Subway has trumped McDonalds Corp. as the world’s biggest restaurant chain, measured by number of restaurants open.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last month, Subway finished 2010 with 33,749 branches worldwide, compared to McDonald’s 32,737. These numbers account only for the traditional McDonalds and Subway restaurants, not other restaurants owned by the same brands, like McDonalds’s Chipotle or Subway’s
Most of the giant chain conglomerates’ growth in the past decade has been in east Asia. Subway just opened its 1,000th location in Asia this month, inclding its first in Vietnam. Interestingly, the Subway brand website focuses on global growth but is available in only two langauges: English and Turkish.
Growth is important for global fast food, but so is dominance. So much of consumers’ fast food choices has more to do with the gist of marketing conversation than with simple convenience.
Ten years ago most of the chain restaurant marketing conversation centered around nutrition information. McDonalds debuted its bistro salad line. Subway outgrew McDonalds in the US around that time when Jared, a hugely popular spokesman, dropped several sizes on a Subway-centric diet.
Nutrition no longer seems to rule the game. Subway’s more recent growth comes from opening restaurants in unexpected nooks and crannies — including an automobile showroom in California, an appliance store in Brazil, a ferry terminal in Seattle, a riverboat in Germany, a zoo in Taiwan, a Goodwill store in South Carolina, a high school in Detroit and a church in Buffalo, New York.
According to the Wall Street Journal:
Nutrition is important, but growth in a global marketplace relies on control. Just look at the drop in cigarette sales that corresponds to when the nanny state gained more control than tobacco companies.
For framing every freedom-loving American can appreciate, think of Subway’s Asian dominance this way: America is colonizing the global fast-food market through choice. It’s the chain that lets every customer choose every sandwich ingredient that represents America in the rest of the world.
