And that is??
Seriously, the only one of these that I know which meat they’re using is the Black Forest Ham. So there’s only one difference between the three subs, and the customer doesn’t even know what it is, AFAICT.
Some of the in-store menu boards I’ve seen do specify. (Here’s an example.)
I mean, you can ask what meat comes on the sandwich. They’ll know that.
Wouldn’t that be surprising though, for Subway not to provide any guidance? I don’t know for a fact whether they do or not, but it seems bizarre that a company would promote a sandwich with a specific build (see the web site I cited earlier and related ads) and not tell local shops how to make it. Why wouldn’t they? And if I were the local manager, when I put those posters on the front windows advertising this month’s special build sandwich, I’d at least want to go to the web site and see what the heck it is so I could give it to my customers when they ask for it.
I mean, I know we have low expectations for fast food operations, but that seems a pretty low bar for them.
The menus in store say what meat is on each sandwich.
I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen a teen working at Subway. Around here (NYC) every single Subway I have ever been in is staffed by middle-aged Hispanic or Middle-Eastern men. Not sure I’ve ever even seen a woman.
If you live in NYC, what the hell are you doing buying a hero (A HERO! THIS IS NEW YORK!) at a Subway, anyway? Go to a damn delicatessen.
Well, I can drive the half hour to Annapolis.
Yeah, but why would I be in Subway to begin with, if I wanted a burger?
Look, Subway can be whatever it wants. The problem is, I get these fliers from them in my snail mail, and they don’t promote themselves as a build-your-own-sub place. They have these pretty pictures of what look like very specific subs, and say you can get a foot-long in any of these for $4.99 or whatever the going price is this week. ETA: And one of those pretty pictures got me to darken their door.
If they’re one kind of business, and they advertise themselves as another kind of business, they shouldn’t be surprised if people walk in the door expecting them to be the ‘another’ kind of business, and get pissed to find that they’re the ‘one’ kind. Nor should you. Saying ‘this is the sort of shop Subway is’ misses the point. They got me in the door under false pretenses. Fuck 'em.
For the Subway employee, it seems to me that there are two ways to understand the OP’s question. One way makes sense, the other doesn’t.
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What kind of meat is on it (they HAVE to know this)
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What else is on it (I don’t know, buddy, you tell me)
And, I think I have a way to ask so they’ll understand: “How is this different from the BMT?”
Now if, for example, you want to know “How do I make the Subway Albanian Falafel And Pastrami taste Albanian style?” - the answer is, “You don’t, it’s the same green peppers and tomatoes as always”.
Whenever I’ve been in a Subway, the menu board tells you exactly what kind of meat is in each sandwich. And I believe it also has a section that tells you the cheeses/veggies/sauces you can choose from.
I disagree with my neighbor **D_Odds **in only one respect. There are a very few sandwiches in NYC that come a certain way. And I do mean a few and they are mostly hot sandwiches. If you order a BLT without specifying more, it will come on white toast, with mayonnaise and bacon lettuce and tomato. If you want yours on a roll or with no tomato, you have to specify because you won't be asked. If you order a veal parm hero, it will come with veal, cheese and sauce. Reuben is corned beef ( or maybe pastrami depending on the place), swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing on grilled rye bread. Subway has a few of this type of sandwich, where the menu describes the sandwich in detail, like the meatball marinara. In my experience, although the Subway worker may ask if you want any changes, if you say you want exactly what it says in the menu , that's what you get. They don't tell you there is no standard way
There are a lot more in NY delis like the Cold Cut Combo and Spicy Italian where the basic sandwich includes multiple items, like a chicken bacon ranch sandwich automatically comes with chicken , bacon and ranch dressing or a Godfather hero at a particular deli might include Ham, salami, pepperoni, mortadella, and provolone. But even those specify only meats, cheese and maybe a sauce. They're still going to what you want on it - lettuce , tomato ,onion, Italian dressing, peppers etc - exactly as they do at Subway.
So, when I order a chicken bacon ranch melt, why do I have to tell them what I want on it? Make it that way and I’ll be perfectly happy. Although I notice they don’t list “ranch”, so I guess I’ll still get the “Anything else?” at the end.
I have to say, I’m a little disappointed. The thread title led me to expect at least something like witnessing or self-gratification.
That’s the one I wanted! The pic reminded me of the hot oven grinders I used to have back in college, and I thought, maybe it’ll be close enough to a meatball grinder to get by. (Dunno about now, but back then, if you went into a pizza-and-grinders place in New England and asked for a meatball grinder, they didn’t ask what bread or cheese or sauce or veggies. You got it the way they fixed it.) But when I ordered it, I had to decide on everything but the meatballs themselves; there was no detailed definition, and saying, “I’d like the one in the ad” just got me a shrug. So I guessed on ingredients as best I could.
Despite quoting me, you don’t seem to be replying to my post, or to be reading the thread, as your comments are referencing things that weren’t said. Subway has employees who are perfectly aware of what ingredients go into their food, and the OP didn’t have any example of an employee falling over from someone ordering a menu item. There was ZERO confusion about what goes into the menu item, the problem was that the OP expected an employee to know what items were on a poster depicting the food, but that’s got nothing to do with the menu. If someone says ‘gimme one of those’, then it’s easy. The problem is when someone says ‘match this advertising picture that probably doesn’t even use real food’.
Are we in the same thread? The employees know how to make the advertised special, that’s not the problem. They just don’t know what ingredients correspond to the prop food used to take a picture for advertising copy. Taco Bell
You can’t think of Chipotle? It’s the biggest burrito place in the world by revenue, and you have to specify what you want. But hey, you guys could have a field day with this! Find an ad with a picture of a wrapped burrito and then demand that the guy behind the counter put the same ingredients into it as in the picture! Your harassment of the guy working a crappy job will go to the next level!
The amount of sneering at low-level employees for not wanting to engage in stupid games with obnoxious customers that could get them fired is pretty amazing.
To be honest, I think that’s got to do with your location as much as it does with Subway itself. I have never been asked about sauce or veggies for the meatball marinara. (Bread and cheese maybe, I’m not sure - I’ve never been asked about that in pizzeria, but then again, they usually only have one type of bread). But I live in NYC and nobody would ever put those veggies and sauces on a meatball sandwich - perhaps people in your location do?
Oh and the description I usually see is something like “meatballs and marinara sauce served on fresh bread”
Sandwiches “with everything” don’t make sense at Subway because Subway doesn’t even carry sensible ingredients for the various kinds of sandwiches that people know about and expect.
If you get sandwiches at a deli or a restaurant, certain kinds of sandwiches are done in certain ways. There are different types of bread, sliced differently, for certain sandwiches. One type of sandwich is always dipped in an egg mixture and then cooked on a hot grill. Another kind always comes with a certain type of pickles. Grilled cheese sandwiches never have lettuce and tomatoes inside. Club sandwiches always have lettuce and tomatoes inside. Everybody knows these things - at least for particular limited values of “everybody”. 
Well, Subway doesn’t have any egg mixture to dip your sandwich in. There’s no hot grill. Subway has only one type of bread (though it comes in different colours). One type of pickles. They will put salad dressing on your sandwich if you like - hmmm, I don’t know any kinds of sandwiches that are supposed to come with raspberry salad dressing, … do you?
The reality is that all Subway sandwiches are THE SAME ONE, and it’s not any familiar type. They’re like Monty Python’s albatross - “It doesn’t have any bloody flavour, it’s bloody Subway flavour!” The bread can be different colours, the meat can be different colours, but it’s one sandwich made the same way with the same ingredients every time.
That’s why Subway is not expensive - they found a way to sell the same sandwich over and over while pretending each one is different. And that’s why the employees don’t know the difference between the sandwiches - it’s because there IS no difference.
Um, shouldn’t they match, given that the pic purports to be a pic of the advertised special?
If they’re not, then AIUI it is quite literally a bait-and-switch.
No sneering here. God bless the Subway employees.
Pantastic, I don’t think anybody is going into Subway, pointing at a pretty picture of a generic prop sandwich and asking what’s on it. That’s not the issue here, not from my reading of the OP or anyone’s comments. Has anyone argued for that?
You note that they do offer specific advertised specials and that the employees know how to make them. Good, that’s what we expect. The OP’s experience, and mine too, has been that when you ask they don’t know. So there’s the problem.
The special is some combinations of meats, and maybe a sauce. The rest of the veggies is up to you. It’s not a bait and switch because you can literally get any veggies you want on it.
Notice how almost all of the sandwich names are just the name of the meat.
Quite possibly, but I’m not likely to find out.
It’s possible that the sauce was also a given. (This was 2-3 months ago. I’ve forgotten some of the details.) But I had to choose the bread, I had to choose whether or not there would be cheese (so prominent in the pic!) and what kind, and make a bunch of other unexpected choices.