I am deeply concerned about the direct economic impact that Subway will have, especially to all of our school programs that rely on donations from our local Mariposa independent businesses. This is why. The average Subway franchise makes $375,000 per year. Subway has not located here prior to now because we have not had a sufficient sandwich market from which it could undercut and redistribute sales. Now that we have 15 places to get a sandwich and 22 lunch options, Subway is coming in. They are not planning to somehow attract new sandwich eaters out of the hills or attract new tourists to eat breakfast and lunch. They are planning to shift market share from existing businesses that can’t compete with the bulk buying power of a national corporation. This is not fair competition. Subway’s competitors are other national chains, not local “mom and pops.” If the Subway owners were interested in fair competition, they would open up their own local, independent sandwich shop.

So if the Mariposa Subway makes $365,000 per year ($1,000 a day), this means, for example, that 10 existing businesses may be making $100 a day less than they are now. Note that no existing sandwich shops are currently making $1,000 a day. So what happens if existing businesses make $36,500 a year less than they are now? We asked them, and they said it would directly affect the amount of charitable contributions they would be able to afford as well as jobs and/or hours of operation. For starters, this means football, softball, cheerleading, soccer, wrestling, track, etc. These are among the school programs supported by our local, independent food businesses; programs that unfortunately, the school system cannot afford without substantial donations.

Subway itself can’t replace this loss. By contract, they must send 125 percent of gross to the corporation for franchise fees and another 28 to 31 percent to the corporation for food costs. Their sandwiches are indeed cheap, and so they only have so much to pay rent, utilities, insurance and labor. If after all this, they manage to make $50,000 in profit, how much of that do you think the owners would be willing to donate to our local school programs? They would have to give all of it and more to make up for the loss of existing donations if existing businesses lose sales because of Subway. This is because if our existing businesses make less money, they will no longer be able to continue with their charitable contributions and instead this money will be going to Subway, out of our community to a global corporation. In the current budget crisis, our school programs cannot afford it.

Research shows that Subway will negatively impact our economy, jobs, charitable giving and community welfare. So let us, as a community, help out and find a great tenant.

PJ Wichas