Subway's Month-Long Sandwich Deal Is Already Sold Out

Many of us may complain about how many streaming services we have to subscribe to nowadays, but 2020 trends showed that during the pandemic, people preferred to pay the monthly fee rather than own something (via Zuora). This "subscription economy" has exploded in the past nine years, growing by over 435%. Pre-pandemic, we were accustomed to paying monthly fees at the gym, for example, but since then, subscriptions have infiltrated many more aspects of life, including at restaurants. Restaurants are now reaping the benefits that gyms have been reaping for years, which is being able to guarantee revenue, whether or not members actually take advantage of the subscription (via Axios).

Panera, for example, recently rolled out its "Unlimited Sip Club," where members can enjoy a free drink every two hours for $10.99 per month. It sounds like a win-win situation for Panera because if customers take advantage of the deal, they could buy other items to go with their drink. If subscribers don't visit Panera at all in a given month, the company still makes $11. Subway recently tried to ride the subscription wave as well, offering customers a month-long deal on its infamous footlong, and the limited quantity of subscriptions sold out very quickly.

The $5 footlong deal from Subway started in 2007 but didn't make it past 2016 due to increasing food costs (via New York Daily News). So there was no way that deal was going to make it in today's world of historic inflation. Instead, Subway has opted for a more financially savvy deal and announced it was offering a new sandwich subscription program, the $15 Footlong Pass (via Axios). Customers who were able to purchase the pass will be sent a code for 50% off a footlong every day in September.

Frequent customers of the sandwich chain could see significant savings because according to Axios, they would only need to buy three sandwiches to make the deal worthwhile. In order to make sure they still made money on this deal, Subway released only 10,000 passes on August 24 at 8 a.m. EST. It took six hours for them to sell out. Those who were not able to score a pass can still use the code "BOGO50" to buy one sub and get a second one for half-off (via the Subway website). It's not quite the same as a discounted sub every day, but some might consider it a consolation prize.