Subway, 1965
The first store was opened in Bridgeport, Connecticut in August, 1965 by Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck. Then, they set a goal of having 32 stores opened in 10 years. By 1974, the duo owned and operated 16 submarine sandwich shops throughout Connecticut. Realizing they would not reach their 32 store goal in time, they began franchising, launching the Subway brand into a period of remarkable growth which continues to this day.
Subway is one of the fastest-growing franchises in the world and boasts a whopping 41,512 locations around the world as of October 2019. The restaurant has stores in over a hundred countries, however, over half of its restaurants are in the United States. Subway is both the largest single-brand restaurant chain and the largest restaurant operator on Planet Earth.
And it all started with DeLuca borrowing 1k dollars from Buck to start 'Pete's Super Submarines' back in 55 years ago. Just a year after opening their first restaurant, they formed Doctor's Associates Inc. because it was DeLuca's goal to earn enough money to pay for his tuition for medical school and because Buck had a doctorate in physics. It was in 1968 that the restaurant was officially renamed Subway.
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It also became a soft drink by accident. One day someone walked into Jacobs Pharmacy with a headache and needed a bottle. It was originally intended to be mixed with water before drinking. He didn't want to wait to get home and asked for it to be mixed at the soda fountain there in the drugstore. The tap was down at the other end of the counter, so the man behind the counter just mixed it with soda water. The result is what we know today.
More trivia: In Chinese, "Coca cola" translates to "Bite the wax tadpole."