Good Lifestyle

In an effort to save the face as a result ofrecent drama and decrease in sales, the metro has beenAll a great brand transformation This takes place in its stores, a telephone application and on the menu. But on the basis of the initial examinations, the new changes have failed to win clients.

Food criticism for thePost of New York called theirnewly launched sandwiches "just as vile as the old" while an examination in theWashington Post Aims to execute Lucwarm from the new and improved customer experience, indicating that non-inspired ingredient combos and staff that still do not know how to perform the newly launched menu items.

RELATED:Metro tuna is probably a by-product of the mounting chain, says Expert

Even the franchisees of the sandwich chain - who were stirred to find their foot with this attempt to rebranding - are less than delighted the results of the "biggest menu of the history of the history of the metro". According to an operator on the west coast that spoke to us under the condition of anonymity, the menu upgrade metro has been deployed is only smoke and mirrors. A glance on the scenes reveals an even more disappointing image of the chain in difficulty.

Fresh cooling eaten was a sloppy job

At the heart of the fresh refresh eatery, the "new" new and improved "metro" ingredients were used to make new submarines: Turkey Cali Fresh, Steak Cali Fresh, Subway Club and All-American Club. The chain affirms that their "new" bacon is crisp, the "new" Turkey and ham with slices of charcuterie, and the "new" steak is thicker and more juvenile. But, according to our inner source, the changes consisted that minor modifications to existing ingredients.

"Our Turkey can be decided more finely now," our source says, "But it's exactly the same Turkey we previously used."

The metro operator stated that the company's thought behind the cut of their "Deli-Thin" ingredients was that the optics of the subsidy would change. "The optic counts, of course, but we have to pay for that. Our work has increased."

Other innovations, such as the addition of mozzarella, chicken to roasting roasting and roast beef (which, according to theWashington Post, is not even available yet), are mere resurrences of popular ingredients that have already been cut into the menu. "We had chicken roaster on the menu a year ago and it used to do well before it's cut off," says our source. "It's now back to the menu and it's a revolution?"

The Updated menu was announced eight weeks before deployment, the operator said, which confirms the declaration of the North American trade unit, the Trevor Haynes Declaration that the upgrade was not something " We thought a Monday and we delivered a Friday. " However, the subway seemed to have come with the idea of ​​refreshing first, then scrambled to reverse the changes that should have been at the heart of it.

"They announced it 8 to 10 weeks ago but continued to add more things to update. It felt like you had the idea of ​​refreshing and thinking" what can we Add to that? "Every week," our source says.

Thousands of free sandwiches went unclaimed

But maybe the biggest catastrophe was the main sub-gift of the chain that accompanied the big new menu deployment. The metro announced that on July 13th, it would give a million free sandwiches to the first 50 customers of each of their locations. And although the promise of free food usually sponsor a retail drawing of major traffic in fast food restaurants, it seems that the metro could not give its expected number of free sandwiches ... because customers did not want them Just not.

According to our source, which operates several metro locations and regularly communicates with his franchise colleagues, the average number of free sandwiches being given was a 20 per place measure.

"There were some shops that had 50 gifts, but frankly, most stores managed 10 to 20," says our source. "That's what I've heard at least 100 franchisees."

Our source says that before the launch, thought was that sandwiches "bring people back to metro restaurants that seem well, operational and will have this new product that people will be excited." But the company would have tried to minimize the intention behind the gift once it became clear, it was a failure.

"Then, the party line has changed. They said the gift was only a small piece of this big change and it was not even a commercial room, it was a piece of public relations."

Nevertheless, even as a cascade of public relations, the free sandwiches ended up harming operators already in difficulty. The metro paid the ingredients of the millions of submarine campaign, but the cost of labor in an already narrow labor market found themselves on the shoulders of the franchisees. "They counted $ 1.60 hundred by sandwich, which is the cost of the ingredients, but the cost of the workforce and all the other costs were brought by the franchisees."

Metro called the refund issued to its franchisees "online with industry standards".

Disappointing initial returns?

This is not the first time the operators stated that the promotional agreements of the Company had injured their financial result. A similar complaint was made public in 2020 when an investigation showed thatAs much as three quarters of the US franchisees opposed the 10-year footlong agreement., who "would simply double their losses" on a fairy already not profitable of $ 5. According toRestaurant BusinessThe company had "done few things to make its case to the operators for the reason why the offer is necessary and that they can make money."

Fresh consumption refreshment seems to be a similar non-profitable company, according to our source, which says that returns have been weak since the deployment. "The operators started to ask: If we abandoned half a million sandwiches on Tuesday, how many of them were sold the following days? [The rate of] come back and buy [the new sandwiches] was almost zero. He Do not stick in people's minds. "

The metro, on the other hand, provided a different story from their sandwich gift. "Overall, restaurants have seen a large lift in sales and traffic, which has led some of the best sales figures that the brand has seen for years," said a spokesman for the company .

For more, discover:

• The metro aggressively defends its tuna with a new movement
• The famous spokesman for Subway would never have eaten the food of the chain
• The worst sandwich # 1 at the metro, says a dietician

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Note from the publisher: This item has been updated on July 20 with a comment of Subway.