Subway Restaurants Don’t Have to Be Boring or Close More Locations

I grew up in a rural Georgia town in the late 80s, early 90s where there were few restaurant options available. We did not have a McDonalds. Our small downtown was anchored by two choices: Hardee’s down by the community college, and on the opposite end was Dairy Queen. The cool kids drove in circles through Hardee’s and down to DQ, then back. My friends were not hip enough for this dizzying activity, so we spent our time at Subway. Wherein one of my friends managed to fit an entire 6" sub into his mouth, pull it out, laugh about it, then ate it — bite by bite.

Subway was considered a healthier choice then. The marketing made it seem as if it was literally owned by doctors (Doctor’s Associates, Inc). The internet was still in its early days, and this rural town operates on a ten year lag, so we didn’t exactly fact check any claims, nor would we have really known what facts to check for, since healthy eating was low fat eating. Plus, we were teenagers: we asked for double meat and extra sauce. Then Jared, their television spokesperson, lost lots of weight. Anyway, Subway was healthy.

Today, my rural town still has a Subway, but they’re starting to close across the country, sales are down, and few consider their food to be very healthy. I ate there today for lunch, and left full, but also left pondering what…