The rapid expansion of fast casual sandwich and burger joints in Baton Rouge has chewed up Quiznos and spit it out of the market.
The third Quiznos in as many years—and the last in the Capital Region—closed its doors just before the holidays in the Southgate Village strip center on Burbank Drive, near the LSU campus.
“I think it was the brand. There’s just so many food options now, and everybody is selling sandwiches,” says Melvin Ray Moton, who owned and operated the franchise for 11 years before closing it Dec. 18. “Everywhere you go now, you can get a sandwich, even at supermarkets and convenience stores. It’s just a tough, tough business environment.”
It was a different sandwich scene in Baton Rouge back when Moton opened the franchise in 2004, long before other national franchises such as Jimmy John’s, Which Wich and Firehouse Subs entered the market.
The Burbank Quiznos was Moton’s only franchise. Other franchisees closed the Quiznos location at 7474 Corporate Blvd. in 2014, after 14 years in business, and the restaurant at 5565 Essen Lane in 2013.
Along with increased competition, Moton says it had become increasingly difficult to find workers at the restaurant in recent years.
“So that made it really tough. Me and my wife were working 80 hours a week,” he says. “It was losing money, and I was having to put too much into it out of pocket. So, it was just time for me to cut my losses.”
Since being founded in 1981 in Denver, the Quiznos chain has seen its share of highs and lows. As many as 5,000 locations were open at its peak in the mid-2000s. But after emerging from bankruptcy in 2014, the company is now testing out new concepts in an attempt to breathe new life into the chain. Of the roughly 1,265 restaurants in the chain now, 690 are located in the U.S. and 575 are abroad.
—Steve Sanoski
