Subway's US franchise shrink (2016-2021)
Subway, at its peak the largest US restaurant chain, closed thousands of locations over several years. Many closures surfaced through franchise locator listings and local health records long before any company announcement.
Franchise owners bore the losses; the parent company acknowledged the decline only in annual figures.
Became a case study in how a franchise brand can shrink store by store with little public notice.
Shows how a franchise location's absence from a public registry is often the first clue to a closure that no one announces.
