The franchise of one location cost less than $10,000, the classes for training were in New England. The buyer of the franchise (one of 33 allotted to Tel Aviv) is English and used his own savings because no loans are available anywhere. He was at the site sawing, hammering, cutting and lifting before the opening.
The fitting out of the site cost over $200,000. The specialized Subway equipment comes from a warehouse in East Europe, it is made everywhere in the world, especially China.
The rent for a tiny space in a ‘lunch-traffic-only site, surrounded by juice, coffee and fallafel shops, in a typically scuzzy Israeli walkway, is $20 a square foot, plus expensive utilities. The same rent as San Francisco or New York.
The store is Kosher, no cheese or dairy products. The food was fine, high Subway standards but the cookies were a little soft....prossibly because of the ‘no-dairy’ rule of a kosher operation.
This one store will create 12 jobs directly and an equal number indirectly (prep work, delivery and support).
Why do so few people understand business? The
miracle of jobs, food, pleasure, accomplishment and conviviality.
The kind of people who don’t understand the miracle of commerce go to work for the government and universities.