Subway Restaurant Closures – The Real Numbers
The numbers you hear in the media about Subway closures don’t tell the full story. In fact, the actual number of closed Subway stores is much higher than most people realize.
The Subway Franchise Store Closures
Can you guess how many Subway stores have closed in the past nine years?
Today I’ll show you how franchise companies report only part of the picture when it comes to closures—and how you can dig deeper to find the real numbers. We’ll use Subway as an example. (For the record, I actually like Subway—but they’re a perfect case study for this.)
How The Franchise Industry Calculates Closures
The Trick of Franchise “Churning”
We’ve talked before about churning, where franchisors pressure owners to sell failing stores for pennies on the dollar. These get marked as transfers instead of closures, which helps the company avoid reporting them as failures.
But for this article, we’re focusing on actual closures, locations that shut down and didn’t reopen.
What the FDD Really Shows
Every franchise disclosure document (FDD) has a section called Item 20, where the franchisor reports net changes in their system over the past three years.
That means:
[New Stores Opened] – [Stores Closed] = Net Change
So, what are Subway’s reported net changes?
2022: –571
2023: –443
2024: –631
These are the numbers most media outlets use. For example, QSR Magazine recently covered Subway’s unit count drop and cited the –631 figure. But if you read closely, they say “drop in unit count,” not “closures.”
And that's a BIG Difference.
Why “Net” Is Misleading
The term net is key here. It doesn’t show how many stores actually closed. It just shows the final total after subtracting new openings.
So if Subway opens 500 stores and closes 1,000, the net change shown is –500. That number gets reported everywhere—even though 1,000 franchisees lost their businesses.
In some cases, a brand can even show positive growth while still closing a large number of locations—just by selling new franchises fast enough to outpace the closures.
How to Find the Real Number of Closures?
Now for the good part, yes you can find the actual number of closures. But it takes a bit of work.
In the franchise agreement section (not the FDD), the franchisor is required to list:
- All current franchisees
- All franchisees who have left the system (either through closure or transfer)
This section is also useful for contacting current franchisees to get honest feedback.
What you’re seeing scroll beside me in the video? That’s a spreadsheet I created using the Subway agreement. I extracted every store closure listed for 2024 and blacked out the names and addresses. (see below)
The total?
1,026 closures. In just one year.
Total Subway Closures in 1 Year
That means Subway likely opened about 395 new stores in 2024. Subtract that from the 1,026 closures and you get the net number of –631, which is what everyone sees.
But the real story is over a thousand stores closed in the U.S.—in a single year.
What’s the Bigger Picture?
Over the past nine years, Subway’s public filings show a net decrease of 7,616 locations.
But when you look at the real closure data, the actual number of closed stores is probably closer to 11,000 or even 12,000.
To put that in perspective:
- Subway’s peak U.S. store count was about 27,000
- Today, it’s around 20,456
That means the Subway brand has lost nearly half of its U.S. locations.
LONG TERM FRANCHISE CONCERNS
Behind Every Closure Is a Person
These aren’t just numbers. Every one of those closures represents a real person, someone who invested $200,000 to $500,000 or more, likely took out a loan, and spent years trying to make their business work.
And then lost it.
If you’re thinking about buying a franchise, call an expert first.
It could save you from making a decision you’ll regret.
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