I eat out several times a week when I travel.  As I usually eat a gluten-free vegan diet, my options are fairly limited and I often find myself eating a Subway salad.  I have been to literally dozens and dozens of Subway restaurants, and most often, they are very consistent in what they offer.

Each Subway restaurant is a franchise that is run by an independent owner-operator and I am always amazed at how each franchise typically does things the same way.  You can expect to get the same service and food quality at any Subway you visit. 

Subway has created a great sales funnel where customers first choose their bread, their sandwich, and then their toppings.  This is a consistent process done at every store I have been at and is part of the Subway experience.  

But I have found one Subway restaurant that does one thing slightly different than all of this others.  This franchise, located just outside of Chicago, has found a sales strategy to up-sell the majority of their sandwiches - one of the great upselling techniques of restaurants.  For every order, whether a sandwich or salad, the sandwich artist always asks the customer if they would like extra meat and cheese.  Every time.

In the course of ordering, it is very easy to say yes to extra meat and extra cheese as you are usually hungry and ready to eat.  The reality is, however, that there is a surcharge for extra meat.  And a separate surcharge for extra cheese.

I have personally observed how effective this sales hack is - it seems that the customers agree to extra meat and extra cheese just because Subway asked them if they wanted this premium add-on. 

Based on the effectiveness I have observed at this store, I am surprised that the corporate office has not yet adopted this up-sell as a best practice to be adopted by all of their stores.  I can only imagine how beneficial this hack would be to a store that doesn't currently ask each customer if they want extra meat and cheese.  This really is one of the great upselling techniques in restaurants.

And that this the power of an up-sell. You offer an add-on product or service which ultimately increases the overall sale with the customer, which ultimately increases your bottom line.