Planet Sub, a Loveland Centre franchise known for its involvement within the Westside community, recently announced in a tweet on Friday, Oct. 25, that they would be closing their doors after 3 and a half years of business. Run by co-owners Joe Schmidt and David Stiles, Stiles being a Westside alumnus, the sandwich shop was known for being supportive of Westside athletics and having a significant presence online. According to Stiles, he and Schmidt first discussed acquiring the business back in 2015. 

“I have a day job that I have done for [over 20] years and in my sales territory I used to eat at Planet Sub, so I would always make my way around so I could stop and get a sandwich there,” Stiles said. “I met [my co-owner] Joe Schmidt at a social function and he talked about his desire to open something up. I told him I’d always been fascinated by the food industry and he said, ‘coffee and sandwiches tend to be fairly simple businesses to run.’ We started looking around and kicking around different ideas. I called Planet Sub one day and talked to one of the guys who oversaw the franchising…from there we just kind of moved forward.” 

Stiles said he feels as though it is important for local businesses to support those around them. 

“I was a Westside graduate, so I always wanted to be involved with the school,” Stiles said. “I think it’s a business’s obligation to be involved [with] the community, it just made it better that [Westside] was a school I attended and was right down the street. I just wanted to be part of it.”

According to Stiles, the decision to close the restaurant was made very last minute.

“We had kicked around the idea of moving and finding a new location [a lot],” Stiles said. “We had come to the decision that this place was too big and as we operated we learned our demographic [wasn’t interested in a ‘sit-down’ place]. We looked at the numbers and we just couldn’t justify the move. There would have been an additional out-of-pocket cost to go in and do some renovation and at that point [it gets expensive]. We could never quite get this store profitable, so you’re taking a chance by continuing to throw money at a concept and you run the risk of putting more money into a concept that [might not work].”

Of all his memories with the business, Stiles said that getting to meet student athletes in Omaha is one of his favorites.

“I’m a sports fan by nature and [Planet Sub] was a great platform to connect to a lot of high school athletes [in the community],” Stiles said. “[I’ve talked with a few students] and I love giving them praise. I think the student athletes enjoy the recognition.”

Westside Communications and Engagements Director Brandi Paul said she was a regular at Planet Sub, and is sad to see it go. 

“Every single time I visited Planet Sub I was greeted with a smile, attention to detail and fast service,” Paul said. “What always stood out to me was Planet Sub’s dedication to our community.”

According to Paul, Stiles consistently went above and beyond to help others, including herself.

“[Stiles] has been endlessly generous and supportive of me personally,” Paul said. “I ran a 5K over the summer for a friend I lost to brain cancer. During my fundraising efforts, [Stiles] offered free gift cards to anyone who donated to sponsor me.”

Westside Science Instructor and Quiz Bowl Sponsor Jon Allemang said that Stiles helped organize multiple events to raise money for the team.

“[Quiz Bowl] reached out to [Stiles] and said ‘hey, we’re gonna try and go to nationals, is there anything we can do [to support the team]’?” Allemang said. “[Stiles proposed] a trivia night and we ended up doing four of them there. We had a team fee and we got to keep all of that, and he also gave us a cut of the sales for the evening.”

Although his business is closing, Stiles said he is unsure about what to do with the ‘Omaha Planet Sub’ Twitter account he currently runs.

“It’s a sad day…I’m sad about losing that platform to connect [on Twitter],” Stiles said. “I’ve had a couple of people comment and say ‘please don’t shut your Twitter account down.’ I edited my name this morning to say ‘Formerly Planet Sub’ and maybe over time I’ll transition to something else and just focus on the sports [aspect] and throw praise out every now and then.”

In the end, Stiles said he was happy to get the experience of running the business, even if he and Schmidt did make a few mistakes along the way.

“My partner Joe had a great summary of what led to us closing [and] he described it as ‘death by a thousand paper cuts’,” Stiles said. “I would tell [anyone starting up a business] to really do your research. Understand your product, make sure that there’s a need there. Location is vital, I think [Planet Sub] had a good spot for something, I just don’t think it was the right spot for us.”