Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am hoping somebody here can help me.  I am doing research for something and I am trying to find out a bit about how Quizno`s is operated.  I went to two local Quizno`s and while I got some help, it appeared owners were not all too eager to help.  I`ve been watching this forum for quite some time now and I was hoping somebody here would be able to answer some of the following questions or perhaps be willing to converse with me (either via email / phone/ Instant Messenger) and just help me out a bit.  Any help whatsoever would be very appreciated.

In terms of information I`d be looking for either from owners or other:

Operations Strategy:
- How do you decide what items/product to have on hand and how much?
-Is there often a lot of waste (food gone bad from lack of customers)
-How did you decide where to locate?
-Where do you get your inventory from?
           -cheaper supplier or supplier slightly more expensive but of higher quality
-How many workers have you hired and why that many?
-How do you manage your inventory and know when to order more?
-How do you work to improve the quality of your business? cut costs?
-What are you promotional strategies to deal with competition?
-How often do you order new supplier?
What is your plan for dealing with problems? Employes dont show up, you run out of stock...
-Why Quiznos? Opening a franchise requires a huge investment and there are hundreds to pick from.  Why did you pick this particular one?

Process:
-Do you have a set standard of what goes on a sandwich or does the customer pick it as things go along?
-What is the average standard time you recomment it take for a sandwich to be made?

Value Cycle:
About how many sandwiches do you make on avg. per day?
-When are the busiest times

Forecast:
-How do you forecast upcoming demand?

Inventory: What types of inventory review systems are in place?

Purchasing: What types of purchasing system is in place? What criteria do you use when selecting suppliers? What would you change?




Any help to any of these would be very appreciated!!

The people selling the Quizno`s franchise should be more than happy to give you that information, especially if they think you might become a franchisee. But that`s just my opinion. I could be wrong. Others who reply to this post may have better advice.

Good luck,
Aleem


-------------------------

Get Your Name in ".com" at the International Internet Authority

Yup I agree with YourNameInDotCom. However, it looks to me that you don’t want a Quiznos franchise, you want to duplicate what they do on your own. If that is the case you would be better served by getting a Job with Quiznos and learn from them while working with them. Then use that knowledge in your own shop.

Most of the questions you ask are extremely basic, I would seriously encourage you to get a job in restaurant management in any company before you spend a penny of your own money.

Good luck,

Thank you for your responses.  I`m not looking to duplicate anything though or at this point in time start my own business.  I`m finishing up getting a college degree and part of my final project is to complete a supply chain analysis on a franchising chain I`d be interested in possibly pursuing setting up once I graduate.

why not call the office of the CEO and state that you working on a project and would like to compete a supply chain analysis. in exchange you would want a reference and possibility a paid internship with room and board and per diem included during the duration

Hi 

Most of the answers you seek relate to proprietary systems and would be wrapped up in secrecy agreements, under the circumstances outlined below I wish you the best of luck, you may have great difficulty getting any more than surface info given that all the parties involved are now playing for sheep stations.

 

From what I could see their supply chain can be summed up as this: Use scale to leverage low prices and possibly rebates from suppliers that are absorbed by wholly owned subsidiaries and the goods are then placed into franchisee locations at a premium yield based on a exclusive mandatory supply agreement. Not much of an term paper?

Being  an Aussie I thought I would be able to give you an international perspective, they have been in Oz for around two years, of nearly 50 Store licences sold 24 ended in bankruptcy or store closure.  Five remain operational and the remainder are forfeits, non starts or missing in action. So unfortunately its all attorneys at ten paces down here and no one is talking.

And its not much better in the states where up to up to 50% of stores are reputed to be under break even. From the quick Goo search I did the chances of HQ being cooperative would be between Buckley’s and none… (there is an entire web site devoted to the litigation history between Qu corporate and their franchisees).

Before you talk to anyone at HQ contact the office of: Amy Powers Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel-  to establish your bona fides, the last thing you need is a cease and desist order.

From my corporate days I learned the “recruiter gambit” and it came up trumps, if you go to: http://www.toastedsubs.info/consulting.htm  you will find that they offer a “consultancy service” where you would be more than likely to find the answers to the questions you are asking, however I would suspect that you will still be walking a very tight line legally with corporate.

Good luck with your project you may end up rewriting a “tale of two cities”.

It might be wise to have a back up case study, 1800 radiator might be a good positive story, they have a category beating supply system with on and offsite warehousing and a 15 min offsite dispatch capability where the industry norm is once or twice daily deliveries arethe norm and overnight is not unheard of. On top of that they have easily approachable franchisees and HQ that are happy to share their companies success, ask if you can go on one of  their franchisee discovery days.

Ps I thought that the  biohazard suits at the quazi stores was a joke at first.