The Fast Food Chain Customers Say They Wouldn't Be Sad To See Close For Good

No matter how popular a restaurant is, it will always have its detractors. Some people don't like McDonald's, and some people don't like Taco Bell. It's just personal preference, and we're all familiar with it. Dislike for any given restaurant isn't usually quantified. However, when discussions online ask which restaurant people would be least upset to see go out of business, you can gain insight into how customers really feel. Unfortunately for Subway, a lot of people have expressed that they wouldn't be upset if it closed.

Weeks after someone started a thread on Reddit titled "What fast food chain would you be the least upset about if all locations closed for good?," Subway became the top response with nearly 300 upvotes. Before that, a different Reddit user asked, "How on Earth is Subway still around?," and an earlier post asked, "How is Subway still in business?" In a separate thread asking which fast food restaurant people thought would go out of business soon, the Redditor who suggested Subway got over 3,000 upvotes.

It's not just a fluke that people bring this up. Subway gets a lot of hate. Similar discussions have been posted on Quora and Facebook. Responses have brought up a host of issues customers have with the chain, especially complaints that sandwiches seem to be getting smaller. In addition to the size, the price has put a lot of people off. Everyone fondly remembers $5 footlongs, but they're less happy about $11 footlongs and even $15 footlongs.

In the various Reddit conversations, there were plenty of reasons given why people didn't like Subway or understand why it was still in business. Many have suggested that it's the cheapest franchise for someone to invest in, which explains why there are so many Subway locations. At the same time, others have said there is little support from corporate headquarters, and profits are razor-thin.

The company's treatment of franchisees has long been criticized. In 2019, an article in Business Insider detailed how the franchise model encouraged rapid growth even as thousands of locations were forced to close. As QSR reported in 2026, this trend continued all the way through 2025, marking the restaurant's 10th straight year of declining U.S. store locations.

One Redditor claimed franchisees are "trying to cut corners because they are getting pinched so they are not throwing out meat that they should, or they are trying to hold over produce." Echoing this sentiment, in a thread simply called "Why is Subway so bad?" dozens of comments mentioned declining quality.

While some Subway fans said they can still get good deals on sandwiches with coupons and the app, others don't agree. "It's exceedingly rare to find a Subway location that honors any of the app deals," another Redditor said.

Even beyond issues with sandwich size and prices, Subway has been plagued by failures and scandals for years. The arrest of spokesperson Jared Fogle in 2015 was a huge blow to the chain, and Subway did very little to address it. Later, the chain was involved in a legal dispute after being accused of serving tuna that wasn't actually tuna.