SUBWAY - Life in America

[Music] you might be surprised to learn that the fast food franchise with the most locations is not mcdonald's subway is number one when it comes to locations worldwide but before they were the world's largest fast food chain subway was an idea a 17 year old had to help him pay for college in 1965 dr peter buck a nuclear physicist offered to partner with a college freshman named fred deluca to open a submarine sandwich shop to help him pay for tuition dr buck provided the initial investment of one thousand dollars and deluca spent the money on a sandwich cafe in bridgeport connecticut that he named pete's super submarines naming the sub shop after dr peter buck [Music] deluca used radio to promote his business but he found that pete's submarines sounded like pizza marines which confused listeners as a result deluca and dr buck decided to rename the company pete's subway and then in 1968 they simplified it even further to just subway [Music] when deluca first opened his sub shop he knew nothing about making sandwiches or the food industry he was truly figuring things out as he went along despite his inexperience he saw success pretty quickly the very first day they sold 312 sandwiches each costing between 49 and 69 cents [Music] a year into their venture the two formed a holding company to oversee the expansion of their restaurant and they named it doctors associates because deluca was trying to pay for medical school and dr buck was a phd the history of the subway logo dates all the way back to the very first sandwich shop that deluca and buck opened after changing the name of their restaurant to subway the two men developed a yellow logo with arrows coming out of the s and y in subway this logo remained in place with only slight changes throughout the majority of subway's impressive growth the two arrows in the logo serve to promote the idea of movement and motion indicating a healthier choice from other fast food brands by 1974 the company began to franchise deluca and dr buck opened the first subway franchise in wallingford connecticut wallingford was convenient for the pair because it's about 30 miles from bridgeport the site of the original pete's submarines by 1975 subway introduced their flagship sandwich the classic bmt which is named for the brooklyn manhattan transit system but later it is referred to as biggest meatiest tastiest in advertising campaigns the next big introduction would come in 1977 when they first sold the snack subway sandwich which will later be renamed the six-inch sub [Music] within just a few years subway began to see incredible success franchises spread across the country with the very first subway on the west coast opening in fresno california in 1978 the decor inside subway restaurants would get an addition in 1980 when stores added murals of the new york city transit map on their walls this began in just one store in ithaca new york and then spread to the other locations [Music] 1982 saw the opening of subway's 300th location the expansion continued and by 1984 the restaurant opened their first international store in bahrain subway restaurants were popping up everywhere by 1990 they had 5 000 locations and were continuing to grow one of the reasons that subway grew so quickly was because of the cost to open a franchise which was significantly cheaper than other franchises one hundred to two hundred thousand dollars were the startup costs compared to over a million dollars for a mcdonald's franchise [Music] throughout the 1990s in the early 2000s health became more of a priority for many americans so subway marketed itself as the healthier alternative when subway introduced consumers to jared fogle who lost 200 pounds by eating subway sandwiches every day sales rose by 20 percent then when the recession of 2008 began subway responded with their five dollar foot long campaign which boosted sales once again subway's founder fred deluca served as the company's ceo until 2015. a couple years prior he had been diagnosed with leukemia and the disease ended up taking his life on september 14th 2015. prior to his death deluca turned over control of his company to his sister suzanne greco the decades of success and seemingly doing everything right would come to a halt in 2015. jared fogle the former face of the company pleaded guilty to child sex crimes and he was sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison [Music] then the ubiquity of subway locations began to hinder their success many stores were underperforming and by 2016 subway closed 359 locations which was more stores than they had opened that year the trend of closing stores would continue and to this day they are still shedding locations although they still have nearly 43 000 locations worldwide mcdonald's is behind them with 37 000 locations subway has continued to struggle to find its footing with more and more competitors in the healthy and fresh food space but the chain is still beloved and has a strong following when fred deluca first opened his small sandwich shop back in 1965 he had no idea it would grow into the billion dollar business it became the success of a small startup restaurant with just one thousand dollars should provide us with phenomenal hope in our own entrepreneurial endeavors remember on that first day deluca sold 312 subs today subway serves approximately five thousand sandwiches every minute [Music] you

Channel: Recollection Road

Views: 40,567

Keywords: Recollection Road, nostalgia, memories, photos, history, closed, forgotten, business, past, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, memory, yesteryear, golden age, photo album, oldies, fifties, sixties, abandoned, 20th century, subway, sandwich, submarine, pete's subway, peter buck, fred deluca, bmt, cold cut combo, five dollar footlong, jared fogle, restaurant, fast food, eat fresh, deli

Id: VaJ8KaK0B1E

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021