Savannah, Part 2

Today, we didn't have any interviews scheduled because all of the people that we tried to contact in Savannah never got back to us. We dropped Sam and David off at the Restore for Habitat and then we drove further into the city. We walked around and stopped in a store call Smooth. It was a smoothie shop and conveniently enough, there was a sign printed on the door that said "We are not a chain." Naturally, we walked in because this seemed like a perfect place to interview. Unfortunately, when we asked if the owner was available, he or she wasn't in town, so we were not able to talk with anyone. We however bought a smoothie and some coffee, sat down, wrote our blogs, and planned out the rest of our trip to Charleston. 


After we were done there, we walked around and stopped into a sub shop that we had never heard of: Lenny's Subs. Apparently, we are very northern and did not know that it was a southern chain. The owner was willing to talk to us, but unfortunately had reservations about being filmed, and after we learned that Lenny's Subs was a franchise, we had a very productive interview.

Lenny's Subs is in their 4th year and is actually trying to expand more and to become a bigger franchise. Currently, they only have about 160 stores, but compared to Subway's 32,000 locations, it is quite a miniscule business. Ironically enough, the corner across the street is home to a Subway. So although Lenny's is a franchise, we were able to treat it more like a local business because it's directly competing with a store that has 200 times as many locations.


A major disadvantage that the owner of this specific Lenny's explained is that the prices have to be higher than Subway's prices because there aren't as many stores. In addition to the fact that they are much smaller business than Subway, he insists that they have better quality food. Some examples that he gave us that support his belief are:

1. They bake their bread the day of as opposed to Subway, who bakes their bread the night before.
2. Their meat is not pre-sliced like Subway's meat, therefore it is able to stay much fresher.
3. They receive fresh produce twice a week whereas Subway receives it fewer times.
4. The portions are bigger - the regular sub has half a pound of meat and the large has a pound.


The location has both good and bad sides that contribute to Lenny's success and/or failure. A bad part is obviously that there is a competitive Subway literally across a side street. He explained that people are more familiar with Subway, especially northern tourists and tourists from places that don't have Lenny's, therefore they know what sub they want and what their product is, in turn being more willing to shop there than at Lenny's. Yet an advantage to the location is that there is a lot of foot traffic. It is located on what seems like the busiest street in Savannah, in the middle of Broughton Street, allowing for many locals and tourists to pass by.

One thing that we have seen a lot in local businesses that the owner explained is the excellent customer service. The workers know the customers and their sandwiches. Proof of this friendly customer service is from the moment we stepped through the door - more than one of the workers greeted us and the owner was really willing to talk to us. This is something that most likely wouldn't happen at Subway. For example, on the way to Savannah, we stopped at Subway for dinner and the lady working behind the counter began to talk to us and the conversation turned into her bashing Subway's ad campaigns and products.

Although Lenny's wasn't the ideal "local" business that we are searching for, the insight was really interesting because it was of a little different of a perspective.