I don’t see how it’s “false advertising” or “something that doesn’t exist”. Sure, if I walk in there and lead off with an All I Want Is Roast Beef On Wheat, then I can walk out with roast beef on wheat — but if I gaze longingly at the picture of the sandwich they’re advertising, and think to myself wow, those onions and tomatoes look like they would go really great with that roast beef, then I can, for the same price, get the sandwich they’re advertising; it does exist.
I can also, for the same price, get jalapeños and olives on there instead of getting onions and tomatoes — but how is that relevant? Likewise, I can get a meatball sub with pickles and spinach leaves, if that’s what I want — but I can, if I prefer, get one exactly the way they advertise it; that is, in fact, one of my options.
The model is succeeding, so I don’t think anyone is failing to do their jobs. The marketing people are getting people in the door and the service employees are giving people what they expect.
The fact that a tiny number of consumers are confused for a minute until they figure out the deal is pretty insignificant.
I’m stunned at how fervent the discussion is over this topic.
My own preference is that restaurants ought to provide good defaults, making me specify every detail is annoying–but I understand why both places exist, and I choose the one I go to…
…Jersey Mike’s FTW. Say a number and “Mike’s Way” and you will get a good sandwich. Then when you get familiar with their offerings you can be specific. And they slice everything fresh right in front of you.
Some years back the kids had me take them to Cheeburger Cheeburger, a place that offers thousands of different burgers–totally hand-tooled burgers is their gimmick. I found it very annoying to have to specify every little detail.
Yeah, that’s my favorite right now of the submarine sandwich chains by quite a bit. My favorite style of sub is just a simple, Italian cold cut sandwich (served cold; I’m not into this toasted stuff for subs), and they’ve got a few to choose from with reasonably tasty cold cuts, decent bread (I really don’t like the smell of Subway’s bread), fresh toppings, and that crack pepper spread.
Actually, Subway and Potbelly have very similar processes for making your sandwich. The meat and bread is ordered first, then the veggie station asks what you want on it, regardless of what you ordered. Main difference is you can see what the Subway guy puts on the sandwich. With Potbelly, they are hidden behind a counter. In most ways, WitchWhich is the same also, except you tell them everything up front and never see the product until you take it out of the bag.
It seems like most of the back and forth in this thread is between people that want to have an active roll in deciding what is on their sandwich and people that don’t want to go to that effort. To each their own.
I personally hate ordering a sandwich at most delis. They have preselected toppings and it is sometimes an adventure figuring what is on which sandwich. When I order a turkey/ham/swiss with lettuce and mayo, they give me a confused look while they try to figure out how to ring it up.
Well, no … the consumers aren’t confused. At least, that’s not what I’m seeing, based on this thread.
The employees are the ones confused, because in many cases they apparently don’t know how to make a sandwich that the company is promoting. Which, again, is a failure of the company.
To make an analogy, let’s say HP came out with a computer that was optimally designed for gaming. Call it “GameOne.” They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars marketing this computer nationwide, telling gamers across the land that this was the ultimate-bestest-ever-mac-daddy of gaming computers, that every component was specifically selected to provide the knock-down-drag-out best gaming experience in the history of the universe.
You go in to an HP store and tell the clerk “I want the GameOne.” The clerk says, “Okay … what components do you want on it?”
You say, “I don’t know. I just want what the GameOne comes with for the best gaming experience in the history of the universe. That’s what your company says, and that’s what I want.”
And the clerk looks at you, mystified, because he doesn’t know what those components are.
Yes, there would be the option of ordering it that way, just as there are options for ordering a cookie.
Again, if other restaurants can offer to do a default build and people seem to be able to handle that, I’m not sure why Subway couldn’t offer to do a default build that people could choose to order or not. I find it very odd to suggest that Jersey Mike’s customers can handle that but Subway’s customers can’t, which seems to be what you are saying.
I don’t suggest Subway gives a fuck what I think, nor do I expect them to add a Subway style. But I would prefer it. And I don’t think it would result in mass confusion and anarchy.
Sometimes I’m really not sure what planet people are posting from, Chipotle has vastly more than four ingredient options for their food. They offer five types of meat/tofu, two types of rice, two types of beans, grilled vegetables, four types of salsa, queso, sour cream, lettuce, guacamole, and cheese.
The OP walked in and insisted that an employee make him a sandwich with the optional ingredients shown on a prop sandwich on a poster. That’s the issue here, the weird technicality of ‘but he didn’t ask what the ingredients are’ is something you tacked on.
They advertise specific specials and know how to make them. The OP’s problem, and yours, is that you’ve decided to redefine the advertised special to your personal definition from their definition. The ingredients in the special, according to Subway, is some combo of meat and cheese, with maybe a sauce. The bread and veggies are optional and up to your discretion. The fact that they put some of the optional parts in the picture for the ad copy doesn’t make them ‘the advertised special’.
The pic is a picture of the advertised special with some of the options that you can add to the advertised special. Posting a picture of one of the ways you can order a sandwich is not a bait and switch. Do you really not understand how advertising or options on advertised items work? They really aren’t obligated to post a picture of a pile of meat with maybe some sauce on it.
Not every Subway add or sign is only “special” promotions. I’m sure you also see subs on their signs that are just basic ham/turkey/cheese… etc. But you can’t just walk in and ask for a 6 inch ham sub with the advertised toppings. Order a ham sub and you get ham, everything else is optional.
To me, the only thing standard in a Subway sandwich is the meat, everything else is optional, special promotion or not.
Look, by now you should have taken on the lessson—no matter what you think the promotional message means, when you go to a Subway, they’re going to ask you what you want on the sandwich.
From this point on, it’s on you. What you are wishing was the meaning of the message is not the meaning.
Look, if you think that every single Subway restaurant you’ve gone into is violating company policy, then contact Subway directly with your question.
If they respond by saying that you’re right, then that’s something to work with. Without that you’re just complaining to the ocean about how wet it is.
And you keep ignoring the main point. If the OP represents only a tiny number out of thousands of customers who don’t want to choose the ingredients it’s not worth it to the store manager to train the employees to learn the specials.
Maybe the people upset about this can just tell themselves that lettuce, tomato, onion and mustard is “Subway Style;” then, when they order a sandwich they can tell the guy at the fixings station that they want lettuce, tomato, onion and mustard, but they’ll secretly know that they’re ordering it Subway Style.
I think you’re conflating two arguments. I would like subway style for my own convenience, just as I like Mike’s Way for my own convenience. I like convenience.
I don’t feel misled by Subway, only very slightly inconvenienced. Those who feel misled aren’t looking for a generic default like Mike’s Way.
They put meat on Subway sandwiches? I can count the number of times I’ve been to Subway over the last 2 decades on my fingers, but one thing that always annoyed me was how chintzy they were with meat and cheese. In these parts, there will almost always be a real deli (which is more a sandwich shop than a place to buy cold cuts) within sight of a Subway (or a subway). And at these delis, you actually get an amount of meat you can notice, instead of being doled out by an eyedropper. I’m forever perplexed that Subway and Pizza Hut and its ilk can survive in NYC. The power of advertising on full display, I guess.
And sometimes it was fun to ring it in as a cheeseburger, no add cheese. A hamburger was $0.79, a cheeseburger 0.99, and add cheese was .020.
Right, and if you go into a store that has pre-built computers like that, then it would be odd.
If you go to a store that advertises that you can customize your own computer build, then it would be on you to specify what components you want in it.
What it comes down to is that there are different types of customers, and some like things one way, some like things another. If you like having the ingredients preselected for you, go to places that do so. If you want to build your own, go to places that do that. If you are flexible, and are able to adapt to the way that different places do things, then you can go to either.