Let’s Talk Franchising!

The Dagwood Sandwich comes to life!

Author: Jim Coen
April 17, 2007
Category: Franchising in general

Dagwood’s sandwich-making skills are legendary and have made his name synonymous with outrageous sandwiches. Wikipedia defines “the Dagwood sandwich” thick multi-layered sandwich made up of a wide variety of meats, cheeses, and condiments. It was named after Dagwood Bumstead, a character in the comic strip Blondie who frequently made enormous sandwiches. The comic strip was written by Chic Young.

Chic Young died in 1973, and his son, Dean, took over the strip, making every thought of Dagwood’s one of his own. And, over the past 30 years, Dean Young couldn’t stop thinking about opening a sandwich shop for Dagwood. He’s collected and created thousands of recipes over the years.

Now Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppes have become a reality, the result of a partnership between Dean Young, who brings his creative genius to the arrangement, and International Marketing Systems (IMS), which has 17 years’ experience creating communications and franchisee-support programs for large retail companies and restaurant chains. IMS has worked with leading fast-food companies and with Disney University in Orlando, which runs one of the leading training programs to instill a corporate culture in thousands of employees. Its fast-food clients have included Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits, Wendy’s, White Castle and Subway.

Fans of “Blondie” need not be concerned that their daily dose of humor will be affected when Dagwood moves from making sandwiches in the comics to running sandwich shops. Young plans to keep producing the “Blondie” strip, which is syndicated by King Features, and appears in more than 2,300 newspapers around the country and around the world, and reaches an estimated 280 million readers every day. And he has been grooming his daughter, Dana Coston, to take over the strip when he decides to spend more time in his role as Dagwood’s alter ego – making new sandwiches.

When fans come to the restaurants, they will encounter Dagwood, Blondie and their comic strip friends. While Dagwood’s will be an entertaining experience, first and foremost it will be about excellent food. “Fans may come in the first time to see Dagwood’s new shop, but they’ll come back again and again because of the food,” Young said.