Subway should offer healthier options

As Subway awaits the celebration of its 50th anniversary in August, the once-favored sandwich chain has experienced a decline in sales faster than any other Top-25 American food chain. According to the Washington Post, the decline might be a result of Subway’s rivals stealing its customers away by offering fresher, healthier “build-your-own” meals. Ironically, it seems like Subway is losing at the game that it originally made popular.

According to Darren Tristano, the executive vice president of industry researcher Technomic, “The ‘Subway fresh’ has lost its appeal with customers, because to them fresh has evolved to mean something very different.” As health standards have evolved, many are choosing to eat at restaurants where they can enjoy healthier, tastier food.

Additionally, Tristano said that, “Subway’s strategy has only been to open more stores, and ultimately those stores just cannibalize each other.” It appears that Subway is not only losing customers from other restaurant chains; its own stores are also competing against one another for customers.

Within recent years, there has been a higher demand for healthier food options as customers are becoming more conscious of food and health. To keep up with changes in customer tastes, Subway expanded its menu by offering healthier add-ons, such as hummus and avocado. Its reduced sales, however, indicate a failure to use “healthy” as a marketing strategy.

As Subway starts to lose customers, chains such as Chipotle continue to experience a rise in sales.  In the last quarter of 2014, investors reported that Chipotle stores that had been open for more than a year had a 16.1 percent increase in sales. In this new environment where the importance of health quality has risen in customers’ minds, Chipotle is certainly the leading competitor.  With the motto, “food with integrity,” Chipotle has differentiated the quality of its food items compared to other “fast-casual” restaurants by ensuring that customers get the very best ingredients. The chain uses organic vegetables and meat from animals raised without hormones or antibiotics. By using ingredients of a higher caliber, Chipotle succeeds in alluring the health-conscious customers of today.

Chipotle’s success in the face of Subway’s decline can be boiled down to the fact that American customers have changed their concept of health, whereas Subway seemingly has not.

Subway’s attempt to continually brand itself as a “healthy” food chain has not proven successful, despite having a vegetarian-friendly menu full of fresh vegetables. Consumer surveys by Technomic found that, “Subway’s food taste, flavor and visual appeal sagged among American respondents over the past year.”  Restaurants such as Chipotle that have successfully marketed themselves as “healthy” undeniably play a huge role in the changing tastes and perspectives of customers. Subway’s inability to keep up with this trend has led to a lackluster ranking of 467 on Franchise Grade, a franchise polling and review service.  Other sandwich competitors, such as Firehouse Subs and Jersey Mike’s Subs, were ranked 107 and 108, respectively.

This transformation in the eating trends of the people, specifically in youths, is a positive reflection on educated eating habits.  In general, people have become more health conscious without wanting to compromise taste. After all, what would be better than getting the best of both worlds at a considerably cheap cost?

Subway’s declining sales shouldn’t come as breaking news. Until Subway realizes and accepts the evolved definition of “fresh” food for the American population, no amount of new stores opened can be successful in winning back its market segment.