a Slim 5 with mustard! Blasphemy! The 5 uses vinaigrette and oil, and anyone who says otherwise will be tarred and feathered!

@Underpants Gnome: Agreed

[picard]THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS![/picard]

I wonder if they'll try to start charging for smells?

what's a jimmy john?

Uh, what does "free smells" mean exactly? What are you sniffing?

I eat Slims often at Jimmy Johns and they have a lot of seemingly ignorant rules dealing with the Slims. You can't add or substitute anything with a Slim,m for example. That's probably the rule they were citing for this case, yet honestly; how hard would it be to just put some friggin' dijon on the thing?

My local JJs franchise is pretty cool about these things. I assume like most franchise stores, your mileage will vary wildly.

Wow. Even having to pay extra for DIJON MUSTARD is ridiculous.

@jscott73: Um. A restaurant, you know, where they serve food?

They should keep all of their premium condiments in a locked cabinet that requires two keys. It'll keep out the riffraff and their roving eyes.

@nakedscience: What do you expect, it's shipped by limo.

Some of the wording is leaving my confused... "he graciously declined," but it sounds like the OP got the dijon mustard he wanted as a side? Or he didn't? Is it just me, or is that entire paragraph a little bizarre?

@katstermonster: leaving *me confused. gah.

I used to work at a Jimmy John's, and I can tell you that this is a corporate policy. If a franchisee doesn't follow the corporate rules, they risk corporate takeover. Some employees might be cool about it, others may be new and not wanting to break the rules, or maybe they're expecting mystery shoppers or a corporate visit.

It sucks, but if you want to buy the cheapie Slim, I believe it states pretty clearly on the menu board what the options are.

What's Jimmy Johns? Are they regional?

You can't fool me, Jimmy John's. I already smell things for free.

@redskull: Yes, but would he have seen 5 had he been waterboarded?

Jimmy Johns: We'd rather lose you as a customer than lose two cents. And no, we will NOT be donating that leftover bread to a food bank. We'll sell it to you for a buck until it's croutons, then we'll mark it up to $2. Thank you, come again!

Report this franchise faux pas to the corporate office and they'll likely send you a coupon for at least a free soda next time. I'm sure they can afford it, at $10 a lunch. For a sandwich, drink, and chips. Yeesh!

OK, my world-view has now been shattered. Having grown up in Central IL, where JJ's started, JJ's has been a staple for me essentially forever. Was ecstatic a couple years ago when they started appearing in MN, where I have lived for the past 15 years or so.

I have *never* had a bad experience at JJ's...and I have been to essentially every single one, it seems...

I am very dismayed by this...it's like a betrayal of a close friend. But then again, I hate mustard because I am aware that it is evil, and should never be used for anything.

Maybe they believe in the purity of their product and are unwilling to compromise? I used to go to a sushi place in Virginia that would not serve nigiri without at least a little wasabi between the fish and the rice. Luckily that's how I like it, but I asked once why they did this and was told that's the only way the owner wants it served.

Despite the inconvenience I would probably have told the Dijon Nazi he lost a sale and walked a couple blocks to the nearest Subway. I give it a 50/50 chance he would have offered the Dijon before you hit the door.

See, I understand this, to a degree.

For $2 less or so, you are getting a sandwich sans extras. You get the bread and the meat, essentially (I don't believe there are any veggie options on the slim menu). It does surprise me that there is no pricing option for adding the extra stuff, but hey. The person could just buy a regular 5 and say hold everything but the dijon. More expensive, but it is an option.

It's the equivelent of ordering a #4 with cheese. When I learned that is how they did things, I just upgraded to the premium sandwiches -- which has the added benefit of always being $6 on the nose, a nice facet for my wallet.

@katstermonster: It's pretty clear that he did not get the dijon mustard.

"The clerk stated, as if there is some sort of technical incompatibility that they could not put dijon on that particular sandwich. I asked for a side of it and he graciously declined reiterating that they do have yellow mustard."

@drgstrcowgirl: I can understand no substitutions when it comes to meat, cheese, etc, but for MUSTARD? Sorry, their corporate office is a big fail, here.

@winnabago: justfuckinggoogleit.com/

This one is up in the air for me.

If the clerk had stated to the OP that Dijon would be an additional 25 cents, we'd be reading a post about how JJ is nickel and diming their customers.

If JJ simply got rid of Dijon, we'd be reading a post about how they are diminishing the quality of their product over something as simple as mustard.

The only option that would make all consumers happy is to allow Dijon on all subs. I don't know the cost difference between the 2 mustards, so I don't know how unreasonable this is.

@Athenor: It doesn't make sense when they are that rigid about mustard.

Jersey Mike's > Jimmy John's (imo)

@winnabago: They are a delicious sub sandwich chain According to Wikipedia they're pretty much everywhere save a few states:

[en.wikipedia.org]

This is why people with taste don't go to Jimmy John's. Or Subway. Or Quizno's.

Basically, find a local sub shop that will give you more for less and stop supporting the chains. Around Detroit, we've got a bunch of choices like this, but my personal fave is Second Street Sub Shop in Royal Oak. A 6 inch sub comes with over a pound of toppings, they use sub rolls fresh baked at a local bakery, and have specialized toppings like caramelized onions. Plus, the deli meat is premium quality instead of the pressed shlock you get at the chains. Prices range from 4 bucks for the 4 inch veggie to 9 bucks for the 12 inch special that includes Capicola, Mortadella, Genoa Salami and all the fixin's.

Stop supporting chain businesses. Why eat Denny's when there's a local greasy spoon that gives you better food for less? Why eat a corporate sub shop when you can find a local place that's cheaper? To boot, the last time I went into a JJ's, I asked for the leaf lettuce and was told they only had iceberg. The one redeeming quality of the place, and they get rid of it for 'cost' reasons.

F that noise.

@winnabago: I'm not sure where they come from. One day, they were just all over the place here in southeast Michigan. Just sprung up from no where.

(Pretty good subs, when they don't pawn off old bread on you. Best thing is to have a supplier provide lunch to your meeting.)

@Ben Miner: This isn't Seinfeld, it's a regional chain sub shop.

when i worked as a 'sandwich artist' at subway, we had a special sandwich with dijon promotion. we were carefully instructed not to squirt on too much "liquid gold."

@winnabago: It's a pretty awesome sandwich chain. I'm not sure how regional they are, but they tend to at least start out in college towns. I've been to Jimmy John's in Denton TX( University of North Texas), Ithaca NY (Cornell) and College Park MD (University of Maryland). I'm in Dallas and they've spread from near the colleges to pretty much everywhere in town.

As an advised sandwich snob, this is pretty close to the best sandwich chain I've been to. However if you live near a Wegmans, that's the place to go.

@winnabago: They tend to be clustered close to colleges since they are pretty cheap, they deliver, and their subs taste great when drunk or otherwise unable to procure food for yourself. I know there are several in the south...not sure how far they've migrated.

@sicknick: Subway is really good about substitutions and things, especially with their condiments, actually.

@winnabago: www.jimmyjohns.com - they are on the East Coast, I believe. We have them here in Virginia, the sandwiches are pretty good and the Jimmy Chips are like crack.

@pb5000: HAHA I was thinking this exact thing. Maybe they'll just dim the 'FREE' portion of the sign so they can let potential customers that they *still do* offer smells...for a small fee.

i'm surprised he got any condiments.

the menu: [jimmyjohns.com]

says that the slims are without condiments or sauce. and the freebies are for the subs or clubs.

if you don't like it, then don't eat there.

at least yours didn't come with Salmonella like my wifes. :/

I've actually had nearly the same experience, if not a little more ridiculous.

I ordered a similar "slim" type of sandwich, I think it was a ham sandwich. I asked for them to please hold-off on the lettuce and tomato, but instead if I could have onions. "We cant put onions on that sub...you can only have whats listed"
"I'd be glad to pay for it..."
"sir, we cannot"
"fine"
As I troll down the make line, the sub maker actually asks "Would you like Banana Peppers on that sub?" Of course, this was not an approved ingredient either. I said "no, i asked for onions though"
"sir, we cannot put onions on this sub"
"BUT YOU JUST OFFERED ME BANANA PEPPERS!"

if I had not already paid for it, I would have thrown that sub back at them with a big F U.

I take it that this is some sort of regional chain that doesn't operate in the Tri-State area.

@CrazyRedd: potential customers *know* sheesh

@nakedscience: Agreed. No substitutions makes sense if you're talking about something major like cheese, meat, or veggies. It makes absolutely zero sense when you're talking about condiments.

@RobertW.TX: Threatening to go to Subway is a threat to the eater, not the sandwich maker.

@Frank Murphy: I take it that yes, there are some things that exist outside the tristate area.

@drgstrcowgirl: Why should I care whether it's a corporate policy or a boneheaded employee? The end result is crappy service from the customer's perspective. That makes sense as a reason not to blame the employee, but it doesn't absolve the chain as a whole from blame.

I see this excuse for corporate misbehavior so often that I think it needs a formal name for the logical fallacy it is: "argument from corporate bureaucracy". You see, customer don't, and shouldn't have to, care why they got bad service. That it's caused by an internal problem is the business' problem, not theirs.

@nakedscience:

Blasphemy. Blind, unreasoning, heretical blasphemy.