Customers Say This Sandwich Chain Just Isn't Worth The Price

Most people buy from sandwich chains with the understanding that the price tags on their food pay for the convenience of having someone else source and assemble the sandwiches for you. Because of this, it will always be more expensive than eating at home. However, some places charge way more than what the food is worth, and customers online have said Subway has become one of America's most overpriced fast food chains.

A Reddit thread expressing sticker shock at Subway's current prices showed a receipt for two footlong subs and two drinks that totaled over $35, which didn't seem right for a chain that used to be the "affordable option." One commenter expressed that there was no way on Earth they'd pay $14 for a Subway sandwich, while another said it cost them nearly $50 to feed their three family members. On a separate Reddit thread complaining about Subway's prices, several users mentioned never eating at one unless they have discount coupons.

Some Subway locations may also be more overpriced than others, even when they're in the same city, and this is because they have different owners (or franchisees). The same goes for quality — a user on Reddit shared that one of the two Subways in their town has much fresher food than the other, which in turn would make it more worth your money.

If you take a look at other sandwich chains, you'll notice that a lot of Subway's competitors are priced similarly. Let's take a look: A footlong Classic Italian sub at Quiznos will set you back about $13 — around the same price as a footlong Spicy Italian at Subway — while the larger 14-inch giant Mike's Hot Italian from Jersey Mike's costs around $17. At Jimmy John's, a 16-inch giant Vito is also around $17. So why do people keep saying Subway is overpriced? A lot of it has to do with a mistake the chain can never erase: the $5 footlong promo it ran from 2008 to 2012. Pricing the subs so low likely set Subway up for failure.

Curious why? In 2022, research firm Veylinx conducted a study on how price increases affected customers' demand for cereals. It found that the higher the price increase, the less people wanted the cereal — a 21% increase, for example, dropped demand by 15% among regular eaters. So jumping from $5 footlongs to $13 ones is a 160% price jump, which can make Subway seem like it isn't worth it despite its prices being roughly around the average for sandwich chains.

At the same time, our expectations are often affected by what psychologists call the "price-quality heuristic", which is the common notion that the price of a product is directly correlated with its perceived quality. By pricing footlongs at $5 more than a decade ago, Subway set the expectation that its quality would be on the lower end (as in, you get what you pay for), which makes $13 for the same sandwich today feel more like a rip-off.

Sometimes, getting lunch from Subway is still the most sensible option, especially on busy days. And if you want to get the most bang for your buck, your best option is to really lean on what sets Subway apart from most of its competition: the amount of free customization the sandwich chain offers.

Back in 2018, Subway briefly ditched its popular "Eat Fresh" tagline for "Make It What You Want," a campaign that highlighted the slew of customization options it offered on its sandwiches. While "Eat Fresh" made it back to the forefront after a couple of years, "Make It What You Want" was the perfect way to highlight the fact that customers can add more vegetables and sauces to their sandwiches at no extra cost, which is something other chains don't do. The $13 you're paying for your sub likely covers the cost of loading your sandwich with all those additional veggies and sauces, so you might as well take advantage of the offer.

You can keep an eye out for the many different promos that pop up across Subway locations. The chain recently launched its "Sub of the Day" campaign, where you can pick up a different 6-inch sub each day of the week for only $4.99. It may be half the size of $5 footlongs, but modern economics made sure those days are long gone. Not everyone can fight off inflation like Costco's $1.50 hot dogs, after all.