Subway Is Celebrating a Massive Menu Change by Giving Away 1 Million Free Subs

The sandwiches at Subway are about to become a little harder to customize. The chain recently announced that they'll be making a major shift to their menu on July 12, and will be introducing 12 new signature sandwiches, the Subway Series, that their culinary team have spent over a year fine-tuning. To celebrate the change, the chain will also be giving away 1 million free sandwiches.

Subway will be giving away 1 million free sandwiches from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on July 12. Customers can go to their Subway location and get a free 6-inch sandwich that is part of the new collection. When you go to Subway, you can order the new sandwiches by name or by number, and while you can't customize these sandwiches, the menu's core roster of sandwiches will still be available for you to choose from, but they won't be part of the giveaway.

The new sandwiches featured on Subway's menu are broken down into four categories: Cheesesteaks, Italianos, Chicken, and Clubs. The Cheesesteaks are #1 The Philly, #2 The Outlaw, #3 The Monster, the Italianos are #4 Supreme Meats, #5 Bella Mozza, #6 The Boss, the Chickens are #7 The MexiCali, #8 The Great Garlic, #9 The Champ, and the Clubs are #10 All-American Club, #11 Subway Club, #12 Turkey Cali Club.

This is actually not the first update that Subway has made to its menu in recent years. Last year, the restaurant chain introduced a slate of menu changes that included "improvements" to almost every item on the menu, and also digitized the chain significantly with the goal of improving the overall customer experience. As it turns out, those changes were just steps on the path to this larger redo of the menu.

Trevor Haynes, president of Subway North America, said that the changes to the menu last summer "laid the foundation to build a better Subway, and now the Subway Series enhances the entire Subway guest experience."

Now, Trevor has said that Subway is rethinking its entire menu from the ground up.

"The Subway Series is the most ambitious undertaking in company history, as we are changing the nearly 60-year-old blueprint that helped make Subway a global phenomenon," he explained. "Whether you leave the sandwich-making to us or are craving your custom creation, there are more reasons than ever to make Subway your dining destination."

The changes to the menu are also designed to make the menu and ordering system easier for users who don't want as much customization.

Although many Subway customers are probably just interested in the free sandwiches, it seems this promotion is also likely to garner some interest around the overall changes being made to Subway's menu. The message is meant to be sent loud and clear: "Subway has now got an expanded slate of options." Whether that brings new business with it remains to be seen.