The newest craze that sweeping the nation, the Subway “Five Dollar Footlong” campaign, has somewhat come to an end. I went into the store yesterday after a workout to discover that now only certain sandwiches are available at that price. I’m not surprised, as a manager originally told me the promotion was supposed to end on April 20th.

I think that Subway may have done themselves some damage through this campaign however. I know that Subway was absolutely packed for the last month or so. Indeed, I have eaten more Subway in the last six weeks than in the rest of my life combined. It was a good advertisement campaign with catchy commercials, etc. However, because of the success the stores kept the promotion going, and as a result are now facing a situation where it may lose some former regular customers.

Here is what I mean: If you regularly bought Subway and then were privy to this discount for nearly two months, where you spent less money every visit and perhaps got a more “expensive” (steak) item, then the dissonance experienced when the price reverts to normal may incline you to go to a competing store.

I don’t have any evidence of this happening or know of similar situations, but it seems like the longer this discount drags on, the more difficult it will be for them to ask for full price once again.

It seems that this situation has already played out in a compromise, by keeping the promotion on selected sandwiches, but who knows how long that will hold up. As for me, I’ll be visiting Subway significantly less once again.