I've worked at Subway for about three years now. In this three years, I've dealt with a lot of the same frustrating situations over and over. Here are five of the most common things I get frustrated with on a daily basis at Subway. Sometimes, one customer can cover all five things, If we're lucky.
1. Customers Who Are Too Quick To Order
They tell us what they want before we've even finished washing our hands. I get it, you're in a rush, but I kind of have to wash my hands. It's part of the job. If you tell me before I even have my gloves on, I'll most likely forget what you said and have to ask you again anyways. So, just wait a few seconds and let us get ready so we can help you in a timely manner.
2. Customers Who Eat While Ordering
Why is it that some people are so hungry that they need to chow down on some chips during the two minutes it takes to make their sandwich? It's frustrating trying to communicate with someone who is eating chips very obnoxiously when he or she could've just waited two minutes and had the chips with his or her sandwich. It's really not that long of a wait, eating the chips makes it seem even longer because I'll probably have to get you to repeat what you're saying. It's not polite and it's just a waste of time. Please save the chip crunching for a more appropriate time.
3. Customers Who Want "More, More, More"
I'm fine with giving people extra veggies if they ask for it nicely. But, most of the time people get mad at us for giving them the portion sizes Subway tells us to give them. We don't make the rules, we just have to follow them. So, if you want thirty olives or pickles on your sandwich, please don't get mad at us when we can only add a certain amount of extra at a time. You have to keep asking for more, we can't stray from what we're taught just because you ask us to. If you huff and puff about it you're just wasting even more time and not making the situation better for either of us. Now, extra meat and cheese is a different situation. Extra meat and cheese costs extra money which a lot of people don't seem to understand. Again, we're just following the rules of Subway and giving you what we're told. It may seem a little sparse, but we can't do anything about it unless you want to pay extra. So, if you ask, that's what we'll have to tell you. Please don't take your anger about some outrageous prices out on us.
4. Customers Who Viciously Point
I know you want to get your order just right, so you may think you need to point at every little thing you're getting until you believe you've gotten enough, but it's really not necessary. We are all trained on where everything is located, and know exactly which cambro has what we're looking for. When you viciously tap on the sneeze guard (the glass covering the food) in hopes that we'll follow your finger, it really just makes us feel like fish in a fish bowl. It's like poking the glass of a fish bowl and hoping that the fish will respond in a loving manner and come to your finger. But, in reality, it just scares the fish and it kind of just scares us too, or just annoys us. We don't need your finger to guide us to the right vegetable destination, our minds and hands have it covered. I know it may seem surprising to some but we can actually remember and see where the veggie we are looking for is. So next time you raise your finger to "help a sandwich artist out", put it back down before you embarrass yourself.
5. Customers Who Say "I thought this was a $5 footlong?"
Yes, maybe three years ago it was a $5 footlong, but prices change. I know, it's hard to believe that in this day and age, prices do go up and they go up fast. Unfortunately, we don't have $5 footlongs anymore, and we haven't for a while. It's sad, I know, but please don't fight with us at the register about it because once again, we seriously can't do anything about it. If you're really that concerned about prices, please just read the menu next time before ordering. We can't make things cheaper for you.
In the end, you're just getting a regular Subway sandwich. So please, don't try to see how annoying you can be in the two minutes it takes to make your sandwich. Leave that for another time and another place.
This isn't meant to offend anyone. This is just meant to be a funny article that some sandwich artists can relate to, and let anyone who isn't a sandwich artist know what annoys us, or at least me, most while making sandwiches. If you do any of these things, I don't mean to offend you, these are just some of the most common things I go through daily as a sandwich artist. Maybe you'll find this helpful. I hope you enjoyed reading this and could relate to it in some way.