The Catering & Party Box Playbook

Know your three catering formats

Jimmy John's group ordering comes in a few shapes. Individually-boxed Box Lunches are cleanest for meetings — everyone gets their own labelled sub, chips and cookie. Party platters and trays feed a crowd family-style and scale cheaply per head. And a stack of eight-inch subs on a bundle can undercut both for a smaller team. Pick the format first; the right discount follows from it.

Why tiers beat percentages on big orders

Catering pricing is usually tiered — the more you order, the deeper the built-in discount, topping out around 25% on the largest trays. Because that discount is baked into the tier, a separate percentage code often won't layer on top of it. On a genuinely large order the tier alone frequently saves more than any single code would, so compare the tier price against your best code rather than assuming the code wins.

The codes that do help on group orders

Two kinds of code still earn their place. A 'first-time catering' discount can be generous — often around 20% on your opening platter order. And a flat 'dollars off over a threshold' code (say $30 off over $150, or $40 off over $200) is the safe layer on top of a tier, because a fixed dollar amount won't clash with the tier the way a percentage might. Reach for those, not a general percentage code.

Timing, lead time and delivery

Big orders reward planning. Place catering orders with lead time — you'll get a smoother delivery window and avoid rush surprises. Confirm the delivery fee and any per-order minimum up front, since a large order usually clears the free-delivery threshold easily but catering can carry its own service terms. Build in a little buffer on quantity; running one sub short at a meeting is worse than one spare.

A worked group-order example

Say you're feeding twelve. A Box Lunch bundle at the right tier lands the per-person price low and boxes everything neatly. You add a first-time-catering code if it's your opening order, or a $30-off-over-$150 code if not. Delivery clears free on the order size. The result beats twelve individual subs plus a percentage code, and it arrives labelled and ready — which is half the battle with a group.