"When people joke about a chain having a store on every corner, the butt of the joke is usually Starbucks or McDonald's, but neither one is actually the country's largest chain restaurant. Of those two, Starbucks is the bigger one, having almost 17,000 stores in the U.S. at the end of 2024."
"The reasons Subway got to number one are also a big reason why it's been shrinking. Two things propelled its massive growth in the 90s and 2000s, its association with healthy eating, driven by its massively successful ad campaign featuring Jared Fogel, and an aggressive franchising strategy. In 2015 Subway was stained when its ad star Fogel was arrested, and the rise of new rivals like Jersey Mike's that are perceived to have higher quality sandwiches also st"
Subway had 19,500 U.S. locations at the end of 2024, 2,500 more than second-place Starbucks. McDonald's and Starbucks generate far more revenue per location; McDonald's pulls in over 70% more total sales despite having about 3,000 fewer U.S. locations. Subway does only about 20% of McDonald's sales and roughly a third of Starbucks's, placing Subway ninth in U.S. chain sales. Subway peaked near 27,000 U.S. locations in 2015 and has closed U.S. stores annually for a decade, with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating closures. Rapid growth in the 1990s–2000s came from a healthy-eating image driven by a Jared Fogel ad campaign and aggressive franchising; the Fogel scandal and the rise of perceived-higher-quality rivals such as Jersey Mike's contributed to declines.
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