Reader M. is currently (under-) employed at a Subway franchise. M. has a college degree, and is bright enough to be able to see the economic indicators that show they’ll still be working at Subway for a while yet. Fortunately, we like to give employees a soapbox to educate the public about the things we might not understand about their jobs. That way, Consumerist readers are less likely to act like entitled jerks, treat front-line employees better, and the world is a happier place. In theory.

M. shared the following:

I’ve been working at my particular Subway for almost 3 years. I’m a college grad, and yet I don’t reasonably feel that I will be able to leave here anytime soon, but I digress. There are several things about Subway that people do not seem to understand, and so they take out their frustration on me. I’d hope to at least demonstrate why your Subway worker is not to blame for everything Subway related:

1) Subway is a franchise. A person or company pays Subway a fee in order to use Subway’s business model, name, and products. As a result, each and every single Subway gets quite a bit of leniency when it comes to things like products offered, price on said products, times they are open and closed, etc.

So when you get mad that we don’t offer sourdough bread, or round bread, or sandwich types like the BBQ chicken or the Seafood & Crab, my response is really going to be to not care. The items we sell in our store sell because that is what is shown to work. I don’t care that Subway X does things one way, I care that since it is not one of our Subway stores that it isn’t something we do. My store will not offer any other kids’ sandwiches other than ham, turkey, roast beef, or veggie on white or wheat bread, my store will not let you buy just the bread at a reduced price or any of that stuff just because another Subway did. I don’t care that that Subway violated policy, we are not choosing to do that. Go back to that Subway if you want what they offer.

2) How many veggies are supposed to come on a Subway sandwich? For a 6 inch, it is:

1 oz of cheese
.75 oz of lettuce
.5 oz spinach
3 tomatoes
3 cucumbers
.5 oz of onions
3 strips of green peppers
3 olives, 3 banana peppers, 3 pickles, 3 jalapenos

If a Subway chooses to give you more veggies than that, BE GRATEFUL. Other Subways are stingy as per policy. Quit looking at us like we’re evil meanies for putting on a sandwich what Subway tells us to. Quit acting offended when you do get charged extra for the extra product you get that we can charge for.

It’s not like people even notice when they are short changed… In the past few months the size of bread has been reduced, the amount of meat in a cold cut has been reduced, and nobody has noticed that, yet people complain about veggies.

3) The only reason the calorie and fat content is reduced on many sandwiches is because most sandwiches Subway offers aren’t supposed to come with cheese. We’re supposed to make them by default without cheese and then the customer is supposed to make a point of asking for cheese.

4) We don’t make much money on sales. This month meatball and cold cut 6 inch sandwiches are $2, and the footlongs are $4. We are not making more money, Subway does this so that when the sale ends you are still willing to spend the money on the sandwich that you have now grown to love. That’s why in the last promotion, we didn’t offer sandwiches like the steak and cheese and chicken bacon ranch on the $5 promotion.. we lose money on that. And it’ll be back the next time only due to customers getting mad on what they believe they “deserve”.

That’s mostly it for now, although there are more gripes to be sure as to what customers expect from us vs what we actually offer.

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