Craving a $5 footlong from Subway? Well before you march into your nearest location, you
may want to watch this video. We have reason to believe this long-standing sandwich station
hasn't been entirely honest with us over the years. Here are the 10 biggest lies Subway
told its customers.
For years, Subway has been touting its supposedly fresh, quality ingredients as what sets it
apart from your standard fast food fare.
"Here's to choice, to making your voice be heard, to getting exactly what you want."
In fact, one of Subway's best-known marketing efforts is its "Eat Fresh" campaign. Still,
that phrase is a bit of a misnomer when you really stop to think about it. That's because
a lot of Subway's food is pre-packaged and some of that food is actually delivered to
the store frozen if some former employees can be believed.
In 2018, Business Insider spoke to several Subway franchise owners who revealed that
they only receive one or two shipments of produce per week, and it's usually a lot of
low-quality produce that won't stay fresh for more than a few days. One former worker
confessed that
"About half of the vegetables we used were far from fresh."
Another franchise owner described the produce as "mushy" and "rotting."
Other employees told Business Insider that the meats are allegedly delivered pre-cooked
and pre-sliced. It all sounds pretty gross, to be honest. Employees claim the meat smells
horrible when they open the packaging. Employees also claimed they're required to microwave
the prepared meats when customers don't want their sandwiches toasted. Perhaps the powers
that be hope that warming the meat keeps it looking and smelling fresh.
You know how Subway is famous for that intoxicating fresh-baked bread smell? Well. It supposedly
comes from the chain's bread loaves baking away at all hours of the day.
"Cheddar cheeses, then add flavorful herbs like garlic, dash of oregano, a pinch of rosemary."
"Sounds like a great sandwich."
"Sandwich? That was just the bread."
Indeed, Subway's menu does claim their sandwiches are made on fresh-baked bread. Unfortunately,
that's not entirely true.
You see, Subway's dough might be baked on-site, but it's apparently not freshly made at all.
In fact, it shows up at the store as frozen dough. As a former employee wrote on Reddit,
"Subway 'fresh baked bread' is actually frozen breadsticks that turn into dough when they
thaw."
Subway's cookies are also supposedly delivered to the store as frozen balls of dough.
Oh, and it might be a lie to even call this stuff bread. In 2020, a court in Ireland ruled
that Subway's bread can't actually be legally defined as bread – not in that country,
anyway. That's because its sugar content is just too high. Oh, and that includes the wheat
bread, too.
Some Subway locations don't seem overly concerned with quality control. Former employees say
food is kept well past its expiration date, with some ingredients simply being prepackaged
to increase the shelf life and save on costs. This includes fresh ingredients like lettuce,
packaged chips and drinks. Sometimes, employees say they're asked to change the date on product
labels to mask their distinct lack of freshness.
Of course, serving expired food isn't corporate Subway policy, so this issue likely varies
from franchise to franchise. But it's worth noting that every single Subway location is
franchise-owned. As for these alleged orders to keep old food, some employees say they
come from the top down. Some employees have reportedly had their jobs threatened if they
don't fall in line.
When we consider what makes food healthy, natural ingredients are on the top of the
list. That's why some consumers might feel duped when it comes to Subway's promise to
only sell healthy, nutritious ingredients.
Well, the chain reportedly fell short of that promise. In fact, Subway faced some serious
heat when it was revealed that a chemical in the chain's bread is also used to make
yoga mats.
"The chemical is called azodicarbonamide, and it's used to make the bread stronger,
to strengthen the bread."
Fortunately, Subway removed this ingredient in 2014.
A year after the controversy, the company announced it was changing all its recipes,
removing all additives, artificial colors, and preservatives. Subway's all-natural menu
debuted in 2017, but what on Earth were we eating before then?
You'd think food safety would be a top priority for Subway brass, but allegedly that's not
always the case. On its website, Subway states that
"[Our workers are] required to always follow strict hand washing procedures and proper
glove usage for all food handling processes."
But accounts from current and former Subway employees detail all kinds of potential safety
issues when it comes to handling the food.
One former employee says they'll never eat at the chain again after working there, claiming
that
"They don't wash the tomatoes. They go right from that crate they come in from Mexico,
with all the dirt all over them, into the slicer. Then they use that slicer to slice
your deli meat without cleaning it first."
According to other reports, some workers don't change their gloves as often as they should.
Oh, and the sauce bottles are reportedly only refilled and never cleaned out. What's more,
the chicken allegedly isn't thawed properly. And while we're on the subject of painfully
disgusting Subway gossip, one worker said their manager knowingly put food in bacteria-infested
buckets.
Subway's $5 footlong campaign must be one of the chain's most notable flubs. The chain
first rolled out the promotion in 2007, promising 12-inch subs for just five bucks. This was
a big hit with customers, especially since the recession was making people tighten the
purse strings. There was also a jingle that was totally impossible to get out of your
head. Forgive us this next clip:
"Five dollah. Five dollah footlong. Any any any, you can't go wrong."
Suffice to say, customers were taken aback when Subway upped the price of its footlongs
to $6 in 2016. By way of explanation, Subway only said that
"Our costs have gone up greatly."
In 2018, Subway tried to bring back the $5 footlongs, but the chain just ended up disappointing
people. The company announced a new footlong promotion in January of that year, pricing
the subs at $4.99. Mere months later, the company walked back those plans and said it
wasn't going to force its many franchises to honor the promotion.
As it turns out, Subway was facing a bunch of pushback from franchise owners who said
the deal would cut into their already-small profit margins. At the end of the day, the
$5 footlong turned out to be nothing more than a broken promise and a catchy, yet irritating
jingle.
Some customers claim that Subway's footlong subs aren't actually one foot long. In 2013,
a customer posted a Facebook photo showing that his Subway footlong only measured 11
inches. This sparked some serious outrage online.
"It's a footlong controversy that continues to grow. Are Subway's footlong sandwiches
really twelve inches long? If not, should they be?"
Upon learning this, a group of disgruntled sandwich lovers decided to sue Subway for
damages over the perceived deception, demanding that the company change its practices. At
the time, Subway released a statement to HuffPost, which read in part,
"[The 11-inch sandwich in the viral Facebook photo was an] isolated case in which the bread
preparation procedures were unfortunately not followed."
But when the lawsuit was filed, the plaintiffs' lawyer said he'd personally measured sandwiches
from over a dozen different Subway shops and none of them measured the full 12 inches.
By 2016, Subway was evidently tired of all the bad publicity and decided to settle the
suit. The powers that be agreed to make sure that footlongs were indeed 12 inches by using
a device to measure its bread. The chain wound up paying more than half a million dollars
in legal fees.
Subway has always marketed itself as a healthier fast food option above all the other choices,
but that just isn't true.
"Tired of heavy meals? Try Subway!"
A peek at Subway's nutritional information shows that many items and ingredients are
loaded with calories, fat, and added sugars. For example, some of Subway's bread options
will run you nearly 500 calories before you add a single topping. Some of the wraps are
close to 1,000 calories. Oh, and the tuna sandwich? It's packed with 50 grams of fat.
In fact, one study found that eating at Subway can be just as bad for you as eating at McDonald's,
at least as far as calorie consumption is concerned. The study showed that an average
McDonald's meal packed around 1,038 calories, while Subway meals averaged around 955 calories.
Is Subway successfully fooling customers into believing their food is healthier than other
fast-food chains? According to a Harvard study, consumers tend to dramatically underestimate
how many calories are present in fast food, but this disparity was reportedly most conspicuous
among Subway consumers.
Since its early days, Subway has said that providing exceptional service is one of its
core values, claiming that,
"[These values] continue to serve as the foundation for Subway restaurants around the world."
However, it seems like Subway has fallen short on that promise on more than one occasion.
That's not a surprise, considering the chain reportedly pumps out 5,300 sandwiches every
minute around the world.
Some Subway customers have taken to the internet to ask why employees at the chain always seem
rude or depressed. One customer dedicated an entire episode of his crafting vlog to
rant about the terrible customer service he'd experienced at Subway. And on the site Customer
Service Scoreboard, Subway gets just 27.68 out of 200 possible points. Out of the nearly
800 user comments about the company, about 95 percent are negative. That's presumably
the same percentage of viewers who disliked this old Subway ad:
"I don't want no greasy chicken."
"Don't want no dinner from a big machine."
"I want to savor every bite, want a treat tonight…"
Word to the wise: Subway employees may lie right to your face if you're not careful.
There are an estimated 38 million Subway sandwich combinations, and some of them must be pretty
tedious to put together. Some Subway employees have confessed online that they've lied to
customers when it's too much of a hassle to make their sandwich, or if they don't feel
like making the sandwich, or they just don't feel like going in the back to get more avocados.
Hey, it happens.
Oh, and beware the so-called light mayo. One Subway employee reportedly confessed that
"Most of the time, whenever the Light Mayo bottle ran out, my manager would just tell
me to fill it with regular mayonnaise[...]. This is pretty common in a lot of stores."
Well.. we certainly hope against hope that this isn't true!
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