Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/02/why-the-quiznos-empire-collaps.html
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2 Likes
This was an interesting watch. It’s a bummer, because I really enjoyed them as a very different alternative to the Subways of the world.
16 Likes
All that upbeat background music, with such a downer ending. Toasted sandwiches are supposed to be fun!
11 Likes
Was that shot of the Quiznos next to the Radio Shack intentional, or a coincidence from the ad-within-the-video?
De gustibus, but I thought their sandwich tasted like vomit (in the literal sense; i.e. I know at least what my own vomit tastes like, and their sandwich tasted like that).
EDIT: changed to singular. I don’t remember eating there a 2nd time.
3 Likes
They tasted alright to me, but they were too expensive and they expanded way too aggressively. Basically a repeat of the Krispy Kreme rise and fall.
I’d say they have about as many stores now as the market will support.
4 Likes
I woulld have bet good money AMPM would have dropped that Toomgis thing by now.
Another theory offered by the Doughboys is that Quiznos was briefly unique in the industry because of their toasted subs. But when the industry’s 800 lb gorilla Subway rolled out toaster ovens their competitive advantage vanished.
21 Likes
Honestly the main reason I stopped going to them was that their sandwiches were tiny and overpriced.
14 Likes
For the record, I liked the Spongemonkeys ad.
28 Likes
TBH, that makes more sense than a crappy ad campaign that existed for 8 months in 2004. (I realize there are other issues brought up.)
5 Likes
aww… i liked the creepy sponge monkey! (some of them are rathergood! (anything with “kittens” in it can’t be all bad))
23 Likes
I did too! They were at least interesting and different for the times.
2 Likes
And was one of the most successful ad campaigns of the past ten years in terms of word-of-mouth, instant recognition, and notoriety. Sure, a lot of people might have found it bizarre and weird and repulsive, but it did everything a good ad should do:
• everyone talked about it for days, months… years. Clearly we’re still talking about it.
• it cost like ten cents to make.
• it communicated exactly what was great about Quiznos: they have great subs, they toast them, and they have a pickle bar. And they run ads that Subway would never run.
10 Likes
Certainly not as unappetizing as Denny’s (sausage or turd, you be the judge) mascot.
3 Likes
(adding)
- they were made by Joel Veitch of RatherGood.com, as @theophrastus mentions, as well as B3ta fame and 7 Seconds of Love. As someone who was a huge fan of his in the flash animation days, it was a treat to see his bizarre work used in a corporate product. His animations were how I was introduced to so many excellent music acts.
12 Likes
And their spokescreatures aren’t pedophiles. So they got that going for them, which is nice.
25 Likes
I hadn’t realized how screwed up their relationship with franchisees was. They slowly strangled the goose that laid their golden eggs.
9 Likes
Skinniest sang’wich I ever ate was at Quiznos, never went back for the another try.
1 Like
The quiznoz conveyor toaster oven still seems like less of a production line bottle neck to me because they are continuous. But they have a much bigger footprint and just would not fit into most existing Subway floorplans. The $10,000 MSRP (for the current model) Turbochef Tornado microwave/convection toasters are, I guess, actually faster than the conveyor fed toasters, which helps make up for the lack of continuous feed.
I gave up on Quiznos because there was a local deli that made much better, untoasted sandwiches. But they went out of business, too. 
So, Subway, with it’s flavorless shop cooked “bread”, continues to thrive in its predictably consistent mediocrity.
8 Likes
Around here Potbelly ate their lunch.
8 Likes
