And here I didn’t even know Subway had a liquor license.
A Subway sandwich is better than Canadian Club. The former, you can eat; the latter is better used as paint thinner.
Correct, but I am prompted to ask - are there not small local bakers. delis, sandwich shops available as alternatives to Subway in the US? (Genuine question - I think of the deli, particularly, as a US institution. Are there a major regional differences in the US?)
j
Yes, there are. Also, most supermarkets I’ve seen have a deli counter that will make sandwiches to order.
All of these have locations within 3 miles of my house. We rarely eat at ANY. Firehouse is harder to get to, parking-wise. Jimmy John’s and Subway are just over a mile. Jersey MIke’s and Firehouse are slightly further and a little tougher, parking-wise (one would require using a garage and stairs / elevator). So between parking, and JJ’s former practice of making hourly minimum-wage workers sign noncompete agreements, we’re most likely to get something at Subway.
I won’t argue that the others make very nice sammiches. But their food is perfectly acceptable if unexciting. If you just need to “refuel”, and your choices are, say, McDonalds or Subway, I’d go for Subway, as offering potentially healthier options.
Re the OP: the refusal to honor that advertised deal sounds pretty stupid. Honestly, how many customers would have shown up expecting a free sandwich. If it’s in the double digits I’d be surprised. They’re not losing a lot of revenue. Plus, as noted, they’re likely to also buy chips / drink / cookie, or food for a family member, or whatever - for people who likely would not have come in at all that day.
It might even be a violation of their franchise agreement to refuse to honor such ads.
I agree with that 90% of the time. But sometimes you just want a burger and fries and nothing else will do, health consequences be damned!
Yeah but they aren’t fast food places. I can’t get in and out of one of them nearly as quickly as I can a place like Subway or Jimmy John’s (and JJ is actually a lot faster than Subway anyway).
As I said before, if convenience isn’t a concern at all and you’d rather pay less money and get a better sandwich, you can just make your own sandwich.
Fair points. We would typically get a sandwich on a day out, which is much different from grabbing a quick bite to eat in your lunchbreak.
j
Oh yeah, in that situation going to Subway would probably be the last thing on my list. 
We will not discuss 2 evenings ago when I stopped and bought a Big Mac on the way home from my swim fitness class… the Subway was 2 doors down in the same strip mall and was also open.
Hey, I genuinely NEEDED the calories (seriously; been losing weight and need to stop doing so). And ground up dead cow just sounded like something I could eat. dammit. I avoided the fries though.
What I’ve been thinking this whole thread!
Someone upthread says they couldn’t remember the last time they were in a Subway. I can; it was the first weekend of Dec last year & we were away in rural VA. We had breakfast at the hotel but it was the only place to pick up lunch between the hotel & where we were spending the day. There were no takeout containers otherwise I would have taken some extra breakfast for lunch. 4 hr old, air-temp powdered eggs would have probably been better.
I walk into a pizza shop or a deli & walk up to the counter, place my order, & they make it. I don’t think any place I get a sub hoagie is appreciably longer than any given Subway or JJ at any given time. Yes, one may have a line that the other one doesn’t but from the time I actually place my order they are about the same.
Now that I think about it, there is nowhere I can get a sandwich like Jimmy John’s or Subway near me, not that I’m aware of. I can get a sandwich in a grocery store, but only the ones they’ve premade. They sell components for a sandwich in the deli (like pre-sliced meats or cheeses) but they don’t assemble it for you at the counter, not that I’ve seen.
Even if they did, it takes forever to get anything from the deli in those grocery stores; I don’t even like to buy their pre-made stuff.
Jimmy John’s in particular is at least as fast if not faster than a place like McDonald’s. They’re real fast food. Subway can take a little bit longer.
Not every area has good alternatives to a place like Subway.
I admired your need for calories and made the decision to get a big mac.
Very bold.
Perfect.
Umm…up and until you went crackers and DIDN’T get the fries.
What were you thinking?
Thankfully, we’ve got the legendary Pub Subs, from Publix Supermarket here in Florida, sparing me from the despair of settling for a subpar Subway sub—aka a loaf of disappointment with toppings. But let’s be real: even the mighty Pub Sub bows in reverence to the South Philadelphia sandwich. Philly subs aren’t just food; they’re edible works of art crafted by deli deities. Pub Subs might be great, but South Philly sandwiches? They’re life-changing.
Just think. If I could just get SteakUmms° at a regular clip.
I could be happy once more.
This. I live in a midwestern town of 20k. Not all that long ago, we had 3 ma-and-pa grocery stores, all of which made killer sammies. But they are all gone now. Subway is the only fast-food sandwich option, unless you include Arby’s (which actually isn’t terrible). But there are no delis as others have described above within 30 miles.
SteakUmms? Oh, honey, no, no, no. If you’re after a real cheesesteak, you need to head to Philly once again—the holy land where the cheesesteak was born and bread. Leave the frozen strips for the freezer aisle and let the masters show you how it’s done. Independent joints in Philly don’t just make cheesesteaks; they craft works of meaty, cheesy art. 
So anytime one wants a sub or cheesesteak sandwich, it’s necessary to travel to Philadelphia?
Yes, it’s worth the trip.
And once you’ve made that trip, take Amtrak to New Haven and have the best pizza in the world. In all seriousness, though, you can find good food anywhere and everywhere. Bad food, too. I’ll bet there are places in Philadelphia that make shitty sandwiches.