the day.
They used to have a veggie patty. It was so bad, I regretted not just getting vegetables in bread.
Lol. Yeah some veggie patties can be horrendous. Like some of the ones from Aldi.
They ruled that, for tax purposes, it counts as a confectionary because of the high sugar content. They did not rule that it is literally cake.
But what is cake if not bread plus sugar? 🤔
To me, it’s mainly gluten content. Cake is fluffy while bread is more chewy. You can have sweet breads and savoury breads. I imagine you can have savoury cakes too, but I’ve never had so I don’t know how good that would be.
Subway Exposure
I’m hoping that’s a different entity than the Subway Exposer
I WAS going for that double entendre in order to make my imaginary podcast as badly named as possible, yes 😁
I really don’t like subway, but they do have new chicken. Their old stuff was clearly not chicken. Their new stuff actually looks like chicken so I’m pretty sure the figure you are quoting is their old shit chicken
All of the above is concerning.
I ordered a flatbread sandwich recently and the bread was extremely crusty and smelled old and bad. Subway is 100% in the gutter right now
I used to get a roasted chicken breast sub from Subway every day. The chicken slab was pre-cooked and literally sitting in a bucket of warm water, from which they would pull it and microwave it for a few seconds. How in the living fuck did I ever think it was OK for chicken to be sitting in a bucket of warm water all day?
This was around the time they stopped baking their own rolls in-store every day, and somehow I was also OK with the stale rolls that replaced it. I guess I was distracted by their pedophile spokesman.
Saw an article recently, can’t remember where, that basically said that the sole reason fast food was doing so poorly was pricing. That McDonald’s was charging Texas Roadhouse prices, so people were choosing to skip McDonald’s and go to Texas Roadhouse.
I believe it. The whole appeal of fast food is that it’s fast and cheap.
As a european, fast food is just like a category of food, and more of an occasional treat for me. Normally, I just eat my own homemade food, which is even cheaper. So I guess I see it a little differently, and fast food is allowed to be not cheap if it’s “good”.
Hell yeah, gimme that cancer patty and those artery clogging fries, baby! But make the obesity water size “for kids”.
For many Americans it’s just lunch. If McD’s costs $5 they’re buying. If it costs $15 they’re packing.
“Fast and cheap” as in cheaper than buying precooked food somewhere else. Of course stuff you make at home will be cheaper.
The thing is that at least in my corner of Europe, fast food costs about the same as a filling meal in a sit down restaurant that doesn’t deep fry or microwave everything.
There is an exception but they only have 3 locations in one single town. They’ve barely raised their prices in the last decade, they’re actually pretty fast, and there’s nearly always a bunch of people queued up.
EUn ‘n’ Out?
True, McDonald’s is so expensive now that for 15€ I can go to Mc or I can go to a bib Gourmand restaurant for lunch (dinner is more expensive)
Was not my experience in the US. $1 fast food meals were a thing in 2016. A disgusting one.
That happens when you just think of a bigger number and forget the customer somewhere down the line.
Also publicly traded companies and shareholder value. Everything could be much cheaper if not for shareholders draining every penny from companies. Edit: and CEOs/ managers of course.
Might as well, I’ve only eaten at two Roadhouses, but they were damn good for a chain steakhouse
I haven’t even considered McDonald’s because their pricing skyrocketed post pandemic when inflation was high. They saw other businesses justifying large price increases by blaming inflation and the idiot consumers accepting the lie, and just ignored the niche their product is in, cheap shit.
Before the pandemic to be able to get a McDouble, Spicy McChicken and Fries for $4 with tax. Granted, the fries were only $1 with a digital coupon, but that coupon was always there. It was like the 2 tacos for 99¢ deal at Jack in the Box, you just gotta use the app.
Now that same group of food is $9 and the coupons available are dogshit. 15% off my $10 meal is not a good deal when sales tax is $12%. I’m not really saving much compared to things like BOGO offers and $1 items like it used to be constantly.
This is exactly what subway is doing.
“A regular deli charges $16 for a sub/hero/grinder/hoagie/pickafuckingnameforalongsandwitch so we’re charging $14! It’s less they’ll still come the econ 101 book says they will! I’ll take my multimillion dollar bonus now tyvm.”
Yeah, but a regular deli makes a decent fucking sandwich and isn’t using the cheapest institutional ingredients imaginable.
Except a regular deli actually puts meat on their subs instead of lightly rubbing the sub with a piece of turkey then filling it with lettuce.
I just stopped eating fast food altogether and started using our company cafe, prices at the drive-thru got absolutely ridiculous and the service got worse. I just eat a small salad and a drink, still costs around $6–7/day, but it’s way better than fast food prices. I could probably get it down cheaper if I prepped at home, but fruit and vegetables go bad so frequently and our cafe’s rates are ok-ish, so I just make due with that.
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They added some food-grade sawdust filler and cut out the majority of beef with their latest round of shrinkflation. Their regular patties are so small and thin that they’re impossible to stay moist in th burger. There’s no more fat left.
Unless you get the promoted deals it’s starting to be like that everywhere. Near me if im getting two burgers and two fries, I spend less at five guys than I do at burger king. Why would I ever go to BK?
Even FG is unreasonable.
My wife and 6YO kid went to FG last week and spent $27 on a meal for two and they split the fries.
A few ounces of meat, 50 cents of soda, a couple potatoes and an arguably 2 nice quality rolls. That meal cost them $5. Even with inflated labor it should be more like $15.
Five guys has been expensive for a long time. The rest just caught up more recently.
Five Guys at least has better food than most fast food and the portions are so massive you basically have to share
I would kill for an in-and-out burger on the East Coast. You can get a burger, fries, and drink for less than an Five Guys cheeseburger.
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Five guys is at the very bottom of my “list of things that are so needlessly expensive that now I actively hate”.
Cause they’re so fucking good, and they use better stuff than most.
The moment that changes… will be the day I either go no-beef, or start rioting.
They’ve barely raised their prices in the last decade, they’re actually pretty fast, and there’s nearly always a bunch of people queued up.
Depends on the location too. For my location everything on the menu is $2 more than it is in the nearby, similarly-sized city. And there’s a high quality Wendy’s right next door.
I’ll take good Wendy’s at half the price of Five Guys.
Of course everyone is doing tiered pricing. You either use their apps or pay double. I think half of it is to get the app on your phone, and the other half is simply to make you jump through hoops for lower pricing. They all want to charge obscene prices, and then if you object, give you an option other than not going there. “Just install our app” could just as easily be “pat your head while standing on one leg and rubbing your stomach, and we’ll give you 40% off.”
I’m sorry, but fuck Wendy’s. Yes, capitalism is in decline around us all, but fuck Wendy’s for deciding they’re gonna be the first in fast food to push that envelope to full-blown-shit mode. And their burgers are just eh.
(Hey, pssst… so, quoting etiquette typically means you’re not using the quoting carrot on something not in the the comment you are replying to without noting it in the comment somehow. I was staring very confused at my replies inbox for, like, 4-5 read throughs of your reply, because its an opinion I could have typed, and couldn’t remember at all lol. 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️)
Pretty sure it was around after Dave Thomas passed that the quality took a dive at many franchise locations, similar poor business decisions looking for short term profits over long term customers affecting many businesses these days.
The data is delicious for ‘em. Assists in world domination plans. Not really but they’ll eventually fine tune who gets deals real good IMO.
Connect to LinkedIn to see pricing
Income based fast food prices
Sometimes I go there just for an order of fries because they’re just that good. I can’t bring myself to pay $14 for a burger though.
Culver’s destroys fg for quality and price
Five guys has been bad for a while. Super expensive for a really greasy burger. I had to stop eating there several years ago.
The recent Disney lawsuit reminded me of this. In order to get those deals, McDonald’s makes you use their app, and part of signing up for the app is agreeing to their ToS which has an arbitration clause
Selling your rights to Disney so you can get a cheaper burger is a uniquely American flavor of dystopia
Yeah but there’s no way a judge will follow that reasoning. The response to the arbitration argument was that the argument was “unconscionable” and “no reasonable person” would think signing up for Disney Plus means they can’t file a wrongful death suit for a restaurant that has nothing to do with Disney Plus.
Also the lawyer who made the arbitration argument just got his client so much bad PR that i’m sure Disney Plus will take a hit over it.
I was with you until
Disney Plus will take a hit over it.
The average consumer is just so damn apathetic that nothing will happen
There are a couple floating around out there, CNN/investopedia/Eat This Not That. The most scathing one I saw was from CNN, oddly enough: https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/09/business/consumer-spending-travel-value-nightcap
I very rarely eat out but if I am going to end up blowing on 30 on two meals I may as well blow 45 on a local spot with a seat and a hefty tip to the waiter.
and a hefty tip to the waiter.
And I detest tipping culture, though I of course don’t fault the wait staff. I’d rather go to a local joint that pays its people appropriately…which are hard to find, admittedly.
found this, they all outpace the inflation rate so it’s just greed as always.
It’s sad that Taco Bell thinks it is gourmet Mexican Food now. Any local taco shop with Mexicans working in the kitchens will give you huge burritos for cheap. Without adding tofu to the ground beef.
Exclusive transcriptions from the meeting room:
CEO: Why are those peasant stop buying? It can’t be the price. It’s just $9 raised, it’s not even a whole $10, which is by the way, should be a coin by now.
That’s like, what, a banana maybe?
LOL where did I heard this one before? I think it was in a TV show?
Does the rest of the show as good?
Yes and no. There’s some dated topical humor, and some of the seasons are not as good.
Overall a pretty good show though.The rest of the show is that good or better. It’s one of the best TV shows ever made.
(Heads up: S4 onward was a continuation years later by Netflix and feels a little different. Most people just remember the first 3 seasons.)
If you found this funny, you’ll absolutely love the entire show.
While I loved her in Archer, I just couldn’t get into Arrested Development. Weird thing is that she’s literally playing the same character, but I can’t stand Lucille Bluth, yet I adore Mallory Archer.
Just watched the pilot, I don’t think this is a fun comedy show, didn’t find one joke the entire episode. And tbh I just feel bad for Michael, the rest of the family is insufferable. If there’s one thing I hate more than ungratefully spoiled entitled rich kids, it’s seeing them taken advantage of good people, and they’re both of these.
In all honesty, it gets better as it progresses. The humor definitely isn’t for everyone. Much of the humor plays on itself, with references and throwbacks to past episodes.
And tbh I just feel bad for Michael, the rest of the family is insufferable.
That’s also part of the charm of the show … the entire family is terrible and Michael tries to do good by his son while also attempting to be a caring family member. I’d recommend to give it a bit more time before you give up entirely. There are lots of cameos from other actors (Henry Winkler, Liza Minelli, Charlize Theron) and you have the great Ron Howard as the narrator. If not, no biggie.
I went to a BBQ joint here in Texas a week ago. Got 3/4 lb of brisket and some potato salad for the missus and me.
To my surprise… It costed the same thing as 2 menu items at McDonald’s. Like seriously?..
What’s the point of going to subway and McDonald’s if I can just get some BBQ at a restaurant.
(Didn’t name the restaurant since I’m concerned this will make them realize they can charge more)
I quit them about 10 years ago when I asked for spinach on my sandwich and they gave me 3 small leaves of spinach for an upcharge. That and their instantly stale tasting bread made me done with the particular store and all Subway stores. Was a shame, because they were convenient to where I worked.
They thought they could charge the same money as real sandwich places. Lol.
Five. Five dollar foot longs. Any, any, any!
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Jersey Mike’s sucks though. Like, abysmal. I’ve been to their stores against my preferences often enough that it isn’t even a single store problem, the food is just unpleasant.
Which is a matter of opinion, obviously, but all food opinions are subjective to begin with.
I like it, the ones by me are awesome. Subway sandwiches on the other hand are terrible.
Yeah when I go in for work there’s a Subway just in a plaza near where I work like 2 minutes away. I’d rather go to the Jersey Mike’s 15min away for maybe a buck or two more. Used to like JK’s but I think Jersey’s a better value. Also I really lime that pepper relish lol.
But yeah bring back the $5 and I’d probably partake every so often. Cuz then the price would better reflect the quality and expectations.
Jersey Mike’s no longer does meatball subs :(
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It’s not a great meatball, but so few sandwich shops even have them these days. Jersey Mike’s used to have a great one. Quiznos had a decent one too.
Firehouse has one, but it’s not amazing either.
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Quiznos operated on super-low margins, and had a really tough combination of events in the late noughties that killed it.
First off, their big advantage over Subway was toasted sandwiches, and then Subway added toasters, started the “$5 Footlong” campaign to under cut on price, Quiznos corporate got taken over in a leveraged buyout that transferred massive debt to the company, and then they tried getting customers back by sending out millions of “Free Sandwich” coupons they expected the franchisees to honor at their own expense, which they overwhelmingly refused to do, resulting in a massive consumer backlash and boycott. And then the 2008/2009 financial meltdown hit.
That was all in like 18 months. It was brutal. Over 90% of locations closed in just a few years, and a quick Google search shows only 153 left in the country as of June out of nearly 5000.
There’s a gas station on I-35 north of Austin I know of that has one still, but the menu looks like it’s pretty different.
It’s a shame because they were decent sandwiches. I knew a guy who opened a bunch of them in Houston in the late 90s jslust before they really picked up steam nationally. He was doing pretty well for the first couple years. He died before the collapse, but I think he’d gotten out of Quiznos by then and was doing Buffalo Wild Wings locations.
I do have to give it to Quiznos for pioneering guacomole on a sandwich. I don’t think any other nationwide chain had done that. Oh yeah and they made the worst / most addictive commerciala ever with the Rats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZrks-BPeLQ
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The only Quiznos that I have eaten at in the last 3-4 years is in the Spokane Airport, and it is TERRIBLE. Like the worst microwaved rubber chicken you’ve ever had. Thankfully, Spokane Airport is finally getting a renovation with local restaurants in the terminal, so I think Quiznos will be down another location.
Isn’t jersey Mike’s a right wing douche restaurant?
You might be thinking of Jimmy John’s.
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Subway… Selling sandwiches that don’t contain actual bread,. Does not contain actual cheese. And does not contain actual meat. But DOES contain more odd chemicals than DOW Chemacals makes
That’s all the corpos and shareholders doing one last big squeeze before recession hits and the stock market crashes.
With Subway and it’s franchise system, it makes me wonder if they aren’t trying to intentionally tank 90% of the stores and rejig the whole operation, or potentially get rid of the franchises altogether. I have nothing to base this on, no education, no recent reading, nothing. I haven’t stepped foot in a subway since the oughts, and I had a chicken bacon ranch and the chicken was chewy to the point it brought back the memory of my brother telling me to get pata tacos in Mexico City.
That, I recall, was corporate Subway’s strategy with franchises: they’d open a corporate store next to any successful franchise and run them out if they didn’t incorporate the franchisee into a store manager.
When your local chain restaurant/fast food joint starts going off-menu to entice people to come in, you know a business is struggling. Seeing Churros on the menu in a Mexican establishment is perfectly normal. Seeing Churros on the Subway menu is a bit alarming.
I think it’s pretty clear the Subway execs (or the executives of their parent/holding company) foresee a recession and are doing as much profit-taking as possible while there’s still time before the big crash hits and everybody tightens up their budgets.
Nah I think it’s far more that they’ve developed a reputation as cheap, everywhere, and mediocre then they raised the prices massively. I don’t know anyone who thinks “you know what I’m craving? Subway”. They used to have other niches but sub shops are common and I can get a better vegetarian option elsewhere and for cheaper.
I don’t think they can pull out of this tailspin unless they slash prices to the bone
Absolutely.
Look all around you and what you see in pretty much all domains is large corporations wringing every drop of brand value they can from accumulated customer brand awareness and loyalty, from enshittification of pretty much everything Internet and of electronics from brands which were previously seen as a good quality-price balance, to forced subscriptions (hi, Adobe) and even as in this case, store chains with well known brands in everything from consumer goods to fast food pushing prices up and/or quantity and quality low.
Sure, for many if not most this will trash those companies’ brands, but as the C-suite at those places have been taught in their MBAs, “by the time it blows up, I’ll be long gone and laughing all the way to the bank to visit all that money I made from bonuses and a golden umbrella”
Yeah they seem to think of “brand value” as loyalty akin to what people feel for a local sports team, and some brands do have that “hometown favorite” value. I know my hometown brand of potato chips definitely does taste like home. But also, they need to be thinking of it in a term that business ghouls can understand: professional reputation.
The organization of subway has a bad professional reputation. Its customers are unimpressed by its services in their transactions with it, they feel it offers a bad value proposition.
Businesses have gotten accustomed to the brand treadmill rather than just doing something well and being ok with the margins that provides. And if it isn’t an investment in growth a business should be able to reach that point where it finds stability and maintains it, providing stable profits.
Subway spent a long time and a lot of marketing money training their customers that a sandwich should cost $5 and taste fine. Not great, but fine. But then the doubled the cost and halved the quality. They spent years teaching customers to avoid the sandwich they now serve.
Little Caesars had a similar problem, but instead of doubling the price, they raised it $1. Cheap pizza for $5 is fine, and cheap pizza for $6 still feels fine.
My local Little Caesars sells the basic pizzas for $9.97 now. Crazy Bread went from $1.99 to $4.99.
Dang, really? Hot n ready’s are $6.50 here
I sometimes crave subway, but I’m autistic and weird with food.
I don’t know anyone that has ever eaten at Subway and said “damn, that was really good”. It’s more of “eh, I’m not hungry anymore”.
I absolutely love subway (not my favorite subs but definitely up there) the prices are just too high. They got greedy and it bit them in the ass
Subway has churros because the parent company owns auntie anne’s
Seeing Churros on the menu in a Mexican establishment is perfectly normal. Seeing Churros on the Subway menu is a bit alarming.
Some of that is just regional. Seeing churros on the menu at a Houston Subway isn’t particularly alarming.
They have churros on my local subway menu, as well as a pizza, and a footlong pretzel stick.
We’re in New England…
For me it isn’t that churros are on the menu at Subway.
It’s that RIDICULOUSLY FUCKING HUGE churros are on the menuy at Subway.
If you are eating a foot’s worth of churro, you’ve eaten too much churro.
Meh it’s a stick that’s about a foot long and the diameter of a nickel.
Which is basically one big bar of sugar and carbs.
This is a fast food restaurant that serves sandwiches made out of entire loaves of bread.
I’m not saying Subway doesn’t also offer way too much of everything else too, but churros were what we were talking about.
Subway offers too much of everything.
But I will say the veggie patties are pretty tasty. They don’t attempt to replicate meat.
Exactly how I feel for with Subway specifically. Half their coupons don’t even work for any of the chains we try in our city lol.
Considering the coupons are 3 footings for $18 and they’re practically charging that for a single sandwich now, I can see why.
How their overhead is that unprofitable considering their food is mostly cold and ready to eat I’ll never know.
They almost doubled the price of their stuff. No fucking way I am paying that. I’ll pack my own sandwiches…
I went to a subway exactly once. Their bread felt like a sad sponge. I never set foot in one since.
Congratulations?
You could probably say that to the majority of social media comments, right?
Congratulations!
I also had one of these the other day. I posted a comment about a place selling exotic, tropical fruit. I get a response from a user about how it’s too expensive but they live near the farm so they’d just drive there.
What’s their point? What are we supposed to do with this?
I think that’s because legally it can’t be called bread because of the sugar.
I went to a Subway in the Netherlands last year. Luckily I was near my hotel, I had to rush to the toilet.
