Yeah, but, like the man said, just picture the opposite: imagine a guy comes in and asks for the Chicken Bacon Ranch, and you assemble it for him by silently slathering a lot of ranch dressing all over it. “But I didn’t waaant that,” whines the customer, now that it’s too late to unring that bell.
Work there long enough, with that approach, and figure it keeps happening: a guy orders a Reuben, and after you’ve wordlessly put equal amounts of sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing he voices an objection. And later a guy orders a sandwich with everything, and after you pour relish on it he recoils.
Could you ever reach a point where you’d reluctantly conclude that stopping to get a quick clarification is the less bad option?
With a meat lovers pizza, you base is: Meats, sauce, cheese. Everything else is optional.
With Subway’s “Spicy Italian” the base is Meat and bread, everything else is optional, it’s easy to glean this from a quick view of their website. It says right there in print to chose your own ingredients.
It’s a silly notion to place blame on the employees for not “knowing” what ingredients they used on the sandwich pictured on the advertisement.
How would this be different from every other restaurant on earth? I’m sure someone complains at Taco Bell when they learn there’s diced tomatoes on their Zesty Crunchy Baja Wonder Gordita but they still manage to keep makin’ tacos without customer help.
Typically line workers at a fast food restaurant are not leading a double-life as one of the marketing people who make pretty advertising posters, so I wouldn’t expect them to know what the marketing guys decided to put on a poster. I have no idea why you think the corporate HQ would try to educate staff about what ingredients are on a poster, or why you’d expect staff to actually memorize it and be able to tell you exactly what ingredients are on what posted item.
This. When the veggie patty was new, they were promoting it-- it has some kind of name, like “Veggie Max,” but I don’t remember it. Anyway, it you ordered the “Veggie Max,” it meant only that you wanted their TVP patty-- you weren’t just ordering a veggie sandwich (probably with cheese, but no meat). What else went on it was up to you.
The last time I was at a Subway, the were promoting “Meatball Marinara,” which meant meat (probably beef, but who knows?) in non-chunky tomato sauce. You could get a sandwich with just that, or you could get it with cheese, or with an assortment of vegetables, or both, or for all they cared, mayo. Totally up to you.
As regards “everything”; there was a sub shop where I used to live which I don’t think was Subway. Anyhow, you could ask for “the works.” It meant all the typical sandwich veggies, plus mayo and yellow mustard. I guess kinda what the majority of people asked for. If you wanted something unusual, like carrots, or anything hot, you had to ask for it. Whenever someone asked for the hot peppers, the employees always repeated it, I noticed. I guess because once they’ve been on a sandwich, you can’t just take them off, if the employee misunderstood, the way you can with spinach.
Asuka, I’ve had exactly the same experience and frustration at Subway. If they’re advertising the new Carved Turkey and Pickle Relish Artisanal Bacon and Cheddar Sandwich, I should be able to order it and expect them to put those ingredients on it. Maybe they should ask “anything different, or like it usually comes?” If I walk in and ask for just a turkey sandwich, that’s when I expect to walk them through the entire process. Otherwise, what’s the point of advertising the special sandwich? And they do advertise those sandwiches prepared in a special way. You don’t see one ad with the new special sandwich heaped in lettuce and black olives and another with the same special sandwich looking minimal with just meat and a slice of onion. It would be like a deli with a reuben sandwich on the menu but when you order they ask what you want on it. Well, let’s start with some rye bread, then add some corned beef, then some swiss cheese… Now if I’d like a reuben but I prefer not to have the sauerkraut, I can say so.
There’s a burrito place called Willies Cantina that does the full-on build it yourself routine like Subway, but they also advertise special pre-designed dishes too. And they do it right. If I say I’d like the “Southern BBQ” burrito, the burritotista says “just like it comes?” and I can say yes or make my alterations.
Again, that’s kind of a weird position since basically every other restaurant has employees who are aware of what ingredients go in their food. It’s not as though I go to Jimmy Johns, ask for a Country Club and the sandwich guy falls over in confusion like one of those fainting goats. If it actually is too difficult to memorize, here’s a pro-tip: Jot it on a note card, tape it to the top of the ingredients cabinet and read it when someone says “Gimme one of those”. Voilà!
People paid to make a restaurant’s advertised food specials aren’t expected to know the ingredients and how to make them? Somehow McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, and every other fast food place can make that happen.
But that’s sort of what I’m asking: I’m guessing that, if I worked at Subway, this sort of thing would come up ludicrously often — and that, if I worked at Taco Bell, it’d come up a heck of a lot less often.
And, if so, that would explain the discrepancy: if, say, I can reasonably expect one complaint about diced tomatoes a year at Taco Bell, and one complaint of that sort per hour at Subway, then I’m guessing that (a) acting on my own initiative, I’d vary my service accordingly; except I’m guessing that (b) I’d get word handed down from my boss about what questions to ask.
I’m waiting for the day when someone smart at Subway comes up with a membership card or similar card that has what you want on the particular sub combination. They could swipe the card, see the ingredients, and not have to ask you any questions.
This would presume:
you never want any new or different subs
they install technology to create cards, scan them, and display the combination
that there’s someone smart at Subway
So that’s never going to happen.
My daughter has worked at Subway. There’s about as much training and guidance as you would expect for a fast food place. Meaning, it’s a fast food restaurant; as often as not, it’s staffed by teenagers working for the summer, or college age kids. If they aren’t the employees, you’d most likely deal with the franchise owners.
None of whom graduated from a culinary school. Or even took a basic course in customer service.
(Sidenote: I’ve worked in customer service–call centers specifically–and when I become dictator, every American of working age will have one of two choices: spend one year in military service, or one year working in an inbound customer call center. This way, people will learn discipline and how to deal with other people.)
I don’t really understand why customers at Subway would be more prone to get unwanted ingredients than anyone else. They make Rubens at Arby’s and I assume they don’t checklist the ingredients to make sure you know what goes on a Ruben and they don’t have a customer per hour upset about the toppings. Or other sub shops that don’t have you hand pick don’t seem to have this problem.
I don’t think the Subway model has much to do with inadvertent choices and is just a gimmick to make you think you’re getting a fresher, more quality product “your way”. I’ve never been to a sub shop where they didn’t make it on the spot though so the process is just an annoyance to me. Fortunately, at both work and home there’s a Jimmy Johns closer to me than a Subway and I like JJ’s product more as well.
Huh? Have you ever been in a Burger King? If I ask for a Whopper, they just make a standard Whopper and hand it to me. If I want changes, I let them know at the time of ordering. But the cashier never stares blankly at me, confused about what “Whopper” means without me detailing it.
This made me look up what the heck a BMT was and I was amused to learn that amateur Wiki enthusiasts were able to do what Subway employees can’t and identify the ingredients in the promotional photos.
I agree with the OP, when it comes to new subs as advertised. If I get a standard sub, I get to pick my toppings and that is cool.
But if, as **dingbang **says, the new advertised on TV sandwich is the “Carved Turkey and Pickle Relish Artisanal Bacon and Cheddar Sandwich”, I don’t have any idea what goes, or doesn’t go, with that. Maybe cukes or jalapenos on that create a sort of matter/antimatter flavor reaction. Then you say, “man that new sandwich sucks” and never order it again. It would be good to have a baseline, as it were. You have to know what it’s supposed to taste like before you can modify it.
It would be like if you had never had a meatball sub, and you added something like mayo. It just doesn’t go together, and you’ll have wasted your money.
Yes, but that’s why the OP asks what’s on the newly advertised sandwich. But gets a blank stare. Seems perfectly reasonable to say, “Hey, I’m interested that new sandwich there on the poster. What’s on it?” And then say, “I’ll have that” or “I’ll have that, but no tomatoes and add onion.”
Doesn’t seem like a lot to expect from a company advertising particular sandwich creations.
I’m not sure if it’s so much a gimmick as that’s how some sandwich places traditionally operate. The first time I visited New York, I went to into a deli, excited to finally try a sub from a genuine New York deli, and was flummoxed when I ordered a roast beef sub and the guy behind the counter asked me what I want on it. I said, well, “whatever usually goes on it” “Everyone likes it different, whaddaya want” was the curt answer back. So, yes, I had to specify every single ingredient on my sub, pretty much. Coming from a place where my experience with subs was ordering a Vito or Big John from Jimmy John’s and having no options whatsoever, I felt like an idiot. (ETA: Not so much “no options whatsoever,” but rather a default manner of making the sub to which you can add or subtract ingredients on hand as you want.)