Subway To Close 500 Sandwich Shops: Are RI Locations At Risk?

MIDDLETOWN, RI — You need more than 10 fingers to count all the Subway stores in Rhode Island. But that situation could be changing. Subway, which has more than 25,000 restaurants across America, this week announced plans to close more than 500 U.S. locations and open 1,000 new restaurants overseas.

It's unknown how many of the chain's Rhode Island locations could be shuttered. As of Thursday, the company had not released a list of planned closings but said North American store closings will happen by the end of 2018.

Even when Subway reduces its numbers in the U.S., it will still far and away have the most stores as YUM Brand, which operates Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, is in second place with 17,500 locations, according to CNN Money.

The chain has around 3,200 restaurants in Canada, 2,300 in the U.K., 1,300 in Australia and nearly 1,000 in Mexico, according to the company website.

"We want to be sure that we have the best location," Subway Restaurants CEO Suzanne Greco told Bloomberg News in an interview. "Store count isn't everything." A Subway spokeswoman told Fortune the company expects "having a slightly smaller, but more profitable footprint in North America" but with far more stores overseas.
SubscribeSubway's sales slipped by 4.4 percent in 2017, Fortune reports.

The chain endured controversy in recent years after spokesman Jared Fogle admitted to having sex with minors and distributing child porn in 2015. Fogle has since unsuccessfully appealed his more than 15-year federal prison sentence. He recently filed a $57 million lawsuitagainst the prosecutors and judges who put him behind bars, saying the amount is three times the value of the lucrative career he lost when he was arrested.

Brian McCready, Patch National Staff, contributed to this report
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