What’s better than a cookie? Maybe a really big cookie? Maybe even a footlong cookie? If you chose the footlong cookie, you’re not alone. Subway, maker of the popular footlong sub sandwich, has a new product on its menu, the footlong cookie. What’s more, demand is so strong for the footlong cookie, the company has been forced to make changes to online ordering options effectively limiting the number of footlong cookies that can be ordered through third-party delivery services like Door Dash. Subway anticipates that the changes will help it better manage its supply for in-store customers. The cookie is part of Subway’s new Sidekicks menu, which also includes footlong pretzels and footlong churros. Subway hopes the new menu items will help boost sales in a hotly competitive market.
Just how popular is the new footlong cookie? Well, Subway claims to have sold more than 3.5 million in just a couple of weeks, a number much higher than was initially expected. Priced at $5.00, the footlong cookie is less expensive than the chain’s footlong sandwiches, but more expensive than either the footlong pretzel or footlong churro. Even so, sales of cookies have far outpaced those for pretzels or churros, despite the fact that smaller cookies were already on the menu. All of this might leave you wondering whether buyers have convinced themselves that consuming one super large cookie is still just eating a single cookie or whether they’re simply taken by the idea of being able to order a footlong cookie.
Discussion Questions:
1. Discuss supply and demand as it relates to products like Subway’s footlong cookie. In theory, rather than ordering a footlong cookie, a customer could simply order several smaller Subway cookies that would equal the size of a footlong cookie. How does the novelty of a footlong cookie play into this situation? In your opinion, is a box of smaller cookies an effective substitute for a single footlong cookie? Explain.
2. Subway’s footlong cookie costs $5.00 or an amount that is similar to the price of many coffees at chains like Starbucks. Consider the economics of relatively low cost items like the footlong cookie and their impact on consumer psychology. Do low cost novelty items like this increase demand for the chain’s core products?
Sources| CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/01/food/subway-footlong-cookies-demand/index.html; Tennessean: https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/food/2024/02/02/subway-footlong-cookie-demand/72448739007/; Scripps News: https://scrippsnews.com/stories/subway-struggling-to-keep-up-with-demand-for-new-footlong-cookie/; USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2024/01/18/subways-new-menu-foot-long-cookies-pretzels-churros/72257940007/; Unsplash: Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash