tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Blimpie
Owner -- Kahala Corp
Primary Operating Region -- US and 13 other countries
Number of Locations -- 1,600 (2006)

Poor Jeremy.

Jeremy, whose diet as far as I know consists of Blimpie sandwiches, frozen pizzas, and Kool-Aid, loves Blimpie because “they have the soft bread”.  Recently, in the span of a couple of weeks, nearly every Blimpie in the metro closed.  The one in the convenience store near him closed.  The one in the strip mall near my office closed.  The old converted gas station location by the Wal-Mart closed.  The downtown one closed.  We’re but a couple of locations from being Blimpie-extinct.

Tony Conza and friends founded Blimpie in Hoboken, NJ in 1964.  Conza used to be featured in the company’s marketing efforts.  The public chain was taken private in 2002 by Jeffrey Endervelt and partners.  Didn't help.  Kahala Corp, operators of Taco Time and ten other brands, bought Blimpie in 2006.  The Blimpie trademark is actually shared between Kahala and the Blimpies of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states operated by Metropolitan Blimpie, Inc.  It's Taco Time all over again.

Blimpie likes to say that they were once regarded as the premium product in a two-way battle with Subway.  That’s debatable, particularly depending on your local Blimpie franchisee.  In any case, a swarm of players came to the table.  Quizno’s.  Panera Bread.  Jimmy John’s.  Just to name a few.  Blimpie got lost in the shuffle.

I went to Blimpie once in the days when Subway and Blimpie were the only major players.  I found the Blimpie product to be very plain and unremarkable in comparison and never went back.  But it occurred to me that I’ve never reviewed them, so I decided to return and see what’s new.

First, I had to find one still open.  That was a bit of a challenge, since the website store locator still listed some of the closed ones, but I finally succeeded.

The locations I found were pretty dated, and not exactly busy at the lunch hour.  Aside from the color scheme and lackluster appearance, the layout mimicked the common Subway (at least, the older, smaller Subways).

I think a big part of Blimpie's primary problem is presentation.  The sandwiches are simply unremarkable looking.  The bread, as Jeremy noted, is soft and chewy.  It reminds me of grocery store sandwich bread with a lighter crust, but it’s much thicker.  Taste-wise, basic sandwiches like Roast Beef or Turkey taste just like the sandwich Mom used to make …right down to the stale bread aftertaste.  Sandwiches such as the "Blimpie Best" come off a little better.  But “Premium product”?  I’ve seen more impressive looking sandwiches wrapped in plastic in convenience stores. That isn't to say the sandwiches are horrible.  They can taste fine depending on how you top them.  And you could make the case for them being cheap (many under $4), but so is Subway and Jimmy John's, and for a couple bucks more you could go to a Jason's Deli and get something FAR more impressive, and they throw in a pickle slice and chips as well as complimentary muffins, mini garlic toast thingies, and ice cream.

You can get any sandwich grilled on a George Forman-looking device that squashes the bread and puts black stripes on it, resulting in a flat, lukewarm, toasted looking thing.  You can also have your sandwich grilled on Panini bread.  There's also wraps and salads.

Blimpie's advantage over Subway is the existence of soup.  But in the era of Panera Bread and Jason's Deli, the Blimpie formula will be hard pressed to thrive.  Kahala plans to succeed where others have failed through co-branding with its other properties.

They'll have to do more than that to keep this sub afloat.

Click here to return to tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption