Subway, the world's largest sandwich chain, has come up with a novel solution to deal with soaring inflation: shrinking its (in)famous footlong sandwiches down to just three inches (7.6cm).
The company's introduction of its first "3-inch sandwich", or a quarter of its standard foot-long submarine, was launched in Pakistan for the bargain price of 100 rupees ($0.60).
It comes a month after Subway's near-six-decade tenure as a family-owned business was ended with the sale to a private equity firm, Roark Capital, which also owns Baskin-Robbins.
The new bite-sized sandwich, which is smaller in dimensions than a normal triangle bread sandwich which would usually measure around five inches or 13cm, appeared on Pakistani menus and social media posts with little fanfare last month
It provides "value" to customers of the company's 100 outlets in Pakistan, a spokesperson for Subway told Bloomberg News, with Pakistan facing record-high inflation rate of 9.7% in August, driven by rising food and fuel prices.
It is in contrast to the company's 2008 decision to launch a US$5 footlong sandwich as a national promotion in the US in response to the financial crisis.
The country's central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate by 200 basis points to 7.25% this year to curb inflationary pressures, but the policy has also dampened economic growth and consumer spending.
Inflation has been higher in the UK, topping 10% through several months, though no size concessions were made to the company's sandwich length.
Other fast-food chains have resorted to shrinking products, known as 'shrinkflation', with McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut also reducing the size or quantity of their items, such as fries, nuggets and slices, while keeping the prices unchanged or slightly increased.
In the UK, Tesco's pies, Cadbury's chocolate buttons, Jacob’s mini cheddars snacks and New Covent Garden chicken soup have all been trimmed as part of a shrinkflation trend in the past year.
Subway's 3-inch sandwich sparked mixed reactions from Pakistani customers on social media, with some praising the company for offering an affordable option for low-income consumers but others mocking the sandwich as too small and unsatisfying.
As private equity owner Roark also owns Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, consumers in some markets could find they are soon offered one-inch doughnuts or ice cream scoops the size of peas.