The panel also moved into e-commerce and how that affects operations at the store and supplier level. Online ordering and third-party deliveries have been a saving grace for restaurants when people were staying home, but now it presents uncharted waters when it comes to inventory tracking and quality control.

“With things like curbside pickup and online ordering that came upon us really quick, we had to act fact because we had to compensate for those last 18 months,” Wolf said. “With that is better sales, but also more product needs. We want to make sure we are sufficiently covered, and that’s the most important thing for me.”

Tsocanos said Subway is also grateful for e-commerce, but is faced with a challenge when it comes to building an online tool that gives consumers that authentic experience of a brand. Throw in the lack of quality control once the product leaves the store in the hands of an unknown delivery driver, and it can be pretty scary.

“Subway was built on customization and seeing it in front of you,” Tsocanos said. “If you’re an olive guy, you want those olives and want to see a lot of them going on there — online tools are fantastic, but how do you build a robust tool that gets customers what they want? How do you handle that third party delivery better from a quality perspective?”

Although Tsocanos didn’t have all the answers, he said packaging innovations and product innovations, even down to ingredient formulas, will be big factors in figuring it out.

“I don’t think it’s going away, and there’s always going to be a question on if it makes more sense to invest in your own delivery process,” Tsocanos said. “I don’t know if Subway will end up doing that, but the control from a quality perspective is everything.”