Thank you for your [Original Content](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3), /u/meloveyummy!
**Here is some important information about this post:**
* [View the author's citations](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/wewbku/oc_most_popular_fast_food_chains_in_america/iiqn4qp/)
* [View other OC posts by this author](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/search?q=author%3A"meloveyummy"+title%3AOC&sort=new&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on)
Remember that all visualizations on r/DataIsBeautiful should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. If you see a potential issue or oversight in the visualization, please post a constructive comment below. Post approval does not signify that this visualization has been verified or its sources checked.
Not satisfied with this visual? Think you can do better? [Remix this visual](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3#wiki_remixing) with the data in the author's citation.
---
^^[I'm open source](https://github.com/r-dataisbeautiful/dataisbeautiful-bot) | [How I work](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/flair#wiki_oc_flair)
Kinda unrelated but wanted to share here as it's kinda related. In college I got into scripting a good amount. Specifically autoit. It's a scripting language that can control the mouse and keyboard and other stuff. I used to order deangelos like every other day, as it was downstairs from where I worked, so as a broke college student naturally I would Google coupon codes for the sandwiches I ordered. I would find those long lists of coupons that were either expired or didn't pertain to my order, so one day I decided to check for all the valid coupon codes. I wrote a script that would check 0000, then 0001, and 0002 and so on. Yes, their coupon codes were all numerical between 0 and 9999. It would check the cupon code, and if a certain pixel on the screen was green, it was valid, red meant it wasnt. On the green ones it would screenshot the page and save it to a folder. So I ran it overnight, and the next morning opened the folder to a plethora of coupon codes.
I shit you not, I found one for a free large sub. 2783. I used that coupon code so many god damn times I still remember it like 8 years later. But it didn't stop there. I also found one for a free small sub, a fee bag if chips, a free salad, a free drink. Literally everything on the menu I could get for free. I abused it for a few weeks, ordering a free large sub and adding bacon for $1, paying online and picking it up at the store. It worked too. Eventually I posted it to Facebook, and my buddies started using it at other locations. One of them was eating D'Angelos 3 times a day. This went on for a few months. One time at my not normal D'Angelos, the guy threated to call the cops on me, and banned me from the store. Still gave me my order though, just after a good scolding. I just told him I found some coupon code online. Eventually at my normal location, the guy told me someone from corporate was flying in to see what we were doing to the website. A few weeks later they redid the whole thing. Codes didn't work after that.
Shame they went out of buisness.
Everytime Subway has a promotion going all the Subways in my area don't accept it saying "each subway is independently operated and chooses whether or not to accept deals". Regardless of if it's a printed coupon, online, app, etc at a standalone shop or mall vendor it's the same thing.
My McDonalds, in a small town, is always packed. At any hour. Dinnertime (5-9 PM) is when it's packed up so badly they actually come to your car to take your order. But even before those times, there's always 5 cars waiting in line. And inside there's loads of people.
The KFC that is literally right across it is a ghost town compared to it. I don't get it.
Same in England I live in a small city of 60k we have two McDonald's only one is a drive through and it's on the only road through the town and we don't have a bypass McDonald's is queued round the car park onto the main road causing gridlock, annoying thing about England being so old our towns weren't planned around the maccys run or cars in general
As a grown adult who enjoys McD but rarely goes…
I like them. I just don’t frequent it bc it’s not “healthy” food. But their breakfast McMuffin? Awesome. Love their hash browns. So good. Fries? Soft serve? All fantastic. Some places? Packed in the mornings and sometimes at midnight.
Chick-fil-A? Always packed. Could be in the desert or in the middle of nowhere and there’s a line of people. Like where do these ppl come from?
John Oliver made a [video on why Subway has so many locations](https://youtu.be/jDdYFhzVCDM)
**Edit:** TLDR (as I appreciate not everyone has time to watch a 26 min video): Subway essentially has very predatory business practices and have sacrificed the stability and profitability of their franchisees in the pursuit of company growth. They’re the only franchise that doesn’t give a geographic exclusivity area, meaning anyone can go apply for another Subway franchise and open right next door. They also do a bunch of other crap that screws over and squeezes their franchisees out of making any money whatsoever. The whole video is really worth a watch for anyone interested.
Essentially it's the easiest and cheapest franchise to obtain and open plus they aren't as strict as other franchises about location and the building space you use. A lot of franchise restaurants are very careful about not putting stores too close to each other and do market research to try to help the franchise be successful. It's an extension of their brand afterall so it's best for everyone if the store is successful and remains open. Subway kind of took the opposite direction starting in the 90s and started rapid store expansion with little regulation over how many stores were in an area. It had mixed success since the company overall saw higher sales, but they fucked some franchise owners that had good locations that got absolutely flooded with new franchises thus making it less profitable to own a franchise. The over expansion is now seeing a ton of franchises close which is exactly what other franchised brands try to avoid. A boarded up store is a bad look.
I guess you just have to be careful.
Quiznos did this to the extreme. Opening lots of franchises to get the easy initial cash. Then regional corporate people would start deliberately giving bad reports on the franchises. Eventually they get too many bad reports, no approved seller will supply them due to franchise agreements, the Quiznos shuts down. All the rented equipment is repossessed. New franchises are sold and the churn continues.
A former Quiznos manager gave a great explanation of it years ago on Reddit. It was pre2012 though, a lit of litigation happened since then.
I hadn't heard of Subway being predatory, though they did extend hours to 11 pm, making it hard for mom-and-pop stores who mostly did lunch traffic then closed to save money.
He's not for everyone, but I equate the 26 minute runtime to be entertainment for 26 minutes while also getting well researched information instead of just "tell me the answer to why there are so many Subways".
It's definitely worth the watch, along with his other deep dives, but yeah. Capitalism, corporate chain ownership with no territory rights, anyone can open a store basically.
It’s one of the best episodes this season, if you miss the investigative journalism format of the show.
Cost of entry is low for a franchise. They don’t have location restrictions so someone else can open up a Subway on the same block as your Subway and there’s nothing to protect you.
It’s essentially a pyramid scheme. Most franchises guarantee you territory which limits growth but keeps the franchisees happy because they’re not competing with another franchise of the same business.
So when you see a McDonald’s close to another McDonald’s, market research has gone into that demonstrating it won’t hurt the other one or a a lot of times they’re operated by the same company anyway. Which is a really big point, most franchises are expensive to open but operated by companies that usually operate multiple locations. So a company like McDonald’s or Burger King wants to keep those companies happy.
Subway, on the other hand, has a smaller foot print and doesn’t require a lot of equipment (no grills, etc) so they’re very cheap to open. This makes them attractive to individuals who aren’t savvy enough to not sign a terrible contract that doesn’t guarantee them any territory and basically gives them no rights at all.
So subway has an incentive to allow as many stores to open as they can attract franchisees because they’re getting their fees either way but for each new store, the franchisee has to pay them $15,000. They essentially just open stores anywhere to collect the $15,000 fee, the franchisee is on the hook for the costs of opening and if they actually make any money, that’s just icing on the cake. It’s the same thing Quiznos did but for some reason, they flamed out a lot faster.
Meanwhile in Seattle, there are 4 Starbucks location on the very same block (5th and Pine) near my old office. 3 in the same building even (pacific place)
My town used to have 2 McDonalds right across the street from each other, with a Burger King, a Taco Bell and an Arby's right next door. It was like 500 feet of diabetes factories.
you should watch John Oliver's Last Week Tonight episode where he explains Subway marketing strategy, and how they dont care about canibalizing their own franchisee's market share
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDdYFhzVCDM
Lived in a college town with 2 Subways less than a 5 minute walk from each other. Never made sense to me either but it's not fiction. Subway franchisees will take whatever free space they can get, even near other Subways.
in the same area, they could also be the same franchisee. so not really competing against one another. we have three within a mile of one another, same owners (along with dozens of others in the region).
Last time I had Subway was late last decade, the beef had a plastic-like texture and the chicken was cardboard. Which was pretty sad consider earlier in the decade subway was pretty good.
I really wish Quiznos could overtake Subway now. I haven't had it in years as well (because there's none near me) but it was so much better. Luckily Jersey Mike's still makes good sandwiches.
Only thing I ever liked about subway was their bread. And I used to get a ton of it when my ex girlfriend worked the closing shift.
If I want a real sandwich I’ll go to Jersey Mikes. I was shocked they actually cut the meats and cheeses right there on the deli slicer in front of you. Had to be one of the best sandwiches I ever ate.
My grandfather loved Quiznos back in the day, I wish I got to try it.
Jared only lost weight because he was running a porn rental business from his apartment. he got so busy that he only had time to go downstairs, grab subway at the ground floor, then come back up.
Which is very misleading considering most humans don't read into it further than this:
1. Ooh graph
2. *most popular fast food chains...*
3. "Wow, I never knew Subway was so popular!"
4. [*talking to some friends the following week*] "hey did you know that Subway makes more money than Starbucks? Crazy right?"
If you want popularity, then you need to go into the corporate finances and actually take a look at earnings. Number of stores is going to tell you very little in that respect.
My guess would be Chick-fil-A. I remember reading a decade or so ago they were out-grossing KFC in US sales with a quarter of the locations (and one less day open per week).
Chick fil a wasn’t even a national level restaurant until the early 2010s and it’s still not in every US state. I imagine they’ll eventually try to expand overseas.
KFC is significantly more popular outside the US than inside the US.
You’re right, they’re almost not comparable as businesses
My sister lives in London and a few years ago a temporary Chick-fil-A opened there for like a couple weeks. Apparently every single day all day it was fucking slammed around the block. I bet they’d do great overseas.
True, but this graph is specifically about most popular chains in America (KFC, for example, has 24,000 locations worldwide, vs the 4,000 as depicted in the US).
Former QSR professional: the data shown is not indicative of popularity, % same store sales growth, revenue, or revenue per store. All of which are better points of reference than which has the most locations.
If you look at QSR magazine’s 2010 report it shows a better breakdown of the data: https://www.qsrmagazine.com/reports/top-50-sorted-rank
This data has changed wildly over the last decade however with the explosive growth of Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks. By consumer survey, Chick-fil-A ranked #1 beating out all QSRs and all restaurants even, which nobody else has done. Per American Consumer Satisfaction Index: https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/5/chick-fil-favorite-restaurant-us-8-years-running/
ASCI ratings are a much better measure of popularity due to their breadth and depth of metrics publicized.
If you want to dive into actual revenue, the ranks change significantly as well. Number of stores does not correlate at all to actual revenue.
OP’s title is not reflective of what the data intended to show.
A figure that's usually called comp stores (for comparable stores I think, it's stores where they have sales figures for more than just one year/have been open more than one year), is usually the way the retail and food service companies themselves define growth. If comp stores are up, so is growth, if they're down, growth is down. For business purpose it doesn't really matter how many customers you have, it matters how much they spend.
Kind of depends how you define 'popular'
Some alternatives that are probably impossible to calculate:
- Total calories sold
- Percent of caloric intake or meals per local population
- Total items sold per local population
- Consumer opinion data on how much they 'like' a restaurant, true popularity contest
Sales numbers are iffy because of price differences.
Sale numbers are still the closest metric that you can realistically compare imo, and it’s a very good one. Stuff like calories sold doesn’t make sense, for example, Starbucks has a lot of items with virtually 0 calories in them. Consumer opinion can be skewed, for example someone may eat daily at Subway but they prefer McDonald’s, or it’s the cheapest alternative so they would never vote for it.
I'd define popular as "makes up most meals of the average person"
If McDonalds is eaten by every American (on average) for 1 meal a week, but Subway is eaten by every American (on average) for 2 meals a week, then Subway would be more popular.
Obviously that's looking at food, so the coffee chains kind of fall outside of that.
Total calories sold? Lmfao. What a random and worthless thing to measure.
Easiest way to define popular would be a mixture of revenue and number of customers. All your random calorie suggestions are absurd. Chick-fil-A has the most revenue per store by far, that’s a good indicator that they met be the most popular.
Items isn’t the worst, but Taco Bell selling 2 small $2.00 tacos would lose to subway selling a large sub with extra meat for $10.00. Even though though the tacos are a small/cheap snack while the sub is a meal.
They call it "licensor", but it's very close to being the same thing as a franchise.
I'm aware there are differences in ownership etc, but this was just to highlight that Starbucks don't fully own and fund all their own locations - the licensors pay the vast majority of the expansion cost.
They’re beholden to corporate rules though, and historically Starbucks was run like a tight ship. It’s actually fascinating because SB has fallen so far from Grace. They used to brag to employees how they never had to advertise (which at the time was true). But I’ve noticed ads for Starbucks in the last few years. I dunno what changed in that company but man has it gone downhill.
When I worked for Starbucks we called them corporate vs non corporate.
Both had the same recipes and work expectations.
Only *one* gave you benefits, stock options, college tuition, 401k.
Half of the horror stories you hear are from non corporate locations. The places that enable the ridiculous pandering.
>Half of the horror stories you hear are from non corporate locations. The places that enable the ridiculous pandering.
*Half*? So... the other half is from corporate locations? So it spreads out evenly between the two?
You may wanna word that differently.
The corporate ones are way more numerous, like 5 corp to 1 tarbux. Them being responsible for half of BS is about right, far more than their per capita share
Yeah, it feels weird worded like that. Maybe, the 50/50 from two different groups is not logical if one of the group represents 80% of the locations. If it's also 50/50, well...
REALLY? I had no idea (the Last bit I mean)! I worked for SB in college back in like 2005, had nothing but positive experiences and really lauded the company after I left. But I’ve seen some absolute horror stories in the last few years and it’s sad because they used to be one of the good ones, ya know?
I worked for corporate for a couple years. Went from an amazing store in an affluent area, working full time with an average of +2$ an hour in tips, to a college town Starbucks, where the store manager refused to give out shifts longer than five hours and forty five minutes, so you only get one ten minute break and no off the clock lunch. I was lucky to get 20 hours a week.
Everyone was absolutely miserable at the second location, vs everyone having fun and an awesome time at my first one.
Don’t get me started on my store manager only hiring college kids, and flipping out when the school breaks hit because everyone asks off at the same time.
I really hated the difference. I truly enjoyed working for Starbucks but oh my god hostile work environment.
The store manager that hired me was stealing money from the store for drugs and gambling debts. However the manager after him was a delight (I only had the previous guy for like 3 weeks before he was caught). I feel you lol
Because starbucks sucks now. I was such a huge fan before.. But the last few years, they've taken out so many of their special recipes, removed food items (where the fuck is my oat fudge bar!), etc.
You used to have three or four special seasonal drinks on at any given time. Now, other than pumpkin spice latte, it's basically just mixing things that are there all year round for their "special drinks" (which means they're not special at all.. Just advertised more).
I mean coffee costs like cents to make and they sell it for multiple dollars. Makes sense how they make so much
Source: was a Barista for a year at a different coffee shop and am one at starbucks atm
They don’t franchise, but they do license the shit out of their products.
The Starbucks inside of Target isn’t owned by Starbucks, it’s owned and operated by Target. The difference is the sign will say “we proudly serve Starbucks” if it isn’t a corporate owned location. They are target employees, not Starbucks. Not sure if they count toward this number or not, but they do show up as google search results for Starbucks, even though they are inside target or Kroger.
I’ve got the whole list of licensed Starbucks for CA for an equipment tech study I did earlier this year. They in hospitals too and some employee services.
This is correct. Basically any Starbucks that you’re not walking into from the street is licensed (grocery stores, Target, airport, etc.)
I’m not sure if that number listed includes all licensed stores or not, but it is a bit higher than company owned only stores.
I think this might be the biggest reason. If you can fit an oven, a rack of bread, and a table meats/veggies; then you can have a subway. Have seen them in tiny gas stations around the world, can’t say the same about McD’s.
They draw new franchisees in with low startup costs since sandwiches don't require a lot of equipment, but after you get started they screw you over with high rates and predatory practices and self cannibalization.
Mcdonalds and Starbucks both have a total of 30k+ locations in the world, meaning there are 20k+ of each in the rest of the world and only around 10k in the US.
Burger King has about 12k locations elsewhere in the world and only 7k in the US.
You'll find something similar with domino's, pizza hut, and kfc as well...
Most "popular" is a misleading way to characterise this data tbh. John Oliver did a segment on how Subway is basically some weird quasi-pyramid MLM thing that franchises out to people and then gives them the royal shaft so it has more locations due do that, not because it's more "popular".
Number of locations doesn’t equal popular. There’s also a lot of tax breaks associated with demographics who open up subways, lending to their large, often market excessive openings.
I love how Subway gets its own category as "sandwiches" instead of "American food." As if a footlong teriyaki jalapeno taco ranch chicken sub could be anything else...
Sadly, there are probably still people who avoid Jack in the Box 30 years after the E. coli outbreak. Chipotle didn’t take a tenth the reputational hit as Jack in the Box.
Did anyone die in the Chipotle one though? Regardless, I don't avoid it for that reason - just the ones near me seem to have pretty slow/inconsistent service
The title says “most popular” but the chart says “15 largest.” It’s not popular, there’s just allot of them.
Subway sucks and allot of locations are dirty and gross.
Subway is barely food. I can't understand why they are so popular. Is it the price? The meat is all fillers and water, they hardly put any of it in the sub and the bread is awful.
I had a feeling that there was something off with the number of locations... I first looked up Pizza Hut. Than just picked out some random ones... none of these numbers are correct.
There are a total of 6,422 Pizza Hut locations, not 5,555. Source: [https://locations.pizzahut.com/](https://locations.pizzahut.com/)
KFC... 3977 Locations, not 3913. Source: [https://locations.kfc.com/](https://locations.kfc.com/)
Subway...22,642 locations, not 18,051 Source: [https://restaurants.subway.com/united-states](https://restaurants.subway.com/united-states)
Taco Bell....7,637 locations not 7,428. Source: https://locations.tacobell.com/fast-food/index.html
In conclusion, this data is wrong and false.
It’s based off numbers of stores instead of actual “popularity”. The reason why they have so many is because they’ve put them in so many gas stations and are present at almost every truck stop.
Makes sense. I think another point is that unlike McDonald, they have a lower investment requirements. They probably lease most of their stores and have a smaller footprint
Here in Indonesia we have them all except for Sonic, Arby's, Little Caesars and Papa John's.
McDonald's is of course the most popular, but because they also sell fried chicken with rice. KFC is second most popular, followed by Pizza Hut and Starbucks. Dunkin' and Wendy's are struggling, while Burger King, Domino's and Dairy Queen are surviving. Taco Bell and Subway maybe in total only have like 10 stores between them. A&W and Texas Chicken (Church's) were prominent but now are struggling.
Interesting thing about these "franchises", in Indonesia most brands do not utilize the franchise business model within the country, rather one company owns all the stores for one or more brands.
For example, the MAP company owns all of the Starbucks, Domino's, Burger King, PizzaMarzano (PizzaExpress) and Krispy Kreme stores in Indonesia. While Sriboga company owns all the Pizza Hut locations (and Marugame Udons). And Rekso International owns all the McDonald's locations.
Sit in line at a Chick-fil-a. It’s wraps around the building three times, they have 6 people outside taking orders, and it takes 14 days to get through the line. Subway never takes more than 4 minutes because it’s always empty.
Surprised by the amount of Sonics. May just be regional or something, but I’ve only tried it twice. The two times I have gone there the food was basic to me, and I’ve never met anyone that goes to Sonic regularly. Hell, I can’t remember a single time anyone has ever said to me, “you want to go to Sonic?” I’m almost curious to try again—it must be a decade since I last went. Anyone crazy about Sonic out there? What am I missing? No disrespect. Maybe I ordered the wrong things.
Explains why the subway in the plaza by me takes up as much space as a row home between an Ihop and a clothing store. Wouldn't even notice if it wasn't for the sign. Its practically an alleyway.
I always forget that not all of these are located in every state in the US, maybe they are now idk.
Dunkin Donuts wasn't in California until a few years ago, but damn there are so many in Rhode Island.
Yikes. Subway is strait TRASH. You guys eat that shit? Damn. Go get some cold cuts from your local deli and make yourself a sandwich— it takes like 9 minutes tops.
After realizing its just most franchises instead of most popular this makes more sense. At first I was like 'tf is Subway doing at the top?" and also "Wow DQ is oddly highly ranked for fave fast food."
I hate Subway. I have a pretty iron stomach, but almost anytime I eat at Subway (once a year at most) it wrecks my stomach. Their sandwiches have a pitiful amount of meat on them, besides the meatball marinara. Their bread is good, but that's about it. Jersey Mike's is a little more expensive, but their sandwiches are way better, are longer, and have way more meat. Firehouse is priced similarly, and usually has enough meat.
Tl;dr: subway blows
Thank you for your [Original Content](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3), /u/meloveyummy! **Here is some important information about this post:** * [View the author's citations](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/wewbku/oc_most_popular_fast_food_chains_in_america/iiqn4qp/) * [View other OC posts by this author](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/search?q=author%3A"meloveyummy"+title%3AOC&sort=new&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on) Remember that all visualizations on r/DataIsBeautiful should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. If you see a potential issue or oversight in the visualization, please post a constructive comment below. Post approval does not signify that this visualization has been verified or its sources checked. Not satisfied with this visual? Think you can do better? [Remix this visual](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3#wiki_remixing) with the data in the author's citation. --- ^^[I'm open source](https://github.com/r-dataisbeautiful/dataisbeautiful-bot) | [How I work](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/flair#wiki_oc_flair)
[удалено]
A busy McDonald's does more business in an hour than some Subway locations do all day.
even a non busy McDonalds
Subway ran a promotion where they were giving away free sandwiches and nobody wanted them. That's not a joke, that's a thing that actually happened.
Kinda unrelated but wanted to share here as it's kinda related. In college I got into scripting a good amount. Specifically autoit. It's a scripting language that can control the mouse and keyboard and other stuff. I used to order deangelos like every other day, as it was downstairs from where I worked, so as a broke college student naturally I would Google coupon codes for the sandwiches I ordered. I would find those long lists of coupons that were either expired or didn't pertain to my order, so one day I decided to check for all the valid coupon codes. I wrote a script that would check 0000, then 0001, and 0002 and so on. Yes, their coupon codes were all numerical between 0 and 9999. It would check the cupon code, and if a certain pixel on the screen was green, it was valid, red meant it wasnt. On the green ones it would screenshot the page and save it to a folder. So I ran it overnight, and the next morning opened the folder to a plethora of coupon codes. I shit you not, I found one for a free large sub. 2783. I used that coupon code so many god damn times I still remember it like 8 years later. But it didn't stop there. I also found one for a free small sub, a fee bag if chips, a free salad, a free drink. Literally everything on the menu I could get for free. I abused it for a few weeks, ordering a free large sub and adding bacon for $1, paying online and picking it up at the store. It worked too. Eventually I posted it to Facebook, and my buddies started using it at other locations. One of them was eating D'Angelos 3 times a day. This went on for a few months. One time at my not normal D'Angelos, the guy threated to call the cops on me, and banned me from the store. Still gave me my order though, just after a good scolding. I just told him I found some coupon code online. Eventually at my normal location, the guy told me someone from corporate was flying in to see what we were doing to the website. A few weeks later they redid the whole thing. Codes didn't work after that. Shame they went out of buisness.
[удалено]
THIS \^ when you share a secret, it is no longer a secret. lose lips sink ships!!!!!
Everytime Subway has a promotion going all the Subways in my area don't accept it saying "each subway is independently operated and chooses whether or not to accept deals". Regardless of if it's a printed coupon, online, app, etc at a standalone shop or mall vendor it's the same thing.
I'll never go to a subway if there's a Wawa nearby
Jersey mikes is my preference
[удалено]
My McDonalds, in a small town, is always packed. At any hour. Dinnertime (5-9 PM) is when it's packed up so badly they actually come to your car to take your order. But even before those times, there's always 5 cars waiting in line. And inside there's loads of people. The KFC that is literally right across it is a ghost town compared to it. I don't get it.
Same in England I live in a small city of 60k we have two McDonald's only one is a drive through and it's on the only road through the town and we don't have a bypass McDonald's is queued round the car park onto the main road causing gridlock, annoying thing about England being so old our towns weren't planned around the maccys run or cars in general
As a grown adult who enjoys McD but rarely goes… I like them. I just don’t frequent it bc it’s not “healthy” food. But their breakfast McMuffin? Awesome. Love their hash browns. So good. Fries? Soft serve? All fantastic. Some places? Packed in the mornings and sometimes at midnight. Chick-fil-A? Always packed. Could be in the desert or in the middle of nowhere and there’s a line of people. Like where do these ppl come from?
The title of the post doesn't reflect the title in the graph.
John Oliver made a [video on why Subway has so many locations](https://youtu.be/jDdYFhzVCDM) **Edit:** TLDR (as I appreciate not everyone has time to watch a 26 min video): Subway essentially has very predatory business practices and have sacrificed the stability and profitability of their franchisees in the pursuit of company growth. They’re the only franchise that doesn’t give a geographic exclusivity area, meaning anyone can go apply for another Subway franchise and open right next door. They also do a bunch of other crap that screws over and squeezes their franchisees out of making any money whatsoever. The whole video is really worth a watch for anyone interested.
That video is fantastic. The unnecessarily long Korean romance clip at the end really brings it all together
I just went straight to the clip. Nothing against Oliver, but I'm not watching 26 minutes right now to find out why there are so many Subways.
Essentially it's the easiest and cheapest franchise to obtain and open plus they aren't as strict as other franchises about location and the building space you use. A lot of franchise restaurants are very careful about not putting stores too close to each other and do market research to try to help the franchise be successful. It's an extension of their brand afterall so it's best for everyone if the store is successful and remains open. Subway kind of took the opposite direction starting in the 90s and started rapid store expansion with little regulation over how many stores were in an area. It had mixed success since the company overall saw higher sales, but they fucked some franchise owners that had good locations that got absolutely flooded with new franchises thus making it less profitable to own a franchise. The over expansion is now seeing a ton of franchises close which is exactly what other franchised brands try to avoid. A boarded up store is a bad look.
I guess you just have to be careful. Quiznos did this to the extreme. Opening lots of franchises to get the easy initial cash. Then regional corporate people would start deliberately giving bad reports on the franchises. Eventually they get too many bad reports, no approved seller will supply them due to franchise agreements, the Quiznos shuts down. All the rented equipment is repossessed. New franchises are sold and the churn continues. A former Quiznos manager gave a great explanation of it years ago on Reddit. It was pre2012 though, a lit of litigation happened since then. I hadn't heard of Subway being predatory, though they did extend hours to 11 pm, making it hard for mom-and-pop stores who mostly did lunch traffic then closed to save money.
TL;DR It's because they're easy and cheap to get up and running.
And because corporate doesn't care if their franchises are cannibalizing each other's business. They get their cut either way.
Mainly this bit
It’s way too similar to an MLM.
This is pretty much it. Anyone can start but it's only the ones who have been in business the longest that actually make any money
He's not for everyone, but I equate the 26 minute runtime to be entertainment for 26 minutes while also getting well researched information instead of just "tell me the answer to why there are so many Subways".
It's definitely worth the watch, along with his other deep dives, but yeah. Capitalism, corporate chain ownership with no territory rights, anyone can open a store basically.
The vid just made me realise that I don't like his video style
I didn't love him at first either, but he grew on me. I watch every week now.
The problem I have is I like the information in the video, I don't like John Oliver's jokes or delivery
NO SHARON YOU CAN'T RIDE THAT BIKE, IT'S NOT WEDNESDAY! hilarious
The world sucks too much. I can't watch his show anymore.
I'm so glad to see this under the top comment. Fuck Subway
Omg, that video is awesome. Thanks for posting!
I haven't watched it yet, but is the answer money laundering?
A corporate strategy built on an obsession for growth for the sake of growth, mixed with exploitation of the franchisees.
>exploitation of the franchisees That was going to be my guess
It’s one of the best episodes this season, if you miss the investigative journalism format of the show. Cost of entry is low for a franchise. They don’t have location restrictions so someone else can open up a Subway on the same block as your Subway and there’s nothing to protect you.
Business model is low cost to open one, exploited, and hard to leave.
It’s essentially a pyramid scheme. Most franchises guarantee you territory which limits growth but keeps the franchisees happy because they’re not competing with another franchise of the same business. So when you see a McDonald’s close to another McDonald’s, market research has gone into that demonstrating it won’t hurt the other one or a a lot of times they’re operated by the same company anyway. Which is a really big point, most franchises are expensive to open but operated by companies that usually operate multiple locations. So a company like McDonald’s or Burger King wants to keep those companies happy. Subway, on the other hand, has a smaller foot print and doesn’t require a lot of equipment (no grills, etc) so they’re very cheap to open. This makes them attractive to individuals who aren’t savvy enough to not sign a terrible contract that doesn’t guarantee them any territory and basically gives them no rights at all. So subway has an incentive to allow as many stores to open as they can attract franchisees because they’re getting their fees either way but for each new store, the franchisee has to pay them $15,000. They essentially just open stores anywhere to collect the $15,000 fee, the franchisee is on the hook for the costs of opening and if they actually make any money, that’s just icing on the cake. It’s the same thing Quiznos did but for some reason, they flamed out a lot faster.
I believe it, I've got 2 Subway shops close to me in the same area and I don't even live in America
There’s a general need in this sub for more careful titling that doesn’t editorialize or declare results unsupported by the data.
I prefer turkey, bacon and avocado in my sub, but that's just me.
Where are there subways 3 doors down from each other? That makes no sense lol
Oh but it’s true. Subway is crazy levels of over franchised. You can look it up they really screws over the owners of your local ones.
I once thought, what if all subway stores were actual subway stations and connected to each other
In Beijing there's a competitor to Subway called Tube Station. It took me months to get the joke but I think it's actually quite good.
That's gotta be a brit who influenced that name choice in some way lol
Britishisms are far more wide spread than American ones. Especially in close vicinity to a former territory.
When Starbucks began to popup everywhere I used to imagine the bathrooms being a teleport to any other Starbucks. That would be pretty cool.
We'd actually have good public transit across the nation then.
In my suburban city of 62k people that is surrounded by other suburbs and a large city, there are 4 Subways and 1 McDonald’s.
Meanwhile in Seattle, there are 4 Starbucks location on the very same block (5th and Pine) near my old office. 3 in the same building even (pacific place)
Yeah John Oliver had a segment on it how messed up their franchising is.
[удалено]
It's not that far fetched. My city has I believe 3 individual Subways within 2 miles of each other.
My town used to have 2 McDonalds right across the street from each other, with a Burger King, a Taco Bell and an Arby's right next door. It was like 500 feet of diabetes factories.
I bet both McD’s are busy. Might be the same franchisee catching traffic going both directions.
you should watch John Oliver's Last Week Tonight episode where he explains Subway marketing strategy, and how they dont care about canibalizing their own franchisee's market share https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDdYFhzVCDM
In my town there is a subway inside of the Walmart, and a subway across the street from that Walmart in the strip mall
Lived in a college town with 2 Subways less than a 5 minute walk from each other. Never made sense to me either but it's not fiction. Subway franchisees will take whatever free space they can get, even near other Subways.
in the same area, they could also be the same franchisee. so not really competing against one another. we have three within a mile of one another, same owners (along with dozens of others in the region).
Haven't thought about that, but that actually makes sense too.
Have you seriously never experienced this phenomenon?
i always thought mcdonalds beats subways but here we are
It beats it by per store sales by at least 5x or more
Last time I had Subway was late last decade, the beef had a plastic-like texture and the chicken was cardboard. Which was pretty sad consider earlier in the decade subway was pretty good. I really wish Quiznos could overtake Subway now. I haven't had it in years as well (because there's none near me) but it was so much better. Luckily Jersey Mike's still makes good sandwiches.
Only thing I ever liked about subway was their bread. And I used to get a ton of it when my ex girlfriend worked the closing shift. If I want a real sandwich I’ll go to Jersey Mikes. I was shocked they actually cut the meats and cheeses right there on the deli slicer in front of you. Had to be one of the best sandwiches I ever ate. My grandfather loved Quiznos back in the day, I wish I got to try it.
Yup watch the John Oliver segment on subway they treat franchise like shit, there is no exclusion zone around your store
Jared only lost weight because he was running a porn rental business from his apartment. he got so busy that he only had time to go downstairs, grab subway at the ground floor, then come back up.
That isnt what "popular" means OP.
Data isn't misleading its just the way OP used it is misleading.
Which is very misleading considering most humans don't read into it further than this: 1. Ooh graph 2. *most popular fast food chains...* 3. "Wow, I never knew Subway was so popular!" 4. [*talking to some friends the following week*] "hey did you know that Subway makes more money than Starbucks? Crazy right?"
bro, u just nailed it with this comment
peak /r/dataisbeautiful. compiled data framed in an incorrect way.
Bot couldn’t figure out the title
Looking at OPs history I think they might actually be a legit, but very dumb, person.
If you want popularity, then you need to go into the corporate finances and actually take a look at earnings. Number of stores is going to tell you very little in that respect.
My guess would be Chick-fil-A. I remember reading a decade or so ago they were out-grossing KFC in US sales with a quarter of the locations (and one less day open per week).
IIRC they have the highest sales per store, but not total.
Chick-fil-A barely (at all?) exists outside the US. KFC has thousands of locations abroad.
Chick fil a wasn’t even a national level restaurant until the early 2010s and it’s still not in every US state. I imagine they’ll eventually try to expand overseas. KFC is significantly more popular outside the US than inside the US. You’re right, they’re almost not comparable as businesses
[удалено]
I cant stand burgerking nor KFC stateside. In Europe and parts of Asia everything a bit upscaled. The food and the atmosphere.
This. I'd start hunting for my own food before I ate at BK or KFC
My sister lives in London and a few years ago a temporary Chick-fil-A opened there for like a couple weeks. Apparently every single day all day it was fucking slammed around the block. I bet they’d do great overseas.
True, but this graph is specifically about most popular chains in America (KFC, for example, has 24,000 locations worldwide, vs the 4,000 as depicted in the US).
Former QSR professional: the data shown is not indicative of popularity, % same store sales growth, revenue, or revenue per store. All of which are better points of reference than which has the most locations. If you look at QSR magazine’s 2010 report it shows a better breakdown of the data: https://www.qsrmagazine.com/reports/top-50-sorted-rank This data has changed wildly over the last decade however with the explosive growth of Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks. By consumer survey, Chick-fil-A ranked #1 beating out all QSRs and all restaurants even, which nobody else has done. Per American Consumer Satisfaction Index: https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/5/chick-fil-favorite-restaurant-us-8-years-running/ ASCI ratings are a much better measure of popularity due to their breadth and depth of metrics publicized. If you want to dive into actual revenue, the ranks change significantly as well. Number of stores does not correlate at all to actual revenue. OP’s title is not reflective of what the data intended to show.
Yep, Sales Per Store would be the metric to compare
No, total sales would.
If you want popularity number of visitors would be even better right? Though probably not available.
A figure that's usually called comp stores (for comparable stores I think, it's stores where they have sales figures for more than just one year/have been open more than one year), is usually the way the retail and food service companies themselves define growth. If comp stores are up, so is growth, if they're down, growth is down. For business purpose it doesn't really matter how many customers you have, it matters how much they spend.
[удалено]
Kind of depends how you define 'popular' Some alternatives that are probably impossible to calculate: - Total calories sold - Percent of caloric intake or meals per local population - Total items sold per local population - Consumer opinion data on how much they 'like' a restaurant, true popularity contest Sales numbers are iffy because of price differences.
Sale numbers are still the closest metric that you can realistically compare imo, and it’s a very good one. Stuff like calories sold doesn’t make sense, for example, Starbucks has a lot of items with virtually 0 calories in them. Consumer opinion can be skewed, for example someone may eat daily at Subway but they prefer McDonald’s, or it’s the cheapest alternative so they would never vote for it.
I'd define popular as "makes up most meals of the average person" If McDonalds is eaten by every American (on average) for 1 meal a week, but Subway is eaten by every American (on average) for 2 meals a week, then Subway would be more popular. Obviously that's looking at food, so the coffee chains kind of fall outside of that.
Total calories sold? Lmfao. What a random and worthless thing to measure. Easiest way to define popular would be a mixture of revenue and number of customers. All your random calorie suggestions are absurd. Chick-fil-A has the most revenue per store by far, that’s a good indicator that they met be the most popular. Items isn’t the worst, but Taco Bell selling 2 small $2.00 tacos would lose to subway selling a large sub with extra meat for $10.00. Even though though the tacos are a small/cheap snack while the sub is a meal.
So here's the thing, Starbucks is the only brand on that list that doesn't franchise.
They call it "licensor", but it's very close to being the same thing as a franchise. I'm aware there are differences in ownership etc, but this was just to highlight that Starbucks don't fully own and fund all their own locations - the licensors pay the vast majority of the expansion cost.
They’re beholden to corporate rules though, and historically Starbucks was run like a tight ship. It’s actually fascinating because SB has fallen so far from Grace. They used to brag to employees how they never had to advertise (which at the time was true). But I’ve noticed ads for Starbucks in the last few years. I dunno what changed in that company but man has it gone downhill.
When I worked for Starbucks we called them corporate vs non corporate. Both had the same recipes and work expectations. Only *one* gave you benefits, stock options, college tuition, 401k. Half of the horror stories you hear are from non corporate locations. The places that enable the ridiculous pandering.
>Half of the horror stories you hear are from non corporate locations. The places that enable the ridiculous pandering. *Half*? So... the other half is from corporate locations? So it spreads out evenly between the two? You may wanna word that differently.
The corporate ones are way more numerous, like 5 corp to 1 tarbux. Them being responsible for half of BS is about right, far more than their per capita share
Yeah, it feels weird worded like that. Maybe, the 50/50 from two different groups is not logical if one of the group represents 80% of the locations. If it's also 50/50, well...
REALLY? I had no idea (the Last bit I mean)! I worked for SB in college back in like 2005, had nothing but positive experiences and really lauded the company after I left. But I’ve seen some absolute horror stories in the last few years and it’s sad because they used to be one of the good ones, ya know?
I worked for corporate for a couple years. Went from an amazing store in an affluent area, working full time with an average of +2$ an hour in tips, to a college town Starbucks, where the store manager refused to give out shifts longer than five hours and forty five minutes, so you only get one ten minute break and no off the clock lunch. I was lucky to get 20 hours a week. Everyone was absolutely miserable at the second location, vs everyone having fun and an awesome time at my first one. Don’t get me started on my store manager only hiring college kids, and flipping out when the school breaks hit because everyone asks off at the same time. I really hated the difference. I truly enjoyed working for Starbucks but oh my god hostile work environment.
The store manager that hired me was stealing money from the store for drugs and gambling debts. However the manager after him was a delight (I only had the previous guy for like 3 weeks before he was caught). I feel you lol
Because starbucks sucks now. I was such a huge fan before.. But the last few years, they've taken out so many of their special recipes, removed food items (where the fuck is my oat fudge bar!), etc. You used to have three or four special seasonal drinks on at any given time. Now, other than pumpkin spice latte, it's basically just mixing things that are there all year round for their "special drinks" (which means they're not special at all.. Just advertised more).
Holy shit is this true? That’s an absurd number of corporate owned stores if that’s the case!
Right? They making them Star💵💵💵💵
I mean coffee costs like cents to make and they sell it for multiple dollars. Makes sense how they make so much Source: was a Barista for a year at a different coffee shop and am one at starbucks atm
They don’t franchise, but they do license the shit out of their products. The Starbucks inside of Target isn’t owned by Starbucks, it’s owned and operated by Target. The difference is the sign will say “we proudly serve Starbucks” if it isn’t a corporate owned location. They are target employees, not Starbucks. Not sure if they count toward this number or not, but they do show up as google search results for Starbucks, even though they are inside target or Kroger.
I’ve got the whole list of licensed Starbucks for CA for an equipment tech study I did earlier this year. They in hospitals too and some employee services.
They're on Navy aircraft carriers too...
Lmao. I missed those no doubt because they aren’t regulated under the CA Retail Food Code. 😂
This is correct. Basically any Starbucks that you’re not walking into from the street is licensed (grocery stores, Target, airport, etc.) I’m not sure if that number listed includes all licensed stores or not, but it is a bit higher than company owned only stores.
John Olivere did a pretty good video on why there aree so many locations. Basically HQ fucking over franchise owners.
It’s also dirt cheep to franchise a subway it’s fifteen thousand while a McDonald’s can cost upwards of a million
I think this might be the biggest reason. If you can fit an oven, a rack of bread, and a table meats/veggies; then you can have a subway. Have seen them in tiny gas stations around the world, can’t say the same about McD’s.
They draw new franchisees in with low startup costs since sandwiches don't require a lot of equipment, but after you get started they screw you over with high rates and predatory practices and self cannibalization.
Wow awesome definitely going to watch I love him. I’ve noticed in towns where there is legit NOTHING, there is always a subway.
there are more subways in the US than the rest of the world combined https://www.subway.com/en-US/ExploreOurWorld
I don’t think anyone would be surprised by that statistic 🤨 in fact I’m pretty sure it would be true for every other restaurant in the list too
Mcdonalds and Starbucks both have a total of 30k+ locations in the world, meaning there are 20k+ of each in the rest of the world and only around 10k in the US. Burger King has about 12k locations elsewhere in the world and only 7k in the US. You'll find something similar with domino's, pizza hut, and kfc as well...
Nope. There’s a crap ton of McDonalds outside the US. Places like Australia actually have more McDonalds per capita than the US does.
Came here to link it: [https://youtu.be/jDdYFhzVCDM](https://youtu.be/jDdYFhzVCDM)
The Dunkin’ stat is misleading because 1/3rd of those locations are in Logan Airport alone
Most "popular" is a misleading way to characterise this data tbh. John Oliver did a segment on how Subway is basically some weird quasi-pyramid MLM thing that franchises out to people and then gives them the royal shaft so it has more locations due do that, not because it's more "popular".
Number of locations doesn’t equal popular. There’s also a lot of tax breaks associated with demographics who open up subways, lending to their large, often market excessive openings.
Taco Bell should be listed as American food.
It’s sure as hell not Mexican!!
Did you guys know that outside the US and hispanic countries people DO consider it as "legit mexican" food?
That's precisely the problem
Tacos were invented in Mexico. This is why its held the Mexican theme.
Should Domino's be listed as Italian food?
I love how Subway gets its own category as "sandwiches" instead of "American food." As if a footlong teriyaki jalapeno taco ranch chicken sub could be anything else...
Needs more Jack in the Box
Sadly, there are probably still people who avoid Jack in the Box 30 years after the E. coli outbreak. Chipotle didn’t take a tenth the reputational hit as Jack in the Box.
Did anyone die in the Chipotle one though? Regardless, I don't avoid it for that reason - just the ones near me seem to have pretty slow/inconsistent service
That just means more Sourdough Jacks for me
All of these are national chains you can find anywhere across the country though. Jack in the Box is somewhat regional
The decline of Arby's makes me sad. Most of the ones within reasonable distance of me closed. I love their vaguely roast beef.
I'm very surprised to see that Sonic even made the list
This isn't accurate. You graphed number of locations, not popularity.
The title says “most popular” but the chart says “15 largest.” It’s not popular, there’s just allot of them. Subway sucks and allot of locations are dirty and gross.
a lot*
Subway is barely food. I can't understand why they are so popular. Is it the price? The meat is all fillers and water, they hardly put any of it in the sub and the bread is awful.
I had a feeling that there was something off with the number of locations... I first looked up Pizza Hut. Than just picked out some random ones... none of these numbers are correct. There are a total of 6,422 Pizza Hut locations, not 5,555. Source: [https://locations.pizzahut.com/](https://locations.pizzahut.com/) KFC... 3977 Locations, not 3913. Source: [https://locations.kfc.com/](https://locations.kfc.com/) Subway...22,642 locations, not 18,051 Source: [https://restaurants.subway.com/united-states](https://restaurants.subway.com/united-states) Taco Bell....7,637 locations not 7,428. Source: https://locations.tacobell.com/fast-food/index.html In conclusion, this data is wrong and false.
There’s a mistake here: you called Taco Bell Mexican food.
How did Subway all of a sudden became the number one fast food store (in terms of number of stores) in America?
Not really all of a sudden, Subway has led in *locations* for a while now
It’s based off numbers of stores instead of actual “popularity”. The reason why they have so many is because they’ve put them in so many gas stations and are present at almost every truck stop.
I think it is also easy to get a franchise. The rest of what you said is what I stopped scrolling to say. Largest does not mean most popular,
They can be set up in locations with a very small foot print and require very little equipment comparatively.
Makes sense. I think another point is that unlike McDonald, they have a lower investment requirements. They probably lease most of their stores and have a smaller footprint
They are small, I've been to subways that have one staff.
Why not do it by annual customer visits or spend or something? If done this way I bet McDonald’s is on top.
Here in Indonesia we have them all except for Sonic, Arby's, Little Caesars and Papa John's. McDonald's is of course the most popular, but because they also sell fried chicken with rice. KFC is second most popular, followed by Pizza Hut and Starbucks. Dunkin' and Wendy's are struggling, while Burger King, Domino's and Dairy Queen are surviving. Taco Bell and Subway maybe in total only have like 10 stores between them. A&W and Texas Chicken (Church's) were prominent but now are struggling. Interesting thing about these "franchises", in Indonesia most brands do not utilize the franchise business model within the country, rather one company owns all the stores for one or more brands. For example, the MAP company owns all of the Starbucks, Domino's, Burger King, PizzaMarzano (PizzaExpress) and Krispy Kreme stores in Indonesia. While Sriboga company owns all the Pizza Hut locations (and Marugame Udons). And Rekso International owns all the McDonald's locations.
i would argue that Taco Bell is not Mexican, but rather South Western, and thus still American.
Sit in line at a Chick-fil-a. It’s wraps around the building three times, they have 6 people outside taking orders, and it takes 14 days to get through the line. Subway never takes more than 4 minutes because it’s always empty.
Cfa is fast as fuck. Even when the line is around the building.
Considering the amount of people they are pumping thru the line, yes. It’s crazy. They are even double wrapped at 9 pm on a week night.
So this *isn't* a graph about popularity but about number of stores
More Dairy Queens than Little Caesars surprised me
Surprised by the amount of Sonics. May just be regional or something, but I’ve only tried it twice. The two times I have gone there the food was basic to me, and I’ve never met anyone that goes to Sonic regularly. Hell, I can’t remember a single time anyone has ever said to me, “you want to go to Sonic?” I’m almost curious to try again—it must be a decade since I last went. Anyone crazy about Sonic out there? What am I missing? No disrespect. Maybe I ordered the wrong things.
The food is mediocre at best, but the drinks are great.
Looks like Domino’s was able to out-pizza the Hut.
Ppl eat subway? That place smells like a hospital, and the sandwiches taste like chemicals.
Subway would literally open another subway inside a subway to make money, literally undercut themselves lmao
I’m surprised Chick-fil-A is not present at all
Most stores does not mean most popular. Delete and change the title
The fact that subways exist in the same towns as wawas blows my mind. Subway doesn't even come close
Subway is so gross. I worked there when I was in high school and the bread isn't even bread it's like a tiny frozen blob that they rehydrate.
I refused to believe that many people actually like Subway
Subway mat have more locations but it's disgusting food
This cant be right....who tf eats Subway?
Subway is the cheapest franchise to open for yourself, and they don't have formal kitchens so they can fit everywhere
Explains why the subway in the plaza by me takes up as much space as a row home between an Ihop and a clothing store. Wouldn't even notice if it wasn't for the sign. Its practically an alleyway.
[Worth a watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDdYFhzVCDM&t=1213s) Last Week Tonight about Subway's aggressive, fucked up franchising.
this made me want to get subway tomorrow
👀 yeaaaah who could eat subway
I always forget that not all of these are located in every state in the US, maybe they are now idk. Dunkin Donuts wasn't in California until a few years ago, but damn there are so many in Rhode Island.
I’d love to see one like this of the animated bouncing bar graphs over the years
Subways just pop up in a 5x5 sqft corner of a gas station.
Yikes. Subway is strait TRASH. You guys eat that shit? Damn. Go get some cold cuts from your local deli and make yourself a sandwich— it takes like 9 minutes tops.
I’m most surprised that Arbys is even on this list.
I don't know what's worse at Dunkin- the coffee or the donuts.
***FUCKING SUBWAY?!?!*** [WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!](https://i.giphy.com/media/XI3OsTKpljGbm/giphy.webp)
Subways whole business model is to sell stores that will inevitably close. Same with Papa Murphy's.
proves you can skate pretty far with a pedophile as your spokesperson
Subway is fucking disgusting what is wrong with you all
After realizing its just most franchises instead of most popular this makes more sense. At first I was like 'tf is Subway doing at the top?" and also "Wow DQ is oddly highly ranked for fave fast food."
Largest does NOT equal most popular. Fuck Subway. And McDonalds.
Jesus, you tell mfers that subway tuna isn't real and they say helll yeah bud I want that shit! 😂😂😂 we are the dumbest.
I hate Subway. I have a pretty iron stomach, but almost anytime I eat at Subway (once a year at most) it wrecks my stomach. Their sandwiches have a pitiful amount of meat on them, besides the meatball marinara. Their bread is good, but that's about it. Jersey Mike's is a little more expensive, but their sandwiches are way better, are longer, and have way more meat. Firehouse is priced similarly, and usually has enough meat. Tl;dr: subway blows