If it’s mayo that’s different but it wasn’t mayo, it was cheese and cheese is easy to remove. I’m also pretty sure they don’t charge extra for it at Subway but maybe I’m wrong about that.
Fair or not, I’ve just learned not to expect it. I also know that they don’t care if you’re unhappy about it. They get paid the same crap wage whether you’re happy or not. Maybe that’s not fair to the customer but that’s the way it is. I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just saying it’s not really worth getting outraged about. You get crappy service at cheapo fast food joints. That’s just life. Getting upset about it is like getting upset at the rain.
Depends who you mean by “they”. The kid at the prep counter? No, most of the time she or she isn’t going to care much–though, as in all things, there are exceptions. I’ve met a few who were actually concerned about doing things right. But, for the most part, you’re right, the counterpeople don’t care. But management is a different story. Having working in this capacity in my distant past, I can tell you that management absolutely does care if you are happy or not. Their business depends on it, and they know it. But, if nobody complains, then the crappy sandwich making continues and gets worse and worse until one day you’re picking rat hairs out of your teeth. Nobody wants that.
I HATE tomatoes, and their little seeds and juice get everywhere, and it just ruins the sandwich for me. People just can’t get it through their heads that I don’t want any tomatoes on it. I simply can’t eat at Subway/Quiznos/Togos/etc. anymore. It’s too much of a battle. I’ve given up.
My old boss once told me about a place that had a great veggie pizza with bacon on it. He once got into an argument with the order person about not wanting bacon.
The order person gives him a puzzled look and says. “Are you sure you don’t want the bacon? It doesn’t cost extra.”
“No thank you.”
“But the bacon is free!”
The kid kept arguing with my boss, apparently unable to comprehend that someone would turn down free bacon. He wouldn’t let it go until my boss said that he was a vegitarian for religious reasons and no amount of persuasion was ever going to convince him to consume a pork product.
(My boss told me he half expected the kid to come back with, "It’s not pork, it’s bacon)
Actually, I LOVE American cheese. I eat it every day for breakfast.
It’s just that I do NOT like cheese + meat combos. I either eat meat… or I eat cheese. But I do not sully the experience of one by corrupting it with the other.
Actually, my big fear is that they’ll put unwanted tomato on it.
You can get tomato juice off the rest of the sandwhich simply by picking the slices off. And a miniscule amount of tomato juice can send me to the hospital. Which is why I go to places like Subway - in theory you get what you ask for and you DON’T get what you don’t want, thereby allowing me to eat without fear of sudden death.
If they can’t listen about the cheese, are they going to listen about the really important stuff down among the vegees?
You posted my rant! With increasing frequency, I’m finding it difficult to just orderr a plain hamburger. Used to be I could say “plain”, and it could come plain - meat and bun, that’s all. Now I have to say something like:
“A hamburger, plain, nothing on it, no cheese, no nothing.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, just meat and bun.”
“Don’t want no tomatos or lettuce?”
“No. Plain.”
“No pickles or onions?”
“No. Plain. Nothing on it.”
“No ketchup or mustard?”
“No, I said plain!”
“But you still want cheese on it, right?”
“No, I said NO CHEESE. Plain.”
“Are you sure?”
Even after exchanges like this, one in three or four times the burger will arrive with cheese.
Seriously, I’m tempted to post about this in GQ, because it seems like a recent phenomenon. Ten years ago, every fast food counter worker and waitperson understood what “plain” meant. Today, it’s not the case. I’ve had a few McDonalds managers have told me that “plain” now means “everything but cheese.” Why the change? Why don’t counterpeople and waitpeople know what “plain” means anymore?
Now, I’m not defending the sandwich artist’s forcing of cheese onto Broomstick. But I do need to point out that it is not as simple as you represent.
For you, and Broomstick, and all of us non-sandwich-artists, ordering a sub is a once-in-while thing. For those people behind the counter, they make thousands a day. It is a routine. They have their brains switched off. That’s why they can do it so quickly: beacause they can do it largely without thinking about it.
The vast majority of people want cheese on their sub, so that is incorporated into their routine as “add cheese.” A sandwich without cheese is an interruption in their automatic routine, something which throws off their sandwich artistry, if only briefly.
Surely some of you have a routine task that you do so often that if some small aspect of it changes, it throws you off?
Absolutely, complain when they get it wrong. But please try to be patient, and repeat your request FIRMLY but CALMLY as frequently as is necessary.
Off topic but prompted by this. When my son was younger he would not eat pork meats if they were called by their normal names, like ham or bacon. He would, however, eat “pig”.
cowgirl, I disagree. You should have to state your preference for or against cheese exactly once during the sandwich making process. One person should be responsible for adding cheese, they should ask you your preference when they are ready to listen and apply the choice to the sandwich. At most, the next person on the line should ask if the sandwich is correct so far.
Now, rattling off “six-inch wheat turkey no cheese lettuce spinach cucumber black olives mayo” all at once is not generally going to work for a sandwich drone. However, when you are following their process, step by step, one item at a time, there is no excuse for having to repeat yourself over and over. Subway’s business model is custom sandwiches, they must listen when putting one together. Their rote activity should be listening and putting on what is asked, not throwing together assumed toppings.
