In September 2004, the sandwich, salad and wrap chain opened 175 new restaurants, a fairly typical number of openings in any given month. Many of them were in "traditional" locations, such as strip centers, outlots and street corners. But if you happened to want a Subway sandwich and you happened to have just finished working out at the Louisiana Athletic Club in Pineville, LA, you'd be in luck. That was one of the non-traditional locations that Subway opened in September.

"The company has been opening restaurants in non-traditional sites for several years now," Les Winograd, a spokesman for the sandwich giant, told GSR. "It's an integral part of our growth strategy. It's a way of going to where customers go, of being more convenient."

All together, the company counts about 4,300 of its stores as non-traditional. Besides the addition of a Subway at a health club in Louisiana in September, the chain also opened at two colleges, California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, CA, and Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC; a couple of Wal-Marts, one in Elkhart, IN, the other in Okeechobee, FL; two hospitals, Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham, AL, and Mount Carmel East Hospital in Columbus, OH. For travelers wanting something more North American at Cancun International Airport, Subway is now there, and students at South Anchorage High School in Alaska can eschew cafeteria fare in favor of subs.