He Bought A Sub Shop At 17… Jersey Mike’s Now Has Nearly 2,000 Locations!

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Learn more at ATT.com slash 5G for you. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you find your podcast. Up next, we bring you a story that starts in my home state, and that is New Jersey. While most of the world had no idea what the submarine sandwich was back in the 1960s, one 14-year-old boy took a job making them at a sandwich shop at the Jersey Shore in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.

Here's Peter Kancro to tell his story. The Jersey Shore in the summer, it became very, very busy, inundated with so many people from North Jersey and New York, so the jobs were very plentiful. So I started out, believe it or not, mowing lawns. So at the age of 10, I had three lawn mowing jobs, one that paid $3, one that paid $3.50, and one that paid $5.

So in that year, that was big, big money, cash money. Used to crawl underneath the boardwalk and pick up the loose change so people would drop through the cracks. Made money that way and then washed and cleaned cars. And then the first job was at Mike's Subs in 1971.

So I was a 14-year-old. My brother worked there the year before and told the boss, so look at my brother, I know he'll work hard, but I'm not sure how bright he is. And so that's how I got the job. Started out at $1.75 an hour, and I was going to possibly work at Hoffman's Ice Cream, another mentor of mine, Bob Hoffman. He was going to pay $1.50, but I went to Mike's for $1.75, and that was pretty good money back then. I think the minimum wage, maybe it was like 80 cents back then, so friends of mine were making 80 cents an hour.

I was making $1.75. So I walked into Mike's Subs, you know, age 14, first job, and my voice mattered, and that was the culture that was in Mike's. It was you joined a team, and they kind of brought you on board. It wasn't like you were the rookie or they made you pay a dues or a price, no.

They brought you in, and you were part of that whole team, and they cared about your development and how you worked, and they spent the time with each new person coming in. They did a great job with that, spent time with us. The volume was obviously incredible, Jersey Shore in the summer. I mean, crazy sales we did, like $100,000 a week in sales.

Today's dollars, you know, averaging like 850, 900 bread a day. It was incredible volume. The number one sub shop, if you will, in the country, in the world, because there wasn't really any of that back then. So in 56, Mike's opened by someone named Mike at the Jersey Shore, and that was really, there was no McDonald's or Burger King in town then. There was no fast food restaurant, so it was really a unique product, the submarine sandwich, the meal within itself, if you will. So really captured a lot of attention, and all the people traveling to the shore and then going back out to where they lived around the country.

Words spread, and, you know, when I got involved in 71 and then later bought it, everyone would say they don't have anything like this where I'm from, California, Ohio, Chicago. And it's funny how we used to get people to come in and take the subs, wrap the travel, and take them back, you know, all over the world. A guy would come in every third Thursday and take them back to London. You know, somebody would take them to South America and take them back to the United States. Take them back to London.

Somebody would take them to South America. I had a doctor's group that took them to the Soviet Union at the time, Russia, you know. So we always kind of would highlight that and kind of have a laugh about it. We used to wrap them the travel, put the oil and vinegar on the side, had to have the special container and make sure they showed them how to sprinkle it on, you know. So that was always fun. You have fun with the people coming in, and they have fun with you in return. So you're three feet away from the customer and they're coming in, whether they've had a bad day or not, you try and turn them around, you know, turn their day around, make an impact, you know, kind of share your life with the customer. And, you know, that's kind of what we're taught, that culture about kind of raising up, kind of putting your arm around them and, you know, involved with your regular customers. It's repeat business. They shake their heads. You know, Peter, you know, I can't believe, you know, the people you've got in here, the service.

Oh, yeah, your subs are good. That was always secondary. It was always the service. And it was more than just, hi, how are you today?

Thanks very much for coming in. No, it was real. It was genuine. And it's the eye contact that isn't always something that you say as much as, you know, looking in people's eyes and nodding and, hey, how are you? You know, thanks. You pick up the bag to go.

And so there's a lot of little nuances that go into it. So I started in 71 and then worked there summers and through the winters part time. And then the owner, Victor Merlo at the time, put it up for sale and that was in 75. It went up for sale and I thought for the first time I'll be able to go to Florida, you know, on spring break because I was always working every other spring break. I couldn't go.

So this I said, all right, I'm going to be able to go this time. All of a sudden I went home one night and my mother said, I heard Mike's is for sale. And at first I was a little upset. Like, well, how did you know? You know how moms are. They find out everything.

So she looked me in the eye as I was going up the stairs and she said, well, why don't you buy it? And you're listening to Peter Cancro tell the story of Jersey Mike Subs and how it came to be. And by the way, he's a hustler from the time he starts. And by the way, what we've learned is you can't teach entrepreneurship. You can't teach risk taking guts and just doing it. You can't tell college for this guy.

No good grades, bad grades. I love the line. He'll work hard.

We're not sure how bright he is. When we come back, more from Jersey Mike's founder, Peter Cancro, here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country.

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Learn more at AT&T dot com slash 5G for you. And we're back with our American stories and the story of Peter Cancro and Jersey Mike's subs. At the age of 17, his mother suggested he buy the sub shop he worked at at the Jersey Shore. Back to Cancro with his story. And I sort of laughed, laughed at her, turned, went up the stairs and it took one flight of stairs before a trigger went off in my head. It was a Sunday night and I got up the next morning, didn't go to school for that week, called the owner that morning. I said, you know, Victor, I'm going to try.

Where are we? I'm going to try and raise the money. So I've got two people demanding a contract.

I can probably hold them off a little bit. So I went out literally knocking on doors, telling people, you know, I worked there for four years. I know the business.

This is what I'm looking to do. I live next door to a couple of wealthy towns, if you will, and went to see those folks and just call them up and knocked on the door and went to see them. And they were receptive.

But as you know, trying to raise capital and money, it's always difficult. And then called up Coach Rod Smith, who is my youth football coach, who was also a banker. And it was a Sunday night and he said, yeah, come on over. So I went to talk to him and he said, you know, I think we can do something.

And he did. And we closed on the place March 31st, 1975. I was 17 in high school, so I would go to homeroom history and skip gym, English and a few other courses. And it's funny, I wasn't going to be able to graduate in June because I missed like three months of gym. So I had to come up with a medical excuse. I was president of my class. People said, oh, you're going to ruin your life.

I was supposed to go possibly study law at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, but bought a sub shop instead. So it was one hundred twenty five thousand, nineteen seventy five. So I don't know, maybe six hundred, seven hundred thousand today's dollars.

So for a 17 year old to borrow that, you know, no money down, all financed. You know, what if the business doesn't do well? You know what happens?

That kind of thing. So the owner for years didn't raise the prices. So I get in and take over the business. And that happens sometimes where you go a year, two years, three years. We hadn't raised the prices in like five years.

And we've got a lot of volume where we're putting money in the bank and paying the bills and you find out about unemployment, disability tax and quarterly payroll taxes and all this. And it's like, wow, you know, you sort of see that, you know, my goodness, I, you know, I've got to raise the prices. And I thought, you know, no one would come in and buy a sub ever again. But we did. We raised the prices and not one person said anything.

You know, the first day, second day, except one person actually came in with exact change. And oh, the price went, oh, OK. I said, don't worry about it. You know, oh, no, I'll bring it next time.

No, no, it's good. You know, so what that showed me is that you never cut the quality or service, but you've got to get the right amount of money for your product. So 75 took over and the volume was incredible and worked the store and business. And, you know, for years, people were wrapping the subs to travel and I can't believe it.

We don't have anything like this. And it wasn't until, gosh, like 86 that finally we said, you know, you know, we should try and start franchising. And that was a process. Go into different companies and attorneys and figuring it out.

And there wasn't any roadmap there. I had to figure it all out. It wasn't I didn't have any mentors in business to kind of show me today. Like it's funny today, people say I want a franchise. Oh, let me talk to you.

You know, I could shed some light on this whole industry. Finally started franchise 86, 87 and and it took off. People came in.

We didn't advertise to sell. And it really grew very well in Ocean and Monmouth County. And then we went out to Ohio. We went out to Tennessee and opened the store. And we got the best subaward for by Reader's Choice Awards pretty much in Ohio and Tennessee. And that's happened almost in virtually every market that we went to. We had one store in California, one store in Seattle.

We'd win the best subaward, best sandwich award in the market. So it kind of told us something like, wow, this can work across valleys, mountains, you know, and and one store. And we never had a goal of opening a second store or plan. It just sort of evolved and happened. People come in, try the product.

Oh, my goodness, this is great. I want to open up one. So that's how it evolved, you know, and just really grew through word of mouth. So we franchised and it grew and we built up a number of stores. But, you know, we we would go and commit to the store. But I tell you, when we open one store in a totally different market, we went and we opened up that store with the owner.

We stayed, you know, for weeks, for, you know, a month if we had to month and a half and with several people. So the amount of money that we spent and committed to the owners was incredible, you know, more than franchising would do. And I think that's the reputation we have as a company, as a franchise company, is that we are true partners with the owners. You know, and it's really been given us an edge, if you will, you know, on the marketplace.

So, yes. So in the beginning, when we started franchising, boy, it really took off. And every dime we made, we put back into the business. And if we had leftover money, we were pushing the marketing for that store opening. And we evolved to the point where we were opening and spending all the money and and some.

So we had a, boy, if everything was fine, as long as we kept opening. And then 91 happened. And that recession, there was many recessions from 75 till now.

But that one was the one that hit our company the worst. So banks in the Northeast, all of them got hit. There was even a local bank that actually went out of business here in Tom's River area. So banks were giving money nonstop to everybody that wanted to open a business. And all of a sudden, no money.

Nobody could borrow any money. So we sort of flatlined for a while. I was negative, like a million and a half, a couple of million dollars. I said, oh, boy. And everything I had to lay off. And it just really, you talk about just devastating your life, your soul, everything.

But slowly, you know, came back and then hired everyone back. But I tell you, that was a dark time because, you know, first time in my life that I went down and got stripped, sold everything. And it's funny, the 401K plan that people have, I liquidated that, you know, how to take the penalties. And later on, I liquidated it again. So it's funny, I don't have a 401K plan still today because, you know, I say it's bad luck.

You know, I have to liquidate it, you know, so it's funny. So that lesson learned, you still remember today, you know, about don't over expand. You know, you're tempted to push, push and expand, let's go.

And that's great to have that attitude, to have that, you know, really the push. But you've got to play smart ball as well with business. And it was quite a process. It took probably, gosh, you know, a couple of years where we just had to, you know, hire back a couple of guys and slowly grew. But we weren't growing in a lot of other markets. We didn't have the multi-unit owners that could finance their own stores. We had owner operators.

So it really took a while, 92, 93, you know, wow, this is really humbling, you know, from having greatness and achievement and success and then to be humbled down. Oh, gosh, it wasn't until like towards 93, 94, all of a sudden, you know, okay, now North Carolina guy came in and opened up. And then somebody saw the store, oh, I want to open up. And I think the economy in Raleigh, North Carolina then was really started back sooner than most other economies with the research triangle and the college universities.

And so North Carolina really made our company. And you're listening to Peter Cancro tell, well, as we've come to know the typical entrepreneur story, except when he went to raise capital, he was 17. It's the hardest work there is convincing somebody to give their money to you on an idea. And my goodness, instead of a lawyer and another one, we have Jersey Mike Subs, a place I would drive an hour or two just to get their number two. When we come back, more of Peter Cancro's story, his entrepreneur story, filled by the way always with failure and with setbacks.

And again, that's what makes the entrepreneur, not just the risk taking, but plowing through the hard times to the other side. And when we come back, more of Peter Cancro's story, Jersey Mike Subs' story, here on Our American Stories. Have a dad in your life you'd like to treat this Father's Day? How about a new grad whose hard work has earned them an entertainment upgrade? We've got just the thing. For a limited time, you can save up to $200 on a 75-inch quantum color Vizio smart TV, whether it's movies, shows, or gaming you're into. They'll love the intense color, unmatched brightness, and incredible clarity on this big screen TV.

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No purchase necessary. And we return to our American stories and to the story of Peter Cancro and how he grew Jersey Mike subs from one shop on the Jersey Shore to nearly 2,000 locations by 2020. If you're lucky enough to have one near you, well, I don't have to tell you what most of us at the Jersey Shore already knew. Here's Peter to tell us more about how he used the company's success to do good. Around the country, 1700 stores about open right now. And, you know, the growth now is really starting to escalate because it's all coming from within. But it's people, the owners get it. And that's the people that we want to come on board with us that share that culture that we're going to get involved in the community. We're going to give. Now, obviously, you have to have a good business model and make profits to be able to give. But it's kind of it has to what comes first, you know, so right away we start by opening up and donating money to a local charity and raising awareness for the local charity. And I think that's the most important thing is not patting ourselves on the back or saying, hey, we do this. We know it's about raising awareness for that local charity because you know how it is today, the cutbacks all across the country with government subsidies.

Or maybe it's just really the way it's always been. Businesses need to do their part. Small, big, medium companies have got to commit more than ever to the community. And I tell you, if you do that, we found that people really get it. They hear about it. Now, we don't advertise, you know, half of what we do, but people come in and go, you know, Peter, I hear what you're doing. So we open up on a Wednesday and we go out door to door a few days before and kind of get involved with the local local charity. It could be Booster Club, it could be First Aid, it could be Children's Hospital.

It varies, again, wherever the owner wants to go after. And we'll go out and say, hey, you know, come on in free sub with your two dollar donation because it's going to a local charity because people have never been in, never tried our sub possibly in a new area that we open. So we say, hey, you know, come on in and give us a try and just for two bucks and you're going to help.

OK, that sounds great. And we open and it's a catch 22 because it's just packed. But we've got the people and the staff and we're kind of cranking it out, as we say. And we raise the money and, gosh, it's sometimes, you know, ten thousand, twenty thousand from the opening or sometimes five thousand.

But it's every store does it. That's a way to kind of we're here, you know. Hello. We're, you know, making an impact. And the owners really love it. The crew loves it. They're like, wow, we've never been involved in something like this.

Nobody kind of does this, you know. So but I tell you, I think it's, you know, I'm a big proponent of, you know, turn off the news. Right. And if you look at it, it's a huge movement out there in the world of good. You know, things are happening. Things are really rising up. People are kind of uniting and together, unlike what the news says. You know, we see it totally different. We see, you know, we're optimistic about the future, about what great things are happening. Sure, there's always negative. Absolutely.

But if you focus on the great stories, the good, I mean, wow. So turn off the news to the audience. Right. Not the radio station, but the TV news.

Keep the radio on. So that's what gets me so fired up about our growth. And here we go. People from within already have stores. They want to open up additional stores.

So seventy five percent of our growth is from within. We have outside people coming in, individual owner operators, which is I love, you know, have never been in business before. Come in and, you know, we train, teach, mentor, coach them and off they go. And we have multiunit owners coming in and like, wow, the brand I'm with now isn't like this. And we go, well, you know, this is what we do.

You know, never knocking anybody else. It's about what we do. And they get it. And OK, let's do it. So we're involved in signing a lease. We're involved in getting a location. You know, everything we're involved in.

We don't let anything go, you know, to try and help ensure, you know, success of the operation. Alvaro came from Nicaragua and was in with the rebellion and bombs going off and exploding. I think his mother, he was missing for a day or so.

They thought he was killed. And then later, years later, he comes to this country, immigrates and was working with Domino's Pizza. And, you know, an amazing worker and just nonstop and gets involved with us. And we had a connection. You know, I meet Alvaro. I go, what are you doing? You know, and I hear about his background.

And he looked at me and goes, what are you doing? You know, so I love, you know, people kind of that connection. And today, you know, he has, I don't know, like fifty five stores. He's the largest franchisee, cares about his people, committed to the communities. He really gets it.

And he and his wife, Blanca, and his whole family are part of our family. You look at the freedom that we enjoy and you look at like reefs across America, they say, you know, remember the fallen, honor those that serve, but teach our children the value of freedom. So important that, you know, the kids growing today understand that and that it's, you know, it's not free. And I remember being on the plane with a captain in the Marine Corps and he said, Peter, the conflicts around the world are escalating.

They're not stopping. You know, it's just every day, you know, we hear of something going on. And we're in this little bubble sometimes where, but not so much anymore because the news, we hear what's going on.

But, you know, our country and what we stand for around the world maybe is tarnished, but they don't understand kind of our hearts are for the common good of all people in this country, all people in the world. We've always been out there saying, what can we do to help? You know, that whole model of raise up together and then pull people along instead of pushing. You know, when I was 14, I went in, they didn't push, you know, do this, do that. No, they pulled you along and said, hey, we can do it.

We can do it together. And, you know, it's funny, they'll say these kids today, you don't understand. We can't find good help, good kids. And that's what they said in the 70s. You don't understand.

You can't find good help, good kids. You don't understand these kids today. And they said it in the 80s and the 90s and today is saying the same thing.

And I say, no, no, it's recruiting. It's having the right, you know, attitude, the right culture. And they will see it and they'll come in and they will thrive.

They will love the place. We loved going to work at Mike's Subs, you know, back when I was a kid. We wanted to go in. We wanted to be part of that culture. So it wasn't me. It was the crew before me, the owners before me. It was the culture that we learned, that we brought.

So anyway, so it's always learning and getting it and then running with that. So I'm just trying to keep it going across the country. And that's, you know, I never really like to tell my story.

I never like to talk about it. But you really need to so people hear it, you know, and maybe it impacts, you know what, I'm going to do that too. I tell the local owners, you got to celebrate it because it's exposure awareness for the local charities. And maybe they hear it and they want to get on board too.

And it helps. So, you know, the marketing and, you know, people at the companies that really aren't into it, so what? It's helping charities raise money and awareness, even if it's maybe shot up from because it's the big thing to do. It doesn't matter if it's winning and helping the charities.

Terrific. And a terrific job on the production and editing by our own Robbie Davis and a special thanks to Peter Cancro for sharing his story. And Peter told the story of what good owning businesses can do. And by the way, helping charities. Absolutely.

But he also employs people and supports the tax base for that town. A terrific story about so many things. But in the end, the heart of an entrepreneur and all the good it does. And by the way, the yummy sandwiches they make. Indeed, the best sandwich in America and the world. A Jersey Mike's sub number two Mike's way.

The story of Peter Cancro here on Our American Stories. Now is the time to grow your capabilities with T-Mobile for Business. You get a 5G network built for the way business and tech converge today. So whether you're using A.I.

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