Stillwater Quiznos Will Close its Doors on Friday

The signs announcing that the Stillwater Quiznos store is closing have been up for about two weeks, but the writing has been on the wall for quite some time.

Quiznos will serve its last toasted sub on Friday, Nov. 30. Closing the door on a franchise that has been in Stillwater just shy of 10 years now.

The original franchisee of Stillwater Quiznos built the store in 2003, and sold it off to Jason Sheetz’s father in 2005.

After a couple of years of losing money, Sheetz said the store will close at 9 p.m. on Friday.

“The No. 1 reason we’re closing is that it is just not a good franchise,” Sheetz said. “They are not here for the franchisee. There’s no way to make any money if they don’t help—and the franchise itself if grasping at straws.”

Quiznos has lost more than 70 percent of its stores since 2006, Sheetz said.

This is the third Quiznos store his family has closed—Jason recently closed locations he owned in Hudson and River Falls, and now his father has decided to pull the plug on the Stillwater location.

Other factors for the closing were “astronomical” rent in Stillwater; and food costs—35 percent at Quiznos, according to Sheetz—that are too high to turn a profit in today’s economy.

“Our business has really taken a nose dive in the last six months,” Sheetz said. “We are down 20 percent over the last six months, and we were down before that.”

It’s never easy to close a store, Sheetz said, “we’re just losing too much money.”

Over the years, the Stillwater Quiznos has developed a great customer base—and feels they have become a part of the community—so Sheetz said he wants people to know why the sandwich shop is closing.

“We didn’t want to post a sign and close the next day,” Sheetz said. “We want to give people the chance to come in and say good-bye.”