‘No Warning, No Heads Up': 23 Subway Restaurants Just Abruptly Shut Down: Here’s Why

Over 200 employees from 23 Subway locations in the United States and Canada recently found themselves without a job very abruptly.

The retail industry is seeing brick and mortar locations of stores dropping like flies.

Recently, 25 KFC locations across America abruptly closed their doors, giving no notice to employees or customers.

Now, this seems to be the case once again, but for Subway restaurants.

In most instances, when mass layoffs occur, there is a manager or two who knows what is on the horizon and has an unsettling night before they have to go in and lay off employees.

In this case, it seems that not even the managers of these Subway locations had a clue that they and all of their employees were about to be out of a job.

The manager of one of those locations that was affected, Joanne Kennedy, told KPTV that there was "No warning, no heads up, no transparency, completely and totally blindsided, every one of us."

Kennedy was basically told to put a sign on the door to let customers know the location was closing down, and then she and all of her employees were informed that their services were no longer needed.

All of the locations that shut down were franchised by CapTen Enterprises and Subfecta LLC.

Why Did 23 Subway Locations Abruptly Close, Leaving Workers Without Their Final Paychecks?

According to the district manager of some of the affected locations in Oregon, they were informed rather bluntly.

Apparently there had been trouble for a few weeks before the sudden closures, as managers told local news that their food orders were not arriving.

“There was no communication, there was just ‘keep doing your job, business as usual,’ that’s what I was told, business as usual, they’re looking for a resolution for the food order,” Kennedy told Fox 12 in Oregon. “We were all trading food in between stores trying to keep everyone’s doors open, and then no food came.”

Crystal Eang said, "Monday rolled around it was like you guys are not getting paid, we don’t have the money to pay you."

That is a terrible way to be terminated. Getting all ready for work, getting there and actually starting your daily routine, then being informed that you are fired and are not even getting paid for the hours that you have worked.

The franchise owner told a local Fox affiliate that she has been working with the Bureau of Labor and Industries to get her employees their final paychecks, and she intends for everyone to be paid what they are owed.

She claims that her bank account was hacked and the fraud was not covered by the FDIC, so she ran out of money. She says that because Subway is under ownership transition, she was unable to get the support needed from corporate to keep the stores opened.

It appears, however, the plan is to find other franchise owners who can take over and eventually re-open the closed stores.

“Our priority is to ensure guests can continue enjoying freshly made, high-quality, delicious food by identifying experienced operators within our system who can quickly take ownership and re-open the restaurants,” a spokesperson for the Subway corporation told the local news station in a statement.

Evan Paul is the host of Taste of Country Nights, a syndicated radio show heard on more than 130 country radio stations nationwide, every night from 7PM to midnight. He plays the best new country music and interviews today's top stars, like Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Dan + Shay, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Lady A, + more!