tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Jimmy John's 
Owner -- Privately Held
Primary Operating Region -- Midwest (spotty locations can be found in the West and Southeast)
Number of Locations -- 325 (2005)

Melanie loves Jimmy John's.  They had one where she went to college and apparently this worked out rather well.  So when Jimmy John's took over the perpetually-rotating-outdoor-access restaurant space at a local mall, Melanie had a new number in her speed dial.  And she got really really pushy about us trying Jimmy John's.  So we did.  And it was delicious.  And the crowd went wild.

11am-1pm is a horrible time to hit our mall-based Jimmy John's, not because it's terribly busy, but because the nearby "kids with more money and fashion than brains" high school staggers out lunch. One particular day, I end up in line behind a blonde and a brunette who are all giggly and basically making fun of everybody else in the place with barely a single consideration that said people can hear everything they're saying. They only avoid this mistake twice...once when they happen to know the person they're ridiculing...the other with ME because I'm staring straight at them and they realize this. After they order, the one says to the other "So how come you didn't want to have lunch with me yesterday?" The other replies "I called my mom to get me out of school and I didn't have to go to gym." Then the one slaps the other one and calls her a...well, never mind.  The other one slapped her back.  With that, they bounced off gleefully together towards the dining area. They spent the rest of the lunch hour gawking at everybody entering from the parking lot and giving their opinions. "They are ALL wearing Abercrombie and Fitch shirts!" they say appalled at a group of about a half dozen guys heading toward the mall entrance (thankfully, NOT to Jimmy John's.)

Jimmy John Liautaud was fresh out of high school with a diabolical plot in mind to earn money for college...a hot dog stand.  But the hot dog stand proved too expensive to get into, so Jimmy found a cheaper model...sandwiches.  He opened a sandwich shop out of a converted garage near Eastern Illinois University with used equipment.  The model was simple...four cheap tasty sandwiches and Coke.  After some self-promotion using free samples and the startup of delivery service, Jimmy John's took off.

Jimmy's is still a pretty simple business model of cheap sandwiches.  The two things that make Jimmy's stand out is that cheap doesn't mean bad...they're really GOOD sandwiches...and Jimmy's delivers during operating hours which tend to go late into the night and there's no delivery minimum.  You can order a $3.00 sandwich and have it delivered.

Should you decide to visit the store, you'll find a lot of attitude on the walls.  My favorite example of this was a sign by the exterior entrance that said "Hippies use side door".  Advertising adorns the walls in a retro sort of format with witty comments.  Basically it's a college/youth-oriented theme that is probably supposed to be "anti-theme".

The menu is expanded from the original four sandwiches to a couple dozen including "gourmet sandwiches" served on fabulous chewy eight-inch "home baked" French bread, or a line of "gourmet clubs" on honey-wheat sandwich bread (you can opt for the French bread if you want).  The gourmet sandwich line is also available in a plain-Jane non-veggie/sauce form called "Plain Slims".  Where else have you ever heard of a restaurant marketing sandwiches as "slims" by REMOVING the veggies and leaving the meat?  There's also a sandwich called the "Gargantuan".  The store described it as "All the meats, all the veggies".  The website details the ingredients and clearly not everything is there...the cucumbers and tuna in the "Sorry Charlie" aren't in here...but let's face it, that's probably a good thing.  Sides include chips, cookies, and pickles.  Sorry, no salad or soup.  This is apparently a huge bragging point...it's the focal point of one of their print ads.

The sandwiches look a lot smaller and cheaper than the things you get at Quizno's or Subway, and they are.  But they're also every bit as good, and for some people probably preferential.  They're much less messy and easier to handle.  It costs far less than the $8 you can easily spend per person at Quizno's and the sandwich is much less intimidating.  The delivery aspect certainly helps as well.  

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