The difference between the Cold Cut Combo, and the Spicy Italian, and the Black Forest Ham, and the various other sandwiches you can order, is entirely in what kind of meat they use.
Everything else (what kind of bread, what kind of cheese, which veggies, which condiments, toasted or not) is specified by the customer.
The problem here is in the “there are plenty of other sandwich shops” part. Out where I am, sandwich/sub shops aren’t really a thing, other than Subway.
You don’t have any other sandwich chains (Jimmy John’s, Quizno’s, etc.)? If not, then surely you have McDonalds, where a Big Mac comes standard with two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun.
Cool. The comparisons to fainting goats and so on read to me like more of an attack on the employees themselves and I’m never in favor of putting employees, especially lowly-paid ones, between a rock and a hard place when it comes to doing what the customer wants vs what the company wants.
Sure. But around here, even with the been-here-for-at-least-half-a-century Italian delis, there usually is a list of standard sandwiches with standard toppings on them. You can add and subtract as you please, but there is a “default.” And I’ve found this the case in most cities I’ve visited. If I go to the local deli that sells sandwiches, there is a menu of standard sandwiches, and then they can also make whatever the heck it is you like.
But both approaches make some sort of sense to me. If you’re a deli, and you typically sell deli items and make sandwiches for customers to order for convenience and additional income, it might make sense to me that you don’t really care about any sort of “default” sandwich and want to give the customer whatever they want. If you’re a “sandwich restaurant” where you’ve decided what toppings go with what sandwiches and want to create a more “crafted” experience, then that makes sense to have pre-determined selection of sandwiches which the customer could modify, as they please.
I really like Jersey Mike’s, they’re the best fast food in my corner of the world. And the “Mike’s Way” is brilliant: they have almost exactly the same choices as Subway, but they also have a default combination of extras that taste pretty good on most sandwiches, and a lazy fool like me can just say Mikes Way and get a pretty good sandwich.
Subway should have that as an option. Call it “Subway Style,” and for each sandwich they could have a list of the “Subway Style” ingredients you’d get on it. It’s by no means a required list, but for a lazy fool like me, it’d make ordering there better, especially when they have a special sandwich.
Which is all theoretical, since I never go to Subway willingly anymore since I tried Jersey Mike’s, but in theory it’d be a great move on their part.
You’re wrong. They offer both models.
From Subway: :
“Chicken & Bacon Ranch Melt
Saddle up & try the fresh toasted SUBWAY® Chicken & Bacon Ranch sandwich. Stuffed with melted Monterey cheddar cheese, tender all-white meat chicken with seasoning and marinade, crispy bacon, lettuce, tomato, onions and green peppers.” (http://www.subway.com/en-us/menunutrition/menu/product?ProductId=4271&MenuCategoryId=1)
From Willys:
“Southern BBQ Burrito
Try our newest addition while it lasts! Chipotle pork or Adobe chicken with pinto beans, rice, jack cheese, SW coleslaw and our housemade Alabama white sauce.” (http://willys.com/menu-item/bbqburrito/)
Some folk call it a sling roll - I call it a kaiser roll. mmm-hmmm.
Not intended as such. More of a playful retort to people who were suggesting that Subway somehow had unique restaurant issues in customers getting an unwanted topping or no way of knowing what should go on a sandwich.
I appreciate the subject because whenever I go to Subway I tend to like all of the ingredients and then pick just about everything, but later find that the sandwich is too busy. I would have rather just had a classic sandwich.
Yeah, it’s promoted as if it has a specific combination of ingredients, but when you go into a Subway and try to actually order one, you still have to specify what you want on it.
I’m willing to bet that the percentage of people that walk into a subway and “want it just like the picture” are in the minority.
If someone makes 200 sandwiches during their shift, I’d be surprised if less than 175 of them are custom. Like others have suggested, get yelled at once by some jerk because you DID make it “just like the picture”, and you’re gonna start making everyone confirm what they want.
I’m not saying Subway has “unique restaurant issues”; I’ve seen other restaurants where the staff asks for clarification when a customer orders One With Everything, presumably because they’d get hassled at what I’m figuring is the Subway rate as opposed to what I’m figuring is the Taco Bell rate.
Which is the whole point of this thread. It DOES have a specific combination of ingredients and it’s not asking too much for a customer to just order it that way. Fine if the customer wants to change it up, but the sandwich does exist as an offering in a particular way. Shouldn’t be a big deal to ask what that is and be able to order it that way.
Totally sympathetic to the idea that Subway employees are asked to customize it more than often than not, but it’s also reasonable to expect that I can order whatever they’re advertising without trying to figure out how it’s made and asking for the right ingredients.
Given that there’s no option to NOT get it custom, I’d be surprised if less than 200 were custom.
Since Subway currently does not, as far as I know, provide their stores with recommended builds for their sandwiches, all the employee has at their disposal is the same poster of the sandwich to scrutinize that you saw walking into the building.
The “blank slate item that you pick all the ingredients” is definitely becoming more and more common in the fast casual world. Off the top of my head there’s Chipotle, Qdoba, Blaze, and MOD Pizza. Five Guys is mostly like this, all there is an “All the way” option with a clear set of ingredients. McDonald’s is testing this out with some of their specialty burgers too. Epic Burger, a Chicago based chain does it.
I don’t see how a Subway ad could differ from what it is now even if there truly is no “default” ingredients. They have to put SOMETHING on the poster.
If you make a Buddhist Sandwich (One With Everything) you’ll get a mess, because there are incompatible ingredients. Aside from too busy, it’ll be a taste mess.
A properly made sandwich will have complementary flavors. I would hope that the Subway Test Kitchens spend time evaluating their new sandwiches, so they should have an idea of what works and what doesn’t.
And that is why there should be a default setting for sandwiches. You don’t have to get it, but it should be known.
But, some people still want pineapple on pizza. And this is America - it should be available, even so. 
The Subway I go to has a sign on the glass that daisy “the works” or something like it. It’s a list of ingredients you get if you ask for that.