An article in the Wall Street journal awhile ago said that Subway was the hardest franchise of its kind for franchisees to earn a profit – there are also anti-subway franchiser ‘angry’ websites.
Is there any evidence or statistics showing this to be so? Are subway franchisees really unhappy? Why? Is it the pickle counting they have to do?
I thought it was Quiznos that had cornered the market on angry franchisees.
I read in a German newsmagazine in circa 2007 (no cite, sorry) that the German Subway subsidiary apparently did not take franchises’ profitability into account when signing on franchisees. Particularly, the people recruiting franchisees got a one-time commission for every franchise signed on, which meant that new franchisees saw another Subway opening at the same time a few streets over. They were not happy about that and a few had to close soon.
I don’t know if that also was/is the case in the US.
They occasionally inflict soul crushing disappointment…
Even worse. It’s a CONSPIRACY!
Subway has (so far as I know) absolutely no franchise area protections. Competitors can set up a Subway right next door to your facility and there is nothing you can do about it. Great for the franchise fee driven franchisor, but not an ideal model for making a profit.
That comic reminded me of what a cool word “tessellate” is, which I haven’t heard since 10th grade geometry.
Next time I go into a Subway, I am totally asking them to tessellate my cheese and watching how they react.
