Favorites never stay
About a year ago I was in a Jersey Mike's and learned my favorite large cookie was no longer available. I thought it was a temporary thing like they ran out of product, but no - this was permanent. There was no more large cookie so like any normal people I ranted on Twitter and then stopped going there.
These cookies were always slightly under-cooked, never burned and full of solid chunks of chocolate. It was my highlight every time I got a sandwich there so I was very sad when the cookie was abruptly ended. The web tells me I can re-order that exact cookie from their supplier (David's Cookie) but getting a box of 45-60 cookies is a bit much for a home.
I then started thinking about Quiznos which used to be my favorite sandwich place until all the stores closed around me. By luck I was traveling and saw a Quiznos in range and I was excited to experience my favorite sandwich from back in the college years. I'd always get the Italian sandwich and then depending how it was made load it up with extra pickles, peppers and red wine vinaigrette from the flavor station. This would be a little stand full of peppers and pickles and sauces to optionally enhance your sandwich.
Sadly the station was not set up and the menu seemed completely different. My favorite Italian sandwich was still an order, but now it had a set of items on it and the guy was asking me if I'd like to take anything off. I removed black olives, but in the past I could see all the toppings in front of me, but now I was flying blind with no insight to all available toppings.
How had my favorite place toppled so hard? From poor customization of a sandwich to an empty flavor station I was sad with how the quality had collapsed. I wanted to figure out why all these Quiznos locations had closed, which thankfully was a highly researched topic already.
Between 2007 and 2017, Quiznos shrunk from 4,700 U.S. locations to fewer than 400. We can find no other example of a chain that had grown to that size that has shrunk that much in such a short period of time.
It reminded me how I lost another favorite sandwich place known as Which Wich. These stores took an interesting approach to ordering and had you pick a bag after your base sandwich and check a bunch of boxes to configure it your liking.
I'd grab a #7 (Italian) and a permanent marker and mark this sandwich down for so many great toppings. Turning it into a sandwich that closely resembled what my final product would be at a Quiznos. Sometimes I got creative and checked the box for like hot peppers or grilled onions - it was fun experimenting with sandwich orders.
Of course COVID-19 hit and this chain came out of that changed. As I visited in 2020 or later I found the customization was gone. When I pulled a bag it just had boxes of items to remove from the sandwich - not add. I asked the employees if I could add other things and they said - "Sure! Just add it on the back or wherever there is space".
So I wrote like pickles or pickled red onions on the back of the bag which was promptly ignored when I unwrapped my sandwich later. I can imagine the order process might have been difficult for a staff member looking at a grid of 20-30 check-boxes and aligning them in their head to build the right sandwich. The process may have changed to reduce errors or make it easier on staff, but boy that ended my attraction to this place. Such a petty reason to no longer return, but the customization that attracted me to this place was gone.
As I summarized those three experiences they all roughly relate to a company solidifying on a smaller set of products or configurations. I don't know why this is, but I'm guessing there is little chance of human mistakes with a smaller menu with little customization. Unfortunately for me the customization of sandwiches is what attracts me to most of these places. Thankfully as I lose a favorite place it isn't long until I discover a new place for my sandwich obsession.