Subway vs. Cousins

BCOM/275
March 20, 2014
Albert L. Smith, MBA

Subway vs. Cousins Understanding the company and the product they sell is just as important as going to the correct doctor for your ailment. We would not go to an ophthalmologist for a foot injury, so why would you go to a fast food restaurant for mediocre food when you can choose to have a better quality meal. Knowing the business side behind the restaurant will also show why people want to start their restaurant and why it is still here today. Today you will see why Team C, prefers Subway for its healthier option of food and why owning a Subway is more advantageous than owning Cousin Subs.
Subway is one of the top sandwich shops to eat at. It is healthier than other sub shops and it is also cheaper to own a Subway franchise than other sub shops. There are many pros and cons for Subway. It has great tasting food and a great option for healthier subs. Another pro for Subway is that customers can make their own sub, and see how the employee is making it. Some cons for Subway are some sandwiches do not have enough meat. Since the meat and veggies are out in the open this is another con, people believe it is not as sanitary as other sub shops. There are also pros and cons with owning a Subway. It is cheaper to get into a franchise than other sub shops. To get a Subway franchise started the fee is 15,000 dollars. After that it can cost anywhere from 100,000 dollars to 250,000 dollars to get the franchise open and ready to serve customers ("Buying a Fast Food Franchise", 2014). Subway is very popular, they are seen on TV more than other sub shops, and have a lot of famous people including athletes that are endorsed by Subway. Having famous people involved with this company will also bring in more customers. The cons about owning a subway is a weekly payment called royalty payments. Subway franchises weekly royalty payments are 12.5% of weekly gross sales. Another con is there are so many Subways, it can be difficult to find a good location to build a new shop. Not only do you have competition with other sub shops, depending on where the shop is located you may have competition with another Subway. Having the option of a healthier menu will bring in more customers. The negative result of having a healthier menu is that it can be more expensive. Cousins Subs are also a well-known sub shop. They too have pros and cons. Cousins Subs has bigger portions, some say better bread, and they offer French Fries. The cons about Cousins Subs are that they are more expensive and have been called unsanitary. There are also pros and cons with owning a Cousins Subs. Like Subway, Cousins Subs is cheaper to get into a franchise than other sub shops. To get a Cousins Subs franchise started the fee is 25,000 dollars. After that fee, it can cost anywhere from 119,200 dollars to 300,800 dollars to get the franchise open and ready to serve customers ("Cousins Subs Franchise", 2014). Another con is that Cousins Subs is not the most popular sup shop so the competition is going to be tough. They do not have as many healthy options like Subway does. Having some healthy options will bring in more customers but the options are limited, unlike Subway.
An issue that is currently being looked at with the Subway franchise is that a chemical Azodicarbonamide, is used in yoga mats, shoe rubber, and synthetic leather, and has been linked to cause respiratory issues, allergies and asthma, and it is banned as a food additive in Europe and Australia. Subway, uses it in the U.S. as a bleaching agent and dough conditioner in order to produce bread faster and cheaper.
The company says it's coming out. "Even though this ingredient is safe, we are removing it from Subway bread. This process began last year and is nearly completed -- we have already developed an improved bread formula, conducted extensive performance and consumer testing on it, and pending final government approvals we should complete the entire conversion process within the coming weeks," Subway said in a statement. (Landau, 2014)
Subway said azodicarbonamide is an ingredient commonly found in bread that is fully approved and recognized as safe by the FDA (Landau, 2014). A breakdown product is semicarbazide, which poses a negligible risk to humans but was found to cause cancer of the lungs and blood vessels in mice. If it has a negative effect on mice the result for humans could the same or worse. A 1999 report from an international group of health experts, published by the World Health Organization, says some studies suggest that the chemical can induce asthma, based on evidence from people with symptoms and employees of facilities where the chemical is manufactured or used. But use of the chemical in the workplace is very different, and carries much greater exposure than eating a tiny amount in bread.
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As a team no matter the pros and cons of either fast food restaurant we chose to agree that Subway overall was a better choice of fast food. Some reasons for doing so is because even though the bread that is being used could cause health issues the amount that is used in the bread making process is not harmful in the amounts used for one single sandwich. We all decided that fresh bread is very important when eating any kind of sandwich. The amounts of choices that can be chosen from at a Subway restaurant are overall better than Cousins, rather it be the bread, items to choose from on the menu to the quality of service Subway overall has left us with a better impression and the willingness to return to continue to eat more and more subs.
Basing solely on the pro and con arguments, Subway is the overall better sandwich shop. Subway franchise is better to own.
A rebuttal of weaker argument would be Subway isn’t sanitary; you can see exactly how your sandwich is made, not like cousins, where you cannot even see how they are preparing your food.
Weighing out the pros and cons of two popular fast food restaurants such as Subway versus Cousin Subs can be debatable. Obesity is an ongoing health concern and many companies are steering more towards promoting healthier options. It’s a growing team initiative. Team C has compared and contrasted Subway and Cousins in a couple different ways ranging from which fast food restaurant is healthier and which of the two would be a better choice when establishing a franchise. Some arguments that were selected related to healthy comparisons on food choices from both restaurants. Some arguments included the length of time in business, the number of locations established, annual earnings/investment and the comparison costs and rate of return involved in establishing a franchise for each company. These selected arguments were more persuasive because statistics offer a better and more supporting argument that can be used to persuade some pieces of evidence and can be used as reliable and valid comparisons.
Subway wraps their arms around healthier options versus Cousin Subs. Subway has recently supported our first Lady Michelle Obama’s partnership for a healthier America. Subway Restaurant, announced a three-year commitment by the chain in support of her Let’s Move! initiative to promote healthier choices to kids, including launching its largest targeted marketing effort to date and in addition to strengthening its already nutritious menu offerings to kids, they will launch a new series of campaigns for kids aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption and will set new standards for marketing products to families (USA, 2014). Subway strongly supports healthier choices. Cousins offer support to the community as well.
They give back to the community through the Cousins Subs Make It Better Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, that allows customers to nominate charities for support through franchise stores and is the type of culture you sign up for when you become a franchisee (Cousins, 2012). Subway is the healthier choice and can be the better choice when it comes to owning/franchising because it is a large company. When comparing a basic turkey sub from Subway versus Cousins, the results supported that Subway offered the healthier sub. For example, Subway’s Nutritional Chart showed the following results for a 6 inch Turkey Breast sub; 216g serving size; 280 calories; total fat 3.5 grams and cholesterol 20mg (Subway, 2014). Cousins Nutritional Chart showed the following results for a 5 inch Turkey Breast sub; 185g serving size; 310 Calories; total fat 13g and cholesterol 40mg (Cousins, 2014). Cousin’s turkey sub was 1 inch smaller than the Subway sub, had twice the cholesterol and almost 4 times the total fat. After comparing the results, Subway would be the healthier choice.
Subway was founded in 1965 and has at least 34, 218 store count in 95 countries. Furthermore, The Wall Street Journal reports that Subway now has more locations than McDonald's, the brand that personifies the fast food genre and Subway closed out last year with 33,749 restaurants to Mc Donald’s 32,737 (NPR, 2014). Subway is one of the largest fast food restaurants in the world and has been around longer than Cousin Subs. Cousin Subs was founded in 1972 and sold 25 out of 40 company owned stores in 2004 to adopt a more traditional franchise growth and focused on creating a unique bread recipe that many people love.
Cousin Subs has 129 franchised units and 16 company owned units and the initial franchise fee is $15,000, and total investment can be as low as $78,600 (Cousins, 2014). It is a little pricier to establish a Subway Franchise, but the investment can be higher as well. Startup costs for Subway are $80,000 to $100,000 and the total investment consists of $119,000 to $300,800. Subway offers a selection of freshly baked breads, sauces, and other tasteful toppings and has made appropriate changes when the need arises to create healthier choices. Subway is the undisputed leader in fast, healthy food (subway, 2014). Subway offers many more locations than Cousins.
When you own a Subway restaurant, you’re part of the world’s largest restaurant chain and one of its most recognized brands, and you’ll get the support and experience that comes with it (subway, 2014). Establishing franchises are becoming more popular. There are factors that should be compared. Healthy choices should be one consideration and choosing the better franchise opportunity should be another consideration. Nutritional information and facts are available and are customized to calculate your personal menu preferences for both Subway and Cousin Subs. Team C has compared and contrasted Subway and Cousins in a couple different ways ranging from which fast food restaurant is healthier and which of the two would be a better choice when establishing a franchise. The team chose to steer towards Subway, the larger brand name.
Based on the pros and cons for Subway and Cousins Subs, overall Subway is a better sub shop. They are more popular, healthier, and are better to own. Cousins Subs cost an extra 10,000 dollars to start up than Subway. A rebuttal of weaker arguments for Subway is that they are not sanitary. Customers can see their sub being prepared right in front of them, unlike Cousins Subs where their sandwiches are made in the kitchen.

Reference
Landau, E. (2014, February). Subway to remove 'dough conditioner' chemical from bread. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com
Paulas, R. (2014). Beyond Subway’s Yoga Mat Bread: 5 Other ingredients that need to go. Retrieved from http://www.kcet.org/living/food/food-rant/subways-yoga-mat-bread-and-other-fast-food-chemicals.html¬
Bryan, W. (2011). Subway Overtakes McDonald's With More Than 34,000 Global Locations. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/08/134335815/subway-overtakes-mcdonalds-with-more-than-34-000-global-locations
International Franchise Association (2014). Cousins Subs Franchise Information. Retrieved from http://www.franchise.org/Cousins_Subs_franchise.aspx
International Franchise Association (2014). Cousins Subs Franchise Information. Retrieved from http://www.cousinssubs.com/start-a-franchise/why-cousins-franchise
Subway Nutritional Chart http://www.subway.com/nutrition/nutritionlist.aspx\
Co Buying a Fast Food Franchise. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.bizben.com/blog/posts/buying-a-fast-food-franchise-subway-vs-quiznos-6654.php
Cousins Subs Franchise. (2014). Retrieved from http://franchises.findthebest.com/l/278/Cousins-Subs
Cousins Nutritional Chart http://www.cousinssubs.com/menu/nutritional-info/sub-sandwiches