Many Nights and Days out at Jimmy John's

Let me first start by saying my brother that lives in Arizona has never experienced Jimmy John's but always hears about it.  He has asked me to write about it and has requested that when he comes for my wedding in July, for me to take him to get Jimmy John's... which I will.

Jimmy John's is a purveyor of fine sub sandwiches all over the USA (minus New Mexico, this is based on their availability for franchising page on their website.)  They offer an array of delicious subs that are made to order and come to you "freaky fast" according to their commercials.  This is not a Subway sub.  They have certain ingredients for each different sub, their bread tastes better as do the meat and vegetables (that's just my opinion).  The company headquarter are located in Champaign, IL. a college town itself (the University of Illinois).  Jimmy John Liautaud, only 19 years old in 1983, started the company with used equipment and hustle.  And it's his go-getter attitude that has now bolstered the company to 690 stores nationwide.

When I was in college in Kalamazoo, Jimmy John's stayed open late and delivered these delicious subs to the dorms (not freaky fast delivery... more on this later) to kids who were up late studying or who had the post party/bar munchies.  There were open to 4 a.m. at the two Kalamazoo locations.  They were the go to late night snack and they were very affordable.  It seems as though their prices go up each year.  I remember when the smaller subs were $3.25 and now they are upwards of $4.50.  When you add tax and delivery to that it adds up, plus if you like the bigger sandwiches you're now looking at $5.50.  But they still sell day old bread (leftover sub bread from the day before) for $0.49.

 

Now I live in Royal Oak and there are 3 Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich Shops within two miles of my apartment.  Here is a map of the location of the Jimmy John's that is closest to our apartment (B) and the location of another restaurant that does deliver to us (Happy's Pizza, A).  Happy's pizza has an okay deliver time and I would be willing to wait the same amount of time for a Jimmy John's sub.  When I recently was enjoying a late night with one of my college friends we tried desperately to relive our college days by ordering one of these delicious subs.  To our disappointment, when inquiring about delivery from all of the restaurants we learned that my apartment falls within the vortex of non-deliverable areas for each of the three Jimmy John's shops.  Finding this fact disturbing my fiance took it upon herself to write to Jimmy John's after a worker failed to explain the reasoning behind the blocked delivery.  The email she received in response follows:

Thank you for your feedback concerning the delivery area of the Jimmy John's in Royal Oak or Clawson.  At this time we do not have a location that can deliver to you.  Our goal at Jimmy Johns is to provide all customers within specific delivery areas freaky fast, freaky good sandwiches.  In order to do this each store must have a limited delivery area.  Delivery boundaries are based on strategy and not opportunity.   Our strategy is to deliver sandwiches as quickly as possible to the customers within the set delivery zone.  Making exceptions to this would not only confuse our employees but most of all our customers.  We have found that this is a successful strategy and although the manager at the store could not explain as such, this is why we have such a defined delivery area for our stores. 

 

While I know this explanation does not help you in your delivery dilemma, I hope you have better understanding of why the delivery areas are set the way they are.

 

Aimee

Thanks Aimee, I won't be coming to JJ's very often.