Subway closes stores in U.S. (Image via World Atlas)

Mismanagement Franchise Agreement in Subway

Subway is known all over the world. The fast food that is famous for selling sandwich was recorded to have 33,749 worldwide by the end of 2010. Subway has been in the game for decades (founded in 1965) and it is now the largest fast-food chain in the world. It even has more stores than McDonald’s.

The reason why they’re everywhere is because it is easy to be a franchiser for Subway. One would only need $15,000 for the license and they can open a U.S. store with a total investment only $116,000. It is no wonder why a lot of immigrants decided to be franchisers of Subway. However, throughout the years, Subway has closed about 2,000 of their stores in the U.S.

It was all started in 2015, when Subway’s founder, Fred DeLuca died due to leukemia that year. He founded Subway in 1965 and began franchising in 1974. Since then, he was the one who control everything regarding to the management of Subway. Unfortunately after his death, it seems like Subway is struggling to get back on their feet.

The management of Subway even forced to close the stores due to ridiculous reasons. They created an internal inspector team who would go to stores to maintain their franchise. However, store owners revealed that these inspectors would find hand prints on windows and cucumbers sliced to thick, and report it to the headquarters. Using these evidences, Subway would ask the owner to close the store.

An immigrant couple, Manoj and Sadhana Tripathi open Subway stores in Orinda, California. They revealed they used to have 40 stores, but now they only have 10. Reasons why Subway is doing this have not revealed yet, but many store owners believe that Subway is not transparent and their management is quite a mystery.

Source: https://www.eater.com/2019/6/28/19154221/subway-restaurant-owners-allege-franchise-agents-conflict-of-interest