Also something of an exercise in my experience of how bad sandwich franchises can be.

It's interesting watching the cycle of startup -> optimization for customer value -> brand buyout -> optimization for profit.

F.ex. Blimpie (MTY 2016), Jimmy Johns (Roark 2016), Firehouse Sub (RBI 2021), Subway (Roark 2023), Jersey Mike's (Blackstone 2024)

Subway's really the only one of those I have any personal experience with. But from my perspective it's pretty much long been awful.

I remember Subway being somewhat better in the mid-90s. Still not great, but better. E.g. tomatoes were actually ripe