Kansas City Food Blog

​It turns out that $5 bills are like pennies in the jar, adding up to big business for the fast-food franchise Subway. A recent Business Week article discusses how Stuart Frankel, a franchisee in Florida, turned a simple idea for a weekend promotion into $3.8 billion in sales for the chain, according to the NPD Group.

The story details how Frankel used the promotion for nearly a year before it caught the eye of a larger Florida franchisee, who introduced the idea to Subway co-founder Fred DeLuca. This was 2007.

A catchy jingle and a nationwide campaign rolled out on March 23, 2008. What was supposed to be a four-week promotion was extended to seven weeks before becoming a regular fixture at the sandwich shop. And that's when other fast food chains began to take notice. 

"Five dollars is the magic number now," says restaurant consultant Malcolm Knapp.

That seems to be true. Arby's has its five roast beef sandwiches for five dollars for friends and family and its $5.01 combo of a sandwich, drink and fries with the tag line of "worth every penny." Dairy Queen introduced a combo menu that requires a bit of math, with two items for $3, three items for $4, or four items for $5, from a list of ice cream, drink and hot dog options.

KFC takes direct aim at Subway in its latest ad campaign for grilled chicken boxes -- two pieces of grilled chicken, a biscuit, a side and a drink for $5 -- in which the chicken chain asks eaters to, "Unthink. Taste the Unsubside of KFC."

Grammar issues aside, that's basically the idea behind all of these campaigns: unthink and just fork over your $5 for some combination of something fried, a corn-syrup heavy drink or a sack of potatoes. And just forget that everything you want might be waiting right next door to the $5 combo -- on the dollar menu.  

[Image via Flickr: photos8]