What A Difference An Inch Makes: Report Says Some Subway Footlongs Are Only 11 Inches

What you pay for should be what you get, which is why some Subway customers are up in arms that they’re not getting their money’s worth. See, they didn’t pay for 11- or 11.5-inch subs. Nope, they paid for a footlong, meaning 12 inches, and if a new (albeit totally unscientific) report is true, customers are routinely being shorted.

After an Australian man uploaded a photo to Subway’s Facebook page showing his purported Footlong sandwich next to a measuring tape marking it at 11.5 inches, the New York Post strapped its detective boots on and entered the fray.

It went around to various Subway locations in the New York City area to see if it could find proof of this consumer slight. According to the Post, not only did four out of seven Footlongs fail to measure up  clocking in it at only 11 or 11.5 inches — the chain has also cut back on cold-cut sizes by 25% recently, citing a local franchise owner.

“The distributor has increased the food cost on the individual owners by 4 to 5 percent every year and provided the owners with less food,” the owner explained.

So what’s an inch, give or take? For anyone who buys a Footlong every other day for a year at $7 a pop, losing that length adds up to a loss of about $100, notes the Post.

A spokesman apologized for the Australian man’s photo of a shrunk-down sandwich, saying it “doesn’t meet our standards,” adding:  “We always strive for our customers to have the most positive experience possible.”

Adding an inch or so would count as a positive, eh, Subway? It isn’t just that one man who’s showing photographic evidence of the shorting — perusing Subway’s Facebook page provides numerous examples of measuring tapes and sandwiches illustrating the shrinkage.

Some Subway ‘Footlong’ subs don’t measure up [New  York Post]

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