Jason would really like to give the local Jimmy John’s a lot of business. So would other people in his town, it sounds like. But because his closest store is a franchise, it’s not allowed to deliver to him. He can call for delivery from other area restaurants that are further away, but not the one four minutes from his house. Yes, of course he could go pick up his sandwiches, and he often does, but that’s not the point. Most of the time when we call for delivery, we could go get the food but choose not to because it would require removing snow from the car or changing out of pajamas or loading children into a vehicle.

I live almost exactly in the middle of [redacted]. There are four Jimmy Johns stores in [redacted], three of which are within three miles of my house, and one of those is 1.5 miles from my house (a four minute drive). Apparently a regional manager from the corporate Jimmy John’s office has decided that these franchised stores are not allowed to deliver to my address (and the surrounding homes). To add insult to this, there are addresses literally in the middle of nowhere, miles further from a store than my house that they will deliver to.

I paid the closest store a visit over the weekend and discussed this with an assistant manger. She claimed that they are not happy with the decision and that it’s costing them about $3,500 per month in sales. She explained their delivery rules to me and showed me the map, agreeing that we should be in their area, but the out of town manager says no and there’s nothing they can do about it. I asked if I can speak with that person directly, but she took my info and said that she has to check with the general manger if that information can be given to me.

In the meantime I sent a complaint to JJ corporate and got a patronizing, canned response. I’ve included that Email exchange below. This is super frustrating! Any love for a hungry guy in [redacted]?

Hi Jason,

Thank you for your feedback concerning the delivery area of the Jimmy John’s in [redacted].

Unfortunately, the address provided below is out of our delivery area.

Jimmy John’s was built around fast delivery. If the store near you won’t deliver to you, you are out of our designated delivery area. This is not a personal thing, it’s a strategic decision. We have a very disciplined strategy with delivery and have found this to be successful in the past. Going out of our area makes those in the area get delayed. I apologize.

Hopefully you will still consider Jimmy John’s in the future.

Again, Jason can get delivery from a restaurant that is farther away than this one.

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