Subway vs Quiznos | Subs Rising | 1

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s 1965 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and 17-year-old Fred DeLuca needs money to pay for college. A family friend makes him a surprising offer and they become unlikely partners, opening a string of barely profitable restaurants called Pete’s Submarines. Their luck changes when DeLuca refines their cash flow management process and recruits their first franchisee. They give the burgeoning restaurant empire a new name: Subway. Meanwhile, in Denver, an experienced chef perfects artisanal recipes for authentic toasted Italian subs, and comes up with a name so weird it’s unforgettable: Quiznos.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can binge all four episodes of Business Wars Subway vs. Quiznos
0:05.1	ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.
0:17.5	It's 10 a.m. on a steamy August morning, 1965, in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
0:23.5	17-year-old Fred Deluca stands at the counter in the kitchen of Pete's Super Submarine Shop.
0:29.1	He's a street savvy kid born in bread in the Bronx, with a cleft chin and the big brown eyes of a
0:35.2	born charmer. Deluca plucks a foot long Italian roll out of a brown paper bag, picks up a knife,
0:42.0	and turns to his first and only employee, a friend from high school.
0:47.0	Okay, I don't want you to pay attention. I only have time to do this once. I gotta go take
0:50.7	an English placement example for college. Okay, you cut the roll in half, but not all the way.
0:55.8	Leave one side attached that way the bread will hold all the stuff in better.
0:59.6	Deluca's teaching art how to make an Italian sub before the grand opening of his shop in just an
1:04.8	hour. It's a venture he co-founded with a family friend, Pete Buck. The only problem, neither he,
1:11.3	nor art has ever made a single sub in their life. Art takes the knife from Deluca and
1:17.6	saws through the whole roll and almost in his hand. Damn, let's try to make it through opening
1:22.8	day without a trip to the yard, alright? Alright, and now let's take a slice of salami,
1:27.8	then ham, then cheese, and layer them in a roll like this, you see? And then do that all over again
1:33.4	and throw on some tomatoes, some shredded lettuce, and any other toppings they want.
1:37.5	Deluca learned the little he knows about the process. From watching Italian guys make
1:42.4	subs in a motto's deli in Portland, Maine, Pete Buck grew up there and took him and his mom to
1:48.4	the shop on a research trip. Art slaps toppings on the roll and turns back to Deluca.
1:54.3	Okay Chef Boy, our D-now what? Mustard Mayo? Deluca shakes his head and picks up a small
1:59.6	metal pitcher from the counter. No smart-ex next you pour some olive oil on everything.
	...

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