McDonald’s most spectacular feat will not be that it rose to the highest of the fast-food chain; it is that it managed to remain there.
The chain was based in 1940, however its true rise to prominence got here within the Nineteen Seventies. It was a easy mannequin based mostly on providing sizzling meals shortly with an expertise that was the identical regardless of the place you had been.
That mannequin slowly exanded throughout america and ultimately across the globe. Whether or not you are in Paris, France, or Paris, Texas, a Large Mac and fries served with a Coke will style precisely the identical.
“Our intention was to insure repeat enterprise based mostly on the system’s popularity quite than on the standard of a single retailer or operator,” founder Ray Kroc mentioned in his e book, “Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s”.
And whereas rivals Wendy’s and Burger King have been closing eating places, McDonald’s has an aggressive growth plan.
“McDonald’s Company is accelerating its world growth technique with a transparent goal: reaching 50,000 eating places worldwide by the tip of 2027. The corporate views restaurant improvement as a core pillar of long-term development, even because the quick-service restaurant trade navigates a difficult client atmosphere,” in accordance with Zacks.com.
It is a development path that may put McDonald’s on tempo to ultimately move Subway as the biggest restaurant model on this planet. That is a title that Subway has held since 2011.
Subway holds the worldwide crown
Subway is the world’s largest restaurant chain by variety of places. The corporate surpassed McDonald’s in america in 2002, however the sandwich chain has now additionally handed McDonald’s worldwide, in accordance with the USA At this time Community.
Subway took the U.S. crown greater than 20 years in the past and has not given it up.
“The Milford-based chain operates 13,247 shops in america, 148 greater than McDonald’s as of Dec. 31. Subway, began by Fred DeLuca in 1965, opened 904 models final 12 months, whereas McDonald’s opened 295,” Fox Information reported in Feb. 2002.
Even then, nonetheless, McDonald’s was nonetheless, in some methods, a much bigger model than Subway.
“The truth that there are extra Subway eating places in america could also be a lift in visibility, however doesn’t add as much as enormous monetary good points, mentioned Mark Kalinowski, a fast-food analyst with Salomon Smith Barney.
Extra Eating places
“When you have an individual strolling down the road or driving alongside of their automobile, they’re going to see extra Subways. It is a comfort issue to have a variety of models open. However in the end, from a monetary perspective, it is not that massive of a deal,” Kalinowski mentioned.
Lately, nonetheless, Subway has been shifting within the flawed path.
Subway has been steadily shrinking
Subway has closed roughly one-third of its U.S. eating places since 2016. The decline began after the 2015 arrest of its long-time spokesperson Jared Fogle on costs of kid pornography and intercourse with a minor.
“United States Legal professional Josh J. Minkler introduced at this time the submitting of formal costs in opposition to Jared S. Fogle for distributing and receiving little one pornography, and conspiring to take action, in addition to repeatedly touring to interact in business intercourse acts with underage minors. Fogle, 37, of Zionsville, Indiana, was charged by Data and has notified the U.S. District Court docket that he’ll plead responsible to all costs,” in accordance with an FBI press launch.
You may’t blame Subway’s decline on Fogle’s arrest, nevertheless it was a consider beginning its downturn.
“They need to acknowledge they’re in a horrific state of affairs after which pivot again to the truth that the spokesperson’s actions will on no account have an effect on the model’s dedication to offering clients with a wholesome fast-food various,” Patrick Hillman, a vice chairman at Levick Communications, a public relations agency that focuses on disaster administration, informed Advertising Dive.
The chain instantly reduce ties with Fogle when his arrest was made public.
Subway retains shrinking
Subway’s decline has been regular.
“Subway’s U.S. retailer rely declined for a tenth straight 12 months in 2025 because the model continues to rightsize its footprint,” in accordance with QSR Journal.
The chain’s retailer rely has been falling because it hit 27,000 in 2015.
“Between 2016 and 2025, the chain closed a internet of 8,345 eating places — that determine alone would rank among the many prime 5 greatest chains in America,” the indiustry publication shared.
Subway retailer closures by 12 months:
Why is Subway struggling?
“The straightforward clarification for this decline is that same-store gross sales have been falling since 2012, and unit rely has adopted. The chain has neatly in the reduction of on unit development whereas it really works to recuperate these misplaced gross sales, and unit closures end in a modestly smaller idea,” wrote Restaurant Enterprise Editor in Chief Jonathan Maze on Nation’s Restaurant Information.
Increasing too quick damage the chain’s franchisees.
“Operators inform me privately that aggressive improvement over that interval cannibalized present places and damage unit economics,” Maze wrote.
That decline displays greater than cyclical stress, in accordance with trade analysts. It factors to a long-running challenge with retailer saturation and franchise profitability.
“Shops that had been exceptionally robust 5 years in the past are a lot weaker now,” one franchisee informed Maze.
Subway’s message additionally grew stale, in accordance with Meals Community character Ali Khan.
“Within the early 2000s, Subway’s ‘Eat Contemporary’ branding resonated with a health-conscious public in distinction to McDonald’s. Jared Fogle (earlier than his scandal) grew to become the face of its weight-loss advertising and marketing. However over time, new fast-casual opponents with a watch on high quality like Chipotle and Jersey Mike’s opened the door to a brand new period of upper high quality chain quick meals that provided a brand new choice: higher quick meals (albeit costlier),” he posted.
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This story was initially printed by TheStreet on Might 2, 2026, the place it first appeared within the Eating places part. Add TheStreet as a Most well-liked Supply by clicking right here.
