Favorite sandwich chains of U.S. consumers as of May 2019

Wawa, a gas-station chain and quick-stop hub for sandwiches, received a Composite Loyalty Score of 64 percent, ranking it as the U.S. consumer’s favorite sandwich chain in 2018. It was closely followed by Firehouse Subs, which achieved a Composite Loyalty Score of 62 percent. Global quick-service chain Subway only ranked eighth with a score of 45 percent in the same year.

Wawa vs. Subway

Wawa undoubtedly enjoys great popularity among U.S. consumers, but it still has strong competitors in large sandwich restaurant chains such as Subway, Arby’s and Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches. In 2018, Subway was the sandwich chain with the highest U.S. systemwide sales accounting for over 10 billion U.S. dollars. This figure may come as no surprise given that Subway has a large number of restaurants across the United States. Comparatively, Wawa only accounted for 790 locations across the country that year.

What’s they key to a good sandwich?

In 2019, a survey conducted by Technomic found that the majority of respondents, 66 percent to be precise, believed fresh ingredients to be the most important attribute they consider when buying a sandwich in the United States.