What’s the story behind this bun behemoth? We did a little digging to reveal the fun facts behind eating fresh.
Secret Menus and Special Orders
- You won’t find the specials you find on Subway’s “secret menu” in stores, but sandwich artists will go to great lengths to accommodate. According to one sandwich artist, a customer ordered and received a footlong BMT (Bigger Meatier Tastier) with over 16 times the regular portions of everything, including meat, toppings, cheese, and bread. The sandwich cost $86 and wouldn’t fit in a takeaway bag.
- You could make 37 million unique subs from the variety of ingredients found in Subway restaurants worldwide.
Staggering Statistics
- You can order a 27-foot sub for $432 from the Subway catering menu.
- Subway is the largest restaurant franchise in the world with 44,072 stores in 110 countries as of 2016. That averages to opening about two stores per day since its founding in 1965.
- Subway owns around 46,000 hens that lay 1.4 million eggs per year for use in its cookie dough.
- Subway uses more cookie dough, tomatoes, and tuna than any other foodservice company — including other high-volume restaurant chains and government institutions — in the world.
- You could fill 600,000 regulation professional ice hockey rinks with the amount of cheese Subway uses in a year.
- With the number of sandwiches Subway sells in one year, you could leave a trail of subs that encircles the globe 14 times.
- Subway serves 17.6 millions subs each day, 320,000 subs each hour, and 5,300 subs every second.
- When the first store, then called “Pete’s Super Submarines,” opened in 1965, sandwiches cost $0.49 each.
- Subway uses 16 acres of lettuce each day.
- Subway, often touted as a “healthier” alternative to conventional fast-food restaurants, doesn’t differ much from McDonald’s when it comes to a customer’s average calorie consumption per meal. According to a 2013 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health, participants consistently purchased meals averaging 1,038 calories from McDonald’s and meals averaging 955 calories from Subway.
Astounding Locations and Customer Service
- On rainy days, stores throughout Southern California give customers a free six-inch sub and hot soup with the purchase of a six-inch sub and large drink.
- In 2010, Subway provided the workers erecting 1 World Trade Center with a “Subway pod store” whose location rose up as the building grew for easy access.