Team Freaky Fast

Evan Biner

Sean Dorrance

Austin Pridham

Kaitlin VanRoosendaal

Colorado Mesa University

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Contact Information

Organization: Jimmy John’s (Store #1147)

General Manager: Shannon Mulloy

Owner: Matt Spidell

Address: 2502 US-6 #200, Grand Junction, CO 81505

Phone Number: (970) 243-1752

E-mail: smulloy@jjjcorporate.com

Dates met with Shannon:

March 6th- One hour; Kaitlin, Sean & Evan went.

April 10th- One hour; Kaitlin went.

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Executive Summary

Jimmy John’s is a gourmet sandwich chain that was founded in Charleston Illinois. The

company is dedicated to quickly serving great food, at a low price, and with a delivery option.

Team Freaky Fast was able to observe the operations and processes of Store #1147 in Grand

Junction, CO on March 6th and April 10th. The team was able to observe: how orders were taken

both in person and over the phone, the two sandwich lines complete with a bread cutter, meat

puller and sandwich wrapper at each line, bread being stretched and put in the oven, delivery

drivers coming in and out of the store and a floater filling in the gaps where help was needed.

The team had the opportunity to meet with former store manager, Shannon Mulloy to

further gather information about the store and gain a basic overview of Jimmy John’s

operations. A basic Jimmy John’s operation that Team Freaky Fast found was that food was

ordered on a weekly basis from Sysco, soda was ordered from Coca-Cola every few weeks and

Jimmy John supplies was ordered as needed.

Shannon Mulloy explained that Jimmy John’s will deliver one sandwich or hundreds of

sandwiches, however the greatest challenge of the store is having a narrow delivery range.

According to Shannon Mulloy, corporate strictly sets the area that deliveries can be made in.

This is done in order to ensure freaky fast service. The store currently cannot go past 7th street

and that leaves a giant gap for opportunity. Team Freaky Fast found that if another Jimmy

John’s store was built along 12th street, the store would be able to make deliveries to everyone

on Colorado Mesa University’s campus and to numerous surrounding businesses. CMU’s

campus alone has nearly 10,000 potential sandwich lovers.

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In addition, lessons learned, an integrated framework, customer benefit package,

servicescape, production process, project timeline, value chain, customer demand, and facility

layout were all included into this project.

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Lessons Learned

After learning about the processes of Jimmy John’s throughout the semester, there

were many “ah ha” and “uh oh” moments that were discovered. Team Freaky Fast learned that

Jimmy John’s deliveries to surrounding business’s accounts for 85- 90% of the stores business.

This was an “ah ha” moment because Team Freaky Fast realized that Jimmy John’s is not an

average sandwich shop. In fact, one of the company’s competitive advantages is that they have

a strong focus on delivery. Another “ah ha” moment was that their sliced meats are in a cold

table below the sandwich making line which allows it to be easily accessible if they need to

restock. This is one of the many “little things” that Jimmy John’s does to ensure that they are

“freaky fast”. The last “ah ha” moment is that their bread comes from a specific Jimmy John’s

recipe. One of their rules of thumb is that after four hours of being baked, their bread is no

longer considered fresh and is “a day old”. It is important to Jimmy John’s that they are serving

their customers with fresh bread on a consistent basis.

In terms of “oh no” moments, there was nothing that the team saw as drastic; only

ideas or recommendations to maximize opportunity. Team Freaky Fast recommends that Jimmy

John’s establish’ another franchise near Colorado Mesa University. This is recommended

because there are many businesses in that area and it would also give Jimmy John’s access to

deliver to the entire student community. Jimmy John’s has a specific distance in which they can

deliver, unfortunately because of its location; it is not within delivery distance to on campus

students. The last “uh-oh” moment Team Freaky Fast recognized was that the Jimmy Johns in

Grand Junction has a lack of space. Now, it is great for a business to be busy, but it is currently

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too crowded for both employees and customers. In a way, Team Freaky Fast found that the

local Jimmy John’s was slightly uncomfortable to be in, due to how busy it was during lunch

hours. If this issue continues, then a larger space is recommended.

Connecting with Jimmy John’s was easy because group member, Kaitlin, works with the

previous franchise owner. This allowed her to contact Shannon Mulloy, who is a previous

manager of Jimmy Johns. Kaitlin told her about the project in person and then the team later

exchanged emails and set up a time to meet as a group. A few weeks later the team met at

Jimmy John’s to learn about the stores operations in more detail.

At first, Team Freaky Fast’s scope was very wide. The team thought there would be a

large amount of work in order to fully understand the complex operations of Jimmy John’s.

After meeting with Shannon, the team’s scope was found to be much narrower because Jimmy

Johns truly has simple operations. Their focus in simplicity, efficiency and effectiveness made

comprehending their operations straightforward and to the point. As a group, Team Freaky Fast

learned how efficient and effective it is for a company to have operations like Jimmy John’s.

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Integrated Framework (Steps 1 & 2)

Jimmy John’s is a Gourmet Sandwiches chain of 2000+ stores open throughout the

United States. According to the Jimmy John’s website, Jimmy Johns provides “an irreverent

attitude, low price, great food and delivery with a smile,” (jimmyjohn’s.com). In regards to their

competitive priorities, what makes Jimmy John's different from the rest is that it's, “honest, it's

damn good, it's damn fast, at a decent price.” Jimmy Johns also states that, their “definition of

fresh is worlds apart from everyone else's.” These are the main factors that differentiate Jimmy

John’s from its competitors.

Jimmy John’s has three main components that make their brand: “Simple, Honest and

Makes it Happen.”

Simple

Jimmy John’s keeps operations simple. They do this by using limited inventory,

simplified menu, simple marketing and franchise management. Lastly, their bottom line

is that they “make gourmet sandwiches and avoid anything that complicates the process

of their image,” (jimmyjohn’s.com).

Honest

According to the Jimmy John’s website, “We've got something that people crave. It's

damn good. We promise an honestly good sandwich and deliver on that promise. We tell

it like it is. That's why customers have come to trust Jimmy John's” (jimmyjohn’s.com).

Makes it Happen

Since 1983 Jimmy Johns has been “making it happen”. According to their site, “We've

been committed to making the world's greatest gourmet sandwiches since day one and

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that's not about to change. As long as we're fanatical about Jimmy John's, customers will

be fanatical about Jimmy John's,” (jimmyjohn’s.com).

Local and National Competition:

After conducting research in the Grand Junction area, it was found that there are many

competitors of Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches. Competitors of Jimmy John’s are simply

other local or chain sandwich shops. It was interesting to see that Jimmy John’s was centrally

located among its competitors and was also placed in an area “near dense daytime populations

with strong traffic,” (jimmyjohn’s.com).

Below is a list of the competition that Jimmy John’s faces in Grand Junction and throughout the

country:

Roasted Espresso and Subs (franchise)

Dominos (franchise)

Chomp’s (local)

Zoup!(franchise)

McAlister’s Deli (franchise)

7th Street Deli (local)

Which Wich (franchise)

Subway (franchise)

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Customer Benefit Package

Team Freaky Fast’s perception of Jimmy John’s customer benefit package is the

integrated set of goods and services shown in the diagram below. The primary good is “Gourmet

Sandwiches”. The peripheral goods and services: fresh and real food, spectacular employees,

fast, honest, affordable, quality, and sustainable all encircle the primary good in order to create

the overall Jimmy John’s experience. Lastly the variants that Jimmy John’s customers recognize

and pay for is their great location, and the fact that they are a franchise.

Gourmet Sandwiches

FastDelivery Sustainable

Quality

Affordable

HonestManagement

Spectacular Employees

Fresh Food

Location

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Servicescape

Ambient Conditions- Every Jimmy John’s has the same ambient conditions and is based on the

Jimmy John’s colors: red, black, and white. The familiar sights are tiled floors and walls with

large Jimmy John’s logos. Behind the register, the menu is the same in every store. It is a large

black board with white writing. Appearing as if someone wrote it in chalk. Besides the tile,

multiple walls are made out of brick or appear to be made with brick. Jimmy John’s gives the

customer the feel of being in a classic sub shop.

Spatial Layout and Functionality- The store’s front-of-the-house is laid out in an organized

manner, just like the sandwich production line. The customer orders his/her sandwich at the

register, then walks past the production line to pick-up their sandwich at the pick-up station.

After the customer pick-up their sandwich, they next walk by the beverage station to fill-up their

drinks. Besides the ordering station, the store also has multiple tables that can seat 1-4 people. As

the majority of their business is delivery, they tables are not always used. When they are used,

employees are responsible to maintain and clean the tables. The store is very function able and

easy to navigate.

Signs, Symbols, and Artifacts- There is one large Jimmy John’s sign in the restaurant, usually

around 6’x6’. Besides the large sign, there are multiple signs spread throughout the store. Some

signs say Jimmy John’s while other are decorative. The decorative signs usually have a food

relate quote such as, “YUM” or “CRAVE IT!, SAVOR IT!” Some signs depict local laws with

overtone of humor such as, “We’d love to see you naked, but state law requires shoes & shirt.”

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Production Process

The production process for Jimmy John’s would be an option or assemble-to-order good.

Customers have a choice of 24 sandwiches and multiple sides including; chips, cookies, pickles,

etc. From the base sandwich, customers can customize their order by subtracting ingredients or

adding additional ingredients. An example of this would be the customer asking for no mayo on

their sandwich or adding avocado spread to their sandwich. Jimmy John’s menu contains a

relatively limited list of ingredients compared to other sandwich shops. Because of this, they are

able to standardize their products, keeping costs low and making the production process quick.

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Full time for a sub: 45 Seconds

Project Timeline

Value Chain

Facility Layout

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