About ten years ago there was no better bet than to open a Subway franchise.
Subway rode the wave of people looking for healthier options at their fast food spots
and one of the best food promotions ever in the "Five Dollar Foot Long" to the top of
the fast food-food chain.
While most people assume that McDonald's is the king, Subway actually has and had more
locations in both North America and the world than McDonald's.
Recently, however, Subway has been closing down locations as their business has suffered,
so we'll attempt to get to the bottom of it by finding the Top 10 things Subway doesn't
want you to know.
The Flatbread is a Steal!
Coming into this video I'm sure that each of you know at least two of the entries that
we'll go through, one involving Jared and the other involving a "foot-long" sandwich
and a measuring tape.
The "11-inch" scandal made people feel like they were being lied to, that Subway was using
false advertisements and getting rich off that one inch of sandwich.
However, very few people know that you can actually get back at Subway for that by ordering
a flatbread sandwich.
According to those in the know, the average "foot-long" flatbread sandwich actually measures
at over 14 inches!
That means you're getting two inches of sandwich for "free" and all you have to do is, you
know, eat flatbread.
Considering the fact that Subway is losing customers left and right, perhaps they should
advertise the $5 flatbread to get people back in the door.
If you do want to order the flatbread just avoid the...
Well, you'll see.
We’ll get to it.
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The Halal and Kosher Subways
If you're unfamiliar, people the abide by certain religious practices don't tend to
eat pork (for the Jewish population it's part of being Kosher and for Muslims it's part
of Halal).
Namely, people that follow the Islamic faith don't eat pork as pigs and hogs eat garbage
and are thus sort of disgusting...
Come to think of it, they have a point, but then again…you know…
Bacon.
That means that in certain areas with high Muslim populations, even in the United States,
the Subway stores don't stock ANY pork products (as to avoid any issues with cross-contamination,
like if the ham should touch the turkey).
However, those stores still advertise pork products for people who either aren't religious
or don't follow scripture.
What gives with this?
Well according to a former Subway employee: "Subway stores located in areas with a high
Muslim population have removed all pork products and all the meat is halal.
So that ham and salami are actually just flavored turkey meat made to look like pork products."
The question then becomes how they flavor the turkey to make it taste like pork.
Assuming it can't use any pork products it must be a decent amount of chemicals, which
might be even more unhealthy than eating an animal with cloven feet and a stomach full
of trash.
Avoid the Mayo
As this video has and will show, a lot of people eat at Subway because it's a healthier
option when it comes to the fast food industry.
While it is true that most everything Subway offers is healthier than a burger and fries,
there are still things that are deceptive about how things are advertised both on television
and in the store.
While we'll touch on that further down on the video, there's one thing that isn't advertised
anywhere that a former employee admitted during an interview online.
When people are eating at Subway to lose weight they typically forgo mayonnaise or go for
the "light mayonnaise", the only problem with that, is that according to this former employee:
"Whenever the light mayo ran out, my manager would just tell me to fill it with regular
mayonnaise...
And this is pretty common in a lot of stores."
Now that, is a scandal!
The Dead Mouse Salad
This one is rough.
Any restaurant has to deal with all sorts of critters like mice, rats, raccoons and
the elusive Sasquatch.
You'd think that a restaurant like Subway would have less of a problem in that regard
because everything seems so organized and put away, but vermin are crafty and when they
smell food they'll do most anything to get to it.
Case in point, awhile back a man ordered a spinach salad from his local Subway and found
a dead mouse inside.
While that technically counts as protein, its really, really gross and is something
that Subway admitted was their fault (which is surprising as there have been instances
of people faking images like this for financial reasons) anyways.
While they admitted it was their fault they also said it was an "incredibly rare" circumstance.
It was, because the mouse died in the salad, but that means that a bunch more probably
made their way through that spinach without dying.
That's just unsettling and actually helps to explain some of the foodborne illness outbreaks
that Subway’s had in recent years.
On the bright side, though, at least the mouse died doing what
it loved?
Don't Eat the Chicken
The internet is a great tool.
Unfortunately for some companies, though, especially those that tend to hire teenagers
or people who aren't really looking for a career, there's a large chance that anything
negative that happens at that business will be talked about online at some point.
Case in point comes from an article on the site, oola.com, which spoke with a former
employee from Subway.
That employee basically stated that you should NEVER, under any circumstances, order the
chicken and it's not because of what you expect (considering all the issues that come from
serving chicken), at least not totally.
Here's why: "Subway chicken is given a two-to-five day shelf life depending on the variety.
The chicken teriyaki SHOULD be thrown out by the fifth day, but a lot of employees just
change the date to avoid throwing it out.
This means, with shift changes, varying staff and other factors, five-day chicken could
be out as long as nine days."
So what meat should you order?
The Six-Inch Hepatitis A with Mayo
Unfortunately, the reality of the food-service business is that most every restaurant will
deal with some sort of food poisoning situation at some point.
That has happened to Subway more than once and they all basically boil down to an employee
not washing his or her hands after they go to the bathroom (or cross-contamination between
uncooked meat and vegetables or bread).
In 1999, for example, over 40 people in Washington State ended up contracting Hepatitis A from
their sandwiches.
Eat Fresh, indeed.
Hepatitis of any kind is no joke and all involve a virus that infects the liver.
Hepatitis A impairs liver function and if left untreated it can actually kill you.
Yikes.
More recently nearly 100 people ended up contracting salmonella from a Subway location in Illinois.
If you simply Google "Subway" and "Food Borne Illness" you'll see a number of outbreaks
they've had and to be fair that's sort of standard for a lot of fast food restaurants
especially, but because Subway doesn't cook their meat in an oven (to kill any critters)
and also because of their fresh ingredients, it's just a recipe for disaster.
Again, this is part of the reality of eating mass produced food served by teenagers.
Every week it seems like there's an outbreak of this or that at a restaurant or gas station
eatery, so the point is that every time you eat you're rolling the dice that you might
get violently ill.
Subway’s Fat Shaming Adverts
Subway was the leader of the "Eat Fresh" revolution thanks to their ads with Jared Fogle and the
fact that most sandwiches are healthier than a hamburger and fries.
In today's day and age, though, people get into an uproar over most everything so it's
hard for a company like Subway to promote healthy options without "offending" those
who prefer burgers.
Subway walked straight into a feeding frenzy, figuratively and literally, when they released
this particular advertisement that basically shows a group of women eating hamburgers because
summer is over and they no longer have to look hot in their bikinis.
The girl reminds them that if they gain weight they won't be able to fit into their sexy
Halloween costumes and because of that, people got pretty offended and claimed that Subway
was fat shaming them.
As with anything like this you have to look at the intent behind the commercial and clearly
while they didn't intend to insult anyone they were still idiots.
Anyways it didn't matter as Subway immediately pulled the ad and issued an apology.
The Sandwiches Aren't as Healthy as You Think
Because of Jared Fogle's transformation from a morbidly obese man to a thin monster by
only eating at Subway for over a year, people assumed that the "Jared Diet" essentially
was anything at Subway.
The reality is that Jared was ordering sandwiches without condiments or cheese, lowering both
the calories and grams of fat.
It's not only the commercials that give you that impression but it's also the signs in
the restaurants that show a certain nutritional value for each sandwich (with a decent amount
of fine print).
A former Subway employee explains it best by saying: "these values are only for a six-inch
sub, on white bread, with no cheese or sauce.
The truth is, about 99% of customers have either cheese, sauce or both.
So that means the more popular choices like your 'low fat' six inch Subway with chipotle
sauce and Swiss cheese goes from six grams of fat to a whopping 19.7 grams!
"Beyond that, if you adhere to the Atkins or Keto diet(s), then Subway is a complete
no go anyway, unless you get the salad or perhaps a low carb wrap.
But, if you're on Atkins it's probably better that you avoid Subway totally, as the smell
of that bread cooking might drive you crazy.
Subway’s Foot-Long is Not a Foot Long
If you've ever been to Subway you know that you order your sandwiches in terms of their
length.
The two options (outside of wraps, salads and those weird round sandwiches they give
kids) are a six inch and twelve inch or foot-long sandwich.
Back in 2013, though, a teenage named Matt Corby ordered a foot long sub from Subway
in Perth, Australia and decided to actually measure the sandwich since he had a tape measure
for some reason.
He posted the results to the Australian Subway Facebook page and
the "11-inch Controversy" was born.
Corby asked that Subway "pls respond" after his post received over 100,000 likes Subway
finally responded that, get this, the term "Foot long" is "creative license" and a "name"
and not a "measurement".
There were other rationalizations, like that the bread starts out as a footlong but shrinks
in the oven while cooking, but either way it made people feel like they were getting
cheated and because of that, it really hurt Subway's
brand.
Basically Anything About Jared
You knew this entry was coming.
Jared Fogle was perhaps, no he WAS the best pitchman not only in fast-food history but
in the history of pitchmen on television (Sorry, Grimace).
He became super famous and rich over the years after he was initially introduced as a man
who lost hundreds of pounds by only eating Subway sandwiches.
Dubbed the Subway diet, the timing couldn't have been better as people were suddenly looking
for food that wouldn't eventually kill them and there Jared was, holding up the world's
biggest jeans, letting people know that if they eat at Subway they too can get in shape,
and it's something that was a gigantic PR disaster for Subway.
Granted, it wasn't their fault and they didn't know anything about his sinister leanings,
but to have a pitchman that personifies your business end up in prison for all the things
Jared did, it's clear that it's something that Subway hopes you'll forget.
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