Subway Restaurants Running Out Of Essential Sandwich Ingredients
Subway is having immense trouble procuring essential sandwich ingredients, here's why.
This article is more than 2 years old
Product shortages and rampant inflation have become prevalent societal symptoms following a years-long global pandemic. Not one business is immune to the overarching effects. Restaurants have been hit particularly hard by the percolating circumstances and it seems like more things are constantly getting thrown into the mix. Subway restaurants are the latest businesses to be suffering due to things beyond their control.
Subway has been having a particularly hard time procuring meat to put on its sandwiches. The lack of available meat is being caused by a variety of different circumstances. Supply chain and production issues are still plaguing availability. However, the real culprit behind the lack of product availability is a new bird flu that has been sweeping the nation. A report that came out of Restaurant Business Online revealed that one of Subway’s processing plants fell victim to a widespread bird flu outbreak. The outbreak led to severe production deficiencies, particularly for turkey supplies.
Supplies of ham and roast beef, which are also processed at that Subway factory have also been stunted. A spokesperson for Subway released a comment that detailed that the company is currently exercising all of its resources in order to increase production and make supply more available. Subway executives are also trying to secure partnerships with other suppliers and outside facilities in order rapidly make more meat products available to Subway locations nationwide
However, there are still mitigating circumstances that could thwart Subway’s meat replenishment efforts. Food & Wine pointed out that the bird flu is so contagious, particularly this strand of “Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza,” the problem could quickly spread to other facilities. This means that other restaurants could soon face similar challenges as Subway. In fact, many grocery stores across the nation already are. Supplies have been seriously strained for chicken and eggs due to the rapid spread of this deadly avian flu.
Further exacerbating the already concerning issue is inflation. Supply has already been having trouble keeping up with demand. Hence as supplies for meats are driven even further downward due to the rampant spread of the bird flu, the prices that Subways and other restaurants will have to pay in order to secure those supplies will correlatively increase. That extra cost will then like be passed down to the end consumer. It’s a vicious cycle. And at this point, any viable steps towards eliminating the problem remain hazy at best.
Subway’s unsettling meat situation serves as a further reminder of the precarious time the world is currently living through. As Subway does its best to remedy a difficult situation, other sectors of commerce are working on easing situations equally as dire. Baby formula shortages have also been plaguing the nation and have left parents clamoring to find a way to adequately nourish their children. The problem has become so severe that the Biden Administration tasked the Food And Drug Administration to step in and help with increasing production. Ultimately, perhaps these extenuating circumstances are simply indicative of the new post-pandemic normal the world must adapt to.
