Big Changes May Be Coming to Jersey Mike’s in 2025

Who knew the Original Italian and Chipotle Pastrami were worth the big bucks? Billions of bucks, to be precise. This week, Peter Cancro, as in the man behind the roast-beef-and-pepperoni-filled Cancro Special and founder and CEO of Jersey Mike’s Subs, agreed to sell a majority stake of his company to Blackstone Inc.

Blackstone, an investment management company worth about $1 trillion, which also owns Hilton Worldwide and Tropical Smoothie Cafe, among many others, threw down some serious money for the deal. The chain is set to be acquired for about $8 billion, according to the “Wall Street Journal.”

While the sale won’t be finalized until early 2025, fans of the sandwich giant, which has nearly 3,000 locations across the U.S., are already worried that the new ownership could mean bad things for the brand.

What Does The Jersey Mike’s Sale Mean For Customers?

“Jersey Mikes has been acquired by Blackstone,” Threads user, @attorneyryan, wrote. “Get ready for the prices to spike, the portions to shrink, and the quality to plummet. It’ll be sold for parts within 5 years. Private equity destroys everything it touches.”

Redditors seemed to agree. “One person working the whole restaurant. Deli meat will start to come pre-sliced from Sysco. Prices will rise. Business will slow and then they will close 50% of the stores,” one user predicted.

“Great. This recently happened to Firehouse Subs as well. Can’t even go there anymore. They shrunk the portions, made reward points expire after 9 months, and rescinded your annual free birthday sandwich. You can count on those things happening at Jersey Mike’s now. Sad to see,” wrote another Reddit user.

But not everyone is up in arms. “I grew up eating Jersey Mike’s. The company was founded in Manasquan, New Jersey and I grew up on the Jersey Shore. The franchise is great. But what’s more impressive is how well Blackstone is executing content + capital. No other investment firm has done it as well,” X (formerly Twitter) user @VijarKohli posted.

With it, Kohli shared a video of Blackstone CEO and chairman Stephen Schwarzman eating a Jersey Mike’s sub. When asked how he got it prepared, Schwarzman says, “It’s Mike’s way, and if it’s Mike’s way, it’s Steve’s way.” Later in the video, he says that he expects Blackstone will “do a great job helping Peter Cancro and his terrific team expand the business.”

It’s important to note that the deal doesn’t make Blackstone the sole owner of Jersey Mike’s. Cancro will still hold a minority stake. However, we know that won’t stop fans from speculating about the future of the chain—similar to the backlash after Campbell’s announced its plans to acquire Rao’s Homemade.

So what does the future hold for Jersey Mike’s? We can’t be certain for sure, but it’s clear that location expansion, which will create jobs for future franchisees, is a major priority. But when it comes to the quality of the product, we’re just hoping that we can still get hearty portions of well-prepared subs for years to come (Mike’s Way, of course).