Thousands of free sandwiches went unclaimed
But perhaps the biggest disaster was the chain's major sub giveaway that accompanied the big new menu rollout. Subway announced that on July 13, it would give away a million free sandwiches to the first 50 customers at each of their locations. And while the promise of free food usually spells a major traffic draw to fast-food restaurants, it seems that Subway couldn't give away their planned number of free sandwiches… because customers simply didn't want them.

According to our source, who operates several Subway locations and communicates with fellow franchisees regularly, the average number of free sandwiches given away was a measly 20 per location.

"There were a few stores that did have 50 giveaways, but quite frankly, most stores managed 10 to 20," our source says. "That's what I've heard from at least 100 franchisees."

Our source says that before the launch, the thinking was that the sandwiches would "bring people back to Subway's restaurants which are looking good, operationally tight, and will have this new product that people will be excited about." But the company allegedly tried to downplay the intention behind the giveaway once it became clear it was a failure.

"Then the party line changed. They said the giveaway was just a small piece of this big change and it wasn't even a commercial piece, it was a PR piece."

Still, even as a PR stunt, the free sandwiches ended up hurting the already struggling operators. Subway compensated the ingredients for the million subs campaign, but the cost of labor in an already tight labor market ended up falling on the franchisees' shoulders. "They comped $1.60 cents per sandwich, which is the cost of ingredients, but the labor cost and every other cost was borne by the franchisees."

Subway called the reimbursement issued to its franchisees "in-line with industry standards."

http://Https://www.eatthis.com/news-subway-sandwiches-free/

Thousands of free sandwiches went unclaimed
But perhaps the biggest disaster was the chain's major sub giveaway that accompanied the big new menu rollout. Subway announced that on July 13, it would give away a million free sandwiches to the first 50 customers at each of their locations. And while the promise of free food usually spells a major traffic draw to fast-food restaurants, it seems that Subway couldn't give away their planned number of free sandwiches… because customers simply didn't want them.

According to our source, who operates several Subway locations and communicates with fellow franchisees regularly, the average number of free sandwiches given away was a measly 20 per location.

"There were a few stores that did have 50 giveaways, but quite frankly, most stores managed 10 to 20," our source says. "That's what I've heard from at least 100 franchisees."

Our source says that before the launch, the thinking was that the sandwiches would "bring people back to Subway's restaurants which are looking good, operationally tight, and will have this new product that people will be excited about." But the company allegedly tried to downplay the intention behind the giveaway once it became clear it was a failure.

"Then the party line changed. They said the giveaway was just a small piece of this big change and it wasn't even a commercial piece, it was a PR piece."

Still, even as a PR stunt, the free sandwiches ended up hurting the already struggling operators. Subway compensated the ingredients for the million subs campaign, but the cost of labor in an already tight labor market ended up falling on the franchisees' shoulders. "They comped $1.60 cents per sandwich, which is the cost of ingredients, but the labor cost and every other cost was borne by the franchisees."

Subway called the reimbursement issued to its franchisees "in-line with industry standards."

http://Https://www.eatthis.com/news-subway-sandwiches-free/