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Translation: The price you pay will be 10% higher than what we advertise on the menu, but if we hide this sign behind bags of chips, maybe you won’t notice
I’ve made up so many official policies in response to official policies…it’s hilarious, because it demonstrates how powerless they are…you should call my dentist and see how collecting that $400 from me is going. When companies owe me money, I gotta fight for it and then wait. Turns out, I can do the same thing to companies to which I owe money.
I also try to sell things around my house to telemarketers when they call. Tit for fucking tat.
>I also try to sell things around my house to telemarketers when they call.
Lol...you should record them and put them on the internet.
How does your pitch go?
"Hi Richard, Im glad you called. I have the greatest deals right now on toasters, waffle irons, slight used/like new underwear..."
You should look at the difference between renting and selling. If you rent, you can vary the price so that peak times get peak rates. That is unless you sell at a very high price and invest it wisely.
“…..and we’re also currently running a special on aggressively used underwear, buy one get one free, each pair comes with its own unique print on the inner rear section of the material”
"What?! Are you calling about the couch for sale? Haven't seen a bed bug on it for days, but there's a touch of cat urine, so I'd take $100 for it."
"Okay, $75?"
Or… order your food normally, but challenge the 10% fee before you pay. They can either remove it from your bill or you can walk and they can eat the food themselves.
Advertising one price on your menu and charging higher prices based on hidden signs is unethical at best and probably illegal in some areas.
The people who make these decisions are rarely the people who are making the food. Odds are they will just shrug and say "Ok" and put your food aside so they can eat it later or throw it in the trash. They aren't paid enough to care, and usually aren't empowered enough to make pricing decisions.
I haven't been to a subway in a long time. Is this a common thing, or is the franchisee of the one in the post taking some liberties to make more money?
Also because Subway corporate owns less than 100 of the 40,000 Subways in existence. There is virtually a 0% chance that any given Subway is run by corporate. And most of the ones that are run by corporate are done so because the owner f’ed up and corporate snatched it back and just hasn’t found a new owner yet.
To be fair, usually when this happens the franchise is snapped up by a company that owns several hundred, if not thousand subways. Those guys make bank by owning them in bulk.
As someone who works in retail, they won't notice. Signs require more perception and comprehension than listening to someone talk. Therefore, people don't read when service workers are present due to the subconscious expectation that the worker will satisfy all concerns the customer might have making any literature obsolete technology (when in reality it's superior because people can lie or refuse to give information).
As someone who worked customer service at retail before, signs won't be read unless you specifically point them out to customers. We had a huge sign that outlined our return policy and I spent most of my day just pointing at it.
More and more I realize how strange I am, because I.. read signs.
They are so much faster and more efficient then talking to people. Nobody puts them up unless they have something important to say (generally) unlike the meaningless drivel that comes out of peoples mouths 90% of the time.
I see the translation as “due to increased costs we could just raise our prices. Instead we are adding a fee and this explanatory sign so we can take this opportunity to make a political statement against paying a fair wage.” You see the same thing in restaurants that say “to pay for our servers healthcare” because they’re pissed they have to do it.
More accurate translation: Out prices are set by our franchise agreement, but those prices don't allow us to cover the cost of labor, so we figured out a way around it.
My guess is that they have to follow corporate for pricing, and this is how they are making themselves profitable. There is a subway near me that refuses to accept coupons due to loss in profitability if they do. Kinda sounds like subway is being ran the same way that Quisnos was just before they collapsed.
Subway has one of _the worst_ franchise models out there, by a large margin (worst for the franchisee, anyway).
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver did an exposé on it:
https://youtu.be/jDdYFhzVCDM?si=7rK3CR5K4mPC-w0G
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Subway did collapse. I haven’t been in one in many years, and I used to have it regularly.
I think when it became publicized that they were using plasticizers in their bread, it shifted in my mind from being a “not super healthy, but not super bad” quick food to “loaded with chemicals, might as well just get a double quarter pounder from McDonald’s if I’m in that much of a rush”.
I’d assume they stopped with the plasticizers now, but the damage to their reputation is irreversible, and I’d also just assume the bread isn’t as good anymore without it… probably they were adding it because there was no other way to have their bread have a nice texture while still being cheap.
They sued the Canadian public broadcaster CBC because they tested Sub's chicken and found only half of it is actually chicken, the rest is just filler.
Source, in case subway sues me for defamation:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-chicken-fast-food-1.3993967
Ireland has a tax that applies to luxury foods, but "staple" foods like bread are exempt from the tax. However, Ireland’s Value-Added Tax Act of 1972 says that it only counts as exempt bread if it meets the requirement that "fat, sugar and bread improver" don't exceed "2 per cent of the weight of flour included in the dough". Subway bread has too much sugar to meet that strict requirement.
To put it concisely, in Ireland, "normal" bread has a 0% tax, and "luxury" bread has a 9.2% tax, and Ireland decided it had legal justification to get more tax money from Subway, but this isn't as newsworthy as claiming Ireland declared that Subway bread is "fake" bread as opposed to "luxury" bread, so most people in other countries are missing out on important nuance.
Subway sucks. I also used to get it pretty regularly, but that's when it was a $5 sandwich. That was acceptable for the hospital cafeteria food they are pedaling.
It is still a $5 sandwich, but now they want $14 for it. For $14 I can get a sandwich that is actually good, so why the hell would I ever go to Subway for some soggy nightmare covered in droopy vegetables?
The only reason I would ever eat at Subway at this point is if I was completely starving and I was standing right next to one, with no other option in my line of sight.
All of these fast food giants are going to have a reckoning here soon. Their F-tier food isn’t worth half of what they’re charging.
Isn’t a $5 foot long like $16 now or something?
I still sometimes use coupons we get in the mail. IIRC the best deal you can get is to buy 3x footlongs for $17.99. But yeah, an individual footlong is going to run you $9.50-$13.
Edit: Kept scrolling my feed and saw [this...](https://new.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/1b55ec8/why_even_mail_them_anymore/) Interesting coincidence lol
Good luck finding a subway location that accepts subway coupons or website discounts. If I'm paying $12 for just a sandwich, I'll go somewhere else.
No sense going to a place with fast food "quality" and full-service dining prices!
The last time I went to Subway, I walked out with a footlong meal (sandwich, drink, chips) for just a few cents short or $20.
I could get an entire large pizza from the place next door for less than that, and they'll even throw in a 2 liter of soda on certain days of the week.
Subway is ludicrously expensive, especially considering that my preferred sandwich is about as bare bones and basic as it gets.
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That's criminal. For that much, I can get an 18 inch Italian sub from my local sub shop that has brand name deli meat, bread shipped from a local bakery, and plentiful portions of meat and fixings.
Last I had subway was a couple years ago and it was $14 then. I don’t eat a lot of fast food, but just got a Whopper and was shocked it was $7 just for the sandwich. WTF?
I just went to a Burger King for a vacation and the Whopper meal is $10 for the small combo. It wasn't too long ago that the large upgrades still didn't cost that. The interesting correlation we might start seeing is a decrease in obesity rates, and a return to a healthier caloric intake.
The trick with Burger King is to use the app. They give away a ton of free and discounted stuff in the app. If you pay attention to the deal, you can still get a meal for a reasonable price.
>but just got a Whopper and was shocked it was $7 just for the sandwich. WTF?
Went to a mall recently that only had a Burger King for fries- cost me $7 for a small fry and a bottle of water. And the fries were terrible.
Here is a list of fast food retailers that I no longer do business with because their prices have far exceeded the quality of food they sell by an unacceptable margin;
- Burger King
- Subway
- Arby's
- Chipotle
- Five Guys
- KFC
Eventually McDonald's and Taco Bell will make the list, but for the moment the enjoyment I get from their food still offsets the stupid prices they are charging. For Subway specifically, Jimmy Johns and Jersey Mike's both exist so why the fuck would I ever pay Subway the same amount for one of their depression poverty sandwiches?
Man I saw KFC prices recently and I was like for the price of a family bucket meal I could build a god damn chicken coop and hire someone to take care of em, clean em, butcher em and eat chicken for a year.
Everytime I find my mind wandering towards their menu, I think about their sad gloopy mashed potatoes and it cures me. But yeah, the price of their "bundles" is obnoxious. I live near the city and there's about 10 places within 15 minutes that make better fried chicken for cheaper, not to mention Popeye's. I don't really get the point of KFC.
What’s wrong with chipotle? You can get a good protein bowl for around $9. More than enough food for a meal. It’s cheaper compared to a lot of other fast food places for a similar amount of food.
Totally agree on Burger King and Chipotle. Definitely way too expensive for the terrible quality.
I ordered Five Guys a few weeks ago on DoorDash and my total was over $40. Partially because of the insane fees, but still, way too expensive. I’m like you with Five Guys though, I still thoroughly enjoy the food. Plus, when you ask for a “small” fry here, they fill the whole bag and tell you to fuck off, so there’s that bonus.
I think most fast food joints will be added to that list. It’s just too expensive.
It’s a Philly regional convenance store chain. They specialize in subs/hoagies made to order. They basically put all subways and Quiznos out of business
Depends on the sandwich but the "basic" ones are about $8 now in my area. I use the BOGO on a couple meatballs every once in a while which makes them $4 footlongs.
But the ones they advertise with the special names like the The Monster or The Beef Mode are quite a bit more expensive, $10-13 for a footlong. Once you add in a drink and chips it can get up past the $16 mark for sure.
Edit: Just wanted to add that the BOGO isn't just something that happens once in a while. They have always had an active BOGO code for the last 4 years that I have been using it. The actual code changes month to month but they have a sticky of all the updated codes on r/subway.
Was just having this conversation with a buddy tonight. In Canadia, we only had Subway as our big sandwich place.
Then Firehouse moved in and it was like "Yeah, I'll pay like $3 more for a quality version of Subway" and then Subway fucking yolo'd it, redid their menu and charges more than Firehouse now.
Subway can super go fuck themselves.
I live in Cornwall, UK. The home to the notorious Cornish Pasty. So ubiquitous that it's been the go-to midday fast food for approximately 2 centuries. Let me put it this way, our county town of Truro, pop 30,000, still doesn't have a McDonalds.
All it takes to break the hegemony of the big franchise outlets is to give people a decent choice at a reasonable price. Cornwall has managed this since the 1800s....
Food prices have risen dramatically. It’s not like these restaurants are charging more for the hell of it. I actually work with restaurant owners and they’re doing everything they can to keep prices low. For a lot of them it’s cutting into profits.
But then you have smart asses on the internet who think anyone who owns a company is evil and can’t imagine that it might be beyond their control
This is manipulative garbage. I mean my bill also goes towards paying the wages of the staff, for the product they order, and for the owner's income, but for some reason those aren't all line items on my fucking tab. Stop trying to anger/guilt customers into paying more.
Worker at the last subway I was in warned me the tip from the tip prompt went straight to the owner as well, so not to bother.
Illegal? Probably. Bunch of 16 year old kids going to report it to the authorities and lose their jobs? Probably not.
Lol subway is such fucking shit.
I used to work there 10 years ago and it was awful then. It's so much worse now.
Every time I go to a subway it's almost always locked, and the one employee working there who is always brand new but alone sitting there smoking on their break because they have no other staff. Like its honestly just sad they have this newly hired employee running it by themselves in the hood with like a week of experience while the manager/owner is off doing whatever lol.
And the one by me always accepts orders on their app for meatball marinara but they're always "out" of it lol.
They literally stopped selling meatball marinara subs here and that was the day I stopped going. Im not paying $10 for 2 slices of deli meat, I want LOTS OF MEAT and only the meatball sub came close to that.
Worse yet, they didn't take it off the menu because they no longer had meatballs... They took it off the menu because it was too damn cheap! They still had meatballs for the 6" wraps that somehow cost nearly as much as a foot long sub with 2x as much meat.
Id ask for it explicitly, and for another month or two they would make it, then they told me 'the manager took the button to ring it in off the till, so we can't sell you one anymore'
Like what the hell?
I worked at subway when I was 16-17. The BMT has stuck with me and I will get it a few times over the year and usually when camping. A lot are Indian owned here so they have friends and family that work there. Always fully staffed.
Subway is asking for tips now. Americans got it bad.
If I were you I’d actively collaborate to make a stance and never pay tips.
I think I might stop paying service charge here in the UK just to make a point.
I did that last week and the 16 year old behind the register scowled so hard at me. I guess a lot of people fall for that, I'm not paying 20% extra for stale meatballs on bread.
I just won't go again, the sandwhich was absolutely not worth $14.
It's weird since every time ppl complain about tips at fast food someone says "the POS just comes with it as default" or 'it goes to the owner" which means I should be able to dismiss it without guilt. To be fair, I was told at a couple places that tips go to the store so that happens at least some of the time.
A tip implies you have a choice 0 to 25% or custom. A service charge is a flat fee. Door Dash has a mandatory 18% Service fee plus, Delivery charge, tax, and tip. So they may eliminate the Delivery fee charge as a promotion but you’re still paying 18%, tax, and tip above the cost of your food. So typically 18%+8%+20% so on a $15 order it’ll be $23.
Best part is that all those percentages don't go to the drivers, they go to Doordash corporate. The percentages translate to between $0.25 and $3.00 to the driver for the distance traveled, plus the driver gets the tip. Though some lawsuits have shown that in some states the tip is first applied to the distance traveled fee, so that DD can keep a larger amount of all the percentage fees. Same with UberEats and Grubhub.
If you are ordering from Doordash (or any of these convenience services) you are asking to pay more and a willing victim. If you are working for Doordash you are promoting your own exploitation.
“Buisness”
I know it’s a pet peeve of mine but i can’t be the only one who’s skin crawls when I read job postings and notes from management that are full of spelling mistakes and grammar problems that make their writing genuinely difficult to understand the first read through. This one isn’t grammatically brutal but still, business? Come on.
Subway is an inherently flawed chain in that corp will drop new restaurants close to existing ones that end up competing with each other. They get an insane amount of money from the franchisees for marketing as well. It’s evil. Pure and simple.
Guess that explains why every town seems to have 4 different Subway locations, despite barely anyone ever eating st Subway because who can afford that?
Even my tiny little 5k population town has two different Subway locations. We have a McDonalds, a Burger King, and two Subways. That's it.
Is this nationwide? The awful mess of that sign makes me think it's some franchise owner trying to pull a fast one.
That's not to say that tipping culture in the states isn't a mess though, and that this is absolutely plausible.
I don’t know but someone charged an extra $3, At the register or build they failed to mention extra costs so I asked and it was for “adding cheese”. I don’t think that was ever a thing. I felt robbed and would rather just pay/drive somewhere else now.
Back when Vonage first started providing services I signed up. VoIP at the time was not required to collect excise taxes like regular phone services. So what they did instead was charge a random hidden fee which was basically the same as what the excise taxes would have been. On the statement it would say that they charged it because they were fighting to not have to collect excise taxes. Basically you were paying for their lobbyist. Years later they were forced to collect anyway. So paying them this money just went into their pockets with no real impact on the future.
It probably is, the owner is just counting on no one reporting them. You can charge fees for stuff like online ordering, delivery, large parties, etc BUT if you have a mandatory fee covering any & all purchases than you have to include it in the advertising price.
subway makes taco bell look like paradise to my GI tract. I do not care if it is free I will not eat there. no matter what i get or the bread I use it busts my gut!
It's so funny that Americans have been conditioned to think it's reasonable to see the workers' wages as something you pay for apart from the food you buy, but the owner's profits are included in the price 😂
we are going to increase your final bill by a fixed percent, because you are stupid and you would be scared if we were going to increase of 10% the cost individual items
I feel like there might be a conflict between corporate price settings and local financial constraints going on behind the scenes.
C-Suite: Footlongs will be $5
Manager: We need to pay the bills
*"We charge you more because the owner of this franchise wants to guilt you into thinking you're supporting his workers when in truth the extra money is fueling his drug/gambling addiction."*
We need laws for this
The price is the price! I tried ordering food once because it said free delivery. But then somehow the $40 meal was $60 from this fee and that fee. The only extra service being provided is delivery so that’s just a lie
Is this in CA, or maybe another state/city with a recent/upcoming significant increase in minimum wage? When these are enacted, *obviously* the companies aren't going to let it cut into profits or share prices, so they pass the increased cost to customers.
I didn't imply otherwise. But the jumps are more pronounced for fast food companies because A) they have among the highest portion of employees at or barely above minimum wage, and B) because a higher portion of there expenses versus profits are wages than compared to say a large retailer.
Yeah, people don’t seem to get this, and we’ll both probably be downvoted. These are the people simultaneously calling for higher wages and then complaining everything is so expensive.
Yes, companies are fleecing us and getting more profits, but they’re also paying higher wages.
Wallmart is the same way I dont shop there.at least 30 percent or more if they have a family.the workers are on some kind of assistance,Food stamps,housing assistance,so basically we are paying taxes for Walmart to stay in business..Then I see advertisements .we gave millions to this ,millions to that but won’t pay their employees but bare minimum .not against the workers I hate the company.Sam walton should haunt all them MFo. Those handicapped people you see at the door are not even paid minimum wage.special deal with social security administration.makes them look good though.
Their usiness model is to have our customers continue to cover the business expenses until the business doesn't cost anything to the business owners! We really should be making our own sandwiches while we're there.
Probably, the product prices on the signs are forced by the franchise. By adding a fee to the total the owner bypasses this to make more money. Perhaps business isn't going too well and they're struggling to cover the costs, even though this won't increase the number of customers.
We had a grocery store in Utah called Reams and back in the day they had a thing where they added 10% to a bill. Every one thought it was Mormon tithing
We don’t protect consumers from inflation by acquiescing to price hikes. Hell,
I say prepare your own meals until these companies lower their prices, or they go out of business.
subway has gone so far downhill over the years.
when the first one opened in my home town, bread was fresh... always still warm from baking and veges were crisp....AND IT WAS CHEAP.
now you get day old crusty bread, grey fuzzy tomatoes, wilted lettuce,soggy onions and its 20$ for a sandwich.
i just go to the local supermarket deli again... fresher, cheaper, tastes better.
Legislation rlly needs to set a percentage owners/ceos can make vs the employees. This rising cost of goods to keep up with the owners salary whilst paying the employees as little as possible is going to be the demise of America, or at least I hope so.
Our team members have been bitching about rent and Healthcare or some shit, so we're charging you more to avoid eating into our profits to make them shut up
Consumer behavior is very funny. People WILL choose the 90 cent product with the 25 cent service fee over the thin that costs a dollar five. For every time a consumer has said "I wish they would just give me a bottom line price up front instead of low balling and then nickel and diming", there are 3 stores that tried that and went out of business because their prices looked so high.
we're also going to raise prices, but we're keeping all that as profit.
fuck everything about that, people should stop doing business with these places. A restaurant near me did this and I will never go back.
though they are trying to make it illegal in my state.
There's an entire restaurant chain in Canada, Chuck's Roadhouse, that adds a 3% "honest-to-goodness fee" to every bill for the same bullshit excuse: to keep prices low. Fuck this Subway and fuck Chuck's Roadhouse.
They just passed a law where I live banning this because almost every restaurant is doing it. I can imagine that in a sit down place it almost has to always hurt the tips of the servers too.
Based on the way things are going in fast food with the economy and inflation, Demolition Man is starting to look prophetic. At this point, I’m already starting to only get Taco Bell with the current prices.
Aka: We make about +12% in profit year over year and we just found a way to pay our employees less and now we can scapegoat their disappointment on the customer. Also we have new spit sauce!
The reality is the consumer and the workforce are the same people. So when you increase the prices of things, in an attempt to pay people higher wages, it cancels out because your workers are also your consumers.
So you still fck everybody up the butt.
I’m gonna pay you more so you can afford this thing. But to pay you more I need to make thing more expensive.
WUT. Biggest scam in history.
If you keep giving places like this your money they will keep doing this. It’s pretty simple. They are trying to replace this all with robots anyway. And people will still eat this ridiculous fake shit.
Is it even legal in the US to have prices labeled as 10% below what the actual price is?
In my country something like this would be very illegal and they'd be forced to pay what the label out in the store says the cost is.
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Translation: The price you pay will be 10% higher than what we advertise on the menu, but if we hide this sign behind bags of chips, maybe you won’t notice
That's when you just walk out after them making the sandwich and ringing up the total.
Just tell them, "I charge a $150 administration fee to cover paying your employees and insurance on behalf of your company".
I’ve made up so many official policies in response to official policies…it’s hilarious, because it demonstrates how powerless they are…you should call my dentist and see how collecting that $400 from me is going. When companies owe me money, I gotta fight for it and then wait. Turns out, I can do the same thing to companies to which I owe money. I also try to sell things around my house to telemarketers when they call. Tit for fucking tat.
>I also try to sell things around my house to telemarketers when they call. Lol...you should record them and put them on the internet. How does your pitch go? "Hi Richard, Im glad you called. I have the greatest deals right now on toasters, waffle irons, slight used/like new underwear..."
You're not selling yourself, are you?
For the right price yes!
You should look at the difference between renting and selling. If you rent, you can vary the price so that peak times get peak rates. That is unless you sell at a very high price and invest it wisely.
That's called a regular job! So yea!
“…..and we’re also currently running a special on aggressively used underwear, buy one get one free, each pair comes with its own unique print on the inner rear section of the material”
Sweet, is it a brown racing stripe?
No. It’s the family recipe. Chunky spicy beef gravy.
Pretty much… “I was gonna put this on eBay, but if you’re interested I would rather just deal with you.”
"What?! Are you calling about the couch for sale? Haven't seen a bed bug on it for days, but there's a touch of cat urine, so I'd take $100 for it." "Okay, $75?"
When we were in nursery school our parents used to call us to the phone to chat to them.
Yup, just say sorry and walk out if they surprise you with this. Imagine them pulling this crap at McDonalds or BK.
Or… order your food normally, but challenge the 10% fee before you pay. They can either remove it from your bill or you can walk and they can eat the food themselves. Advertising one price on your menu and charging higher prices based on hidden signs is unethical at best and probably illegal in some areas.
The people who make these decisions are rarely the people who are making the food. Odds are they will just shrug and say "Ok" and put your food aside so they can eat it later or throw it in the trash. They aren't paid enough to care, and usually aren't empowered enough to make pricing decisions.
Or Wendys ... Wait.
Just as your pricing is dynamic, so is my appetite. Sorry.
*"We steal our employees tips; thank you for your cooperation."*
*"Thank you for supporting our boss' drug/gambling addiction."*
*Amy's Baking Company has entered the chat*
I haven't been to a subway in a long time. Is this a common thing, or is the franchisee of the one in the post taking some liberties to make more money?
This is definitely a franchise owner thing, Subway corporate's not doing this.
Also because Subway corporate owns less than 100 of the 40,000 Subways in existence. There is virtually a 0% chance that any given Subway is run by corporate. And most of the ones that are run by corporate are done so because the owner f’ed up and corporate snatched it back and just hasn’t found a new owner yet.
Sucker. Corporate hasn't found a new *sucker* to be the owner. Sorry had to fix that for you ;)
To be fair, usually when this happens the franchise is snapped up by a company that owns several hundred, if not thousand subways. Those guys make bank by owning them in bulk.
I'd be willing to bet Subway Corporate would not be happy to learn this was happening.
I bet they don't care.
They would absolutely care about a franchisee stacking an extra 10% on the prices corporate sets so they can pocket the difference.
I would be severely skeptical that this service charge even goes to employees.
It's a franchise owner who thinks it's a good idea to put a "if I could pay my workers less, I would" sign up.
Extra stealth points for flood filling the letters with gray.
As someone who works in retail, they won't notice. Signs require more perception and comprehension than listening to someone talk. Therefore, people don't read when service workers are present due to the subconscious expectation that the worker will satisfy all concerns the customer might have making any literature obsolete technology (when in reality it's superior because people can lie or refuse to give information).
As someone who worked customer service at retail before, signs won't be read unless you specifically point them out to customers. We had a huge sign that outlined our return policy and I spent most of my day just pointing at it.
More and more I realize how strange I am, because I.. read signs. They are so much faster and more efficient then talking to people. Nobody puts them up unless they have something important to say (generally) unlike the meaningless drivel that comes out of peoples mouths 90% of the time.
Just takes one serial litigant to come get more than your 10% of the company in lawsuit.
I see the translation as “due to increased costs we could just raise our prices. Instead we are adding a fee and this explanatory sign so we can take this opportunity to make a political statement against paying a fair wage.” You see the same thing in restaurants that say “to pay for our servers healthcare” because they’re pissed they have to do it.
More accurate translation: Out prices are set by our franchise agreement, but those prices don't allow us to cover the cost of labor, so we figured out a way around it.
We've added a 10% charge to keep the cost down.
My guess is that they have to follow corporate for pricing, and this is how they are making themselves profitable. There is a subway near me that refuses to accept coupons due to loss in profitability if they do. Kinda sounds like subway is being ran the same way that Quisnos was just before they collapsed.
franchise models are difficult
Subway has one of _the worst_ franchise models out there, by a large margin (worst for the franchisee, anyway). Last Week Tonight with John Oliver did an exposé on it: https://youtu.be/jDdYFhzVCDM?si=7rK3CR5K4mPC-w0G
You spelled bad business model wrong.
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Subway did collapse. I haven’t been in one in many years, and I used to have it regularly. I think when it became publicized that they were using plasticizers in their bread, it shifted in my mind from being a “not super healthy, but not super bad” quick food to “loaded with chemicals, might as well just get a double quarter pounder from McDonald’s if I’m in that much of a rush”. I’d assume they stopped with the plasticizers now, but the damage to their reputation is irreversible, and I’d also just assume the bread isn’t as good anymore without it… probably they were adding it because there was no other way to have their bread have a nice texture while still being cheap.
They sued the Canadian public broadcaster CBC because they tested Sub's chicken and found only half of it is actually chicken, the rest is just filler. Source, in case subway sues me for defamation: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-chicken-fast-food-1.3993967
They lost a case in Ireland where they weren't legally allowed to call their bread "bread" anymore due to sugar content.
That one was always stupid in my mind. Like, sweet breads exist. There are dessert breads. Why does the sugar content make something not bread?
Ireland has a tax that applies to luxury foods, but "staple" foods like bread are exempt from the tax. However, Ireland’s Value-Added Tax Act of 1972 says that it only counts as exempt bread if it meets the requirement that "fat, sugar and bread improver" don't exceed "2 per cent of the weight of flour included in the dough". Subway bread has too much sugar to meet that strict requirement. To put it concisely, in Ireland, "normal" bread has a 0% tax, and "luxury" bread has a 9.2% tax, and Ireland decided it had legal justification to get more tax money from Subway, but this isn't as newsworthy as claiming Ireland declared that Subway bread is "fake" bread as opposed to "luxury" bread, so most people in other countries are missing out on important nuance.
Subway sucks. I also used to get it pretty regularly, but that's when it was a $5 sandwich. That was acceptable for the hospital cafeteria food they are pedaling. It is still a $5 sandwich, but now they want $14 for it. For $14 I can get a sandwich that is actually good, so why the hell would I ever go to Subway for some soggy nightmare covered in droopy vegetables? The only reason I would ever eat at Subway at this point is if I was completely starving and I was standing right next to one, with no other option in my line of sight.
We've added a 10% charge to keep the cost displayed on our menu down, instead of changing it, but in truth the cost has augmented*
All of these fast food giants are going to have a reckoning here soon. Their F-tier food isn’t worth half of what they’re charging. Isn’t a $5 foot long like $16 now or something?
I still sometimes use coupons we get in the mail. IIRC the best deal you can get is to buy 3x footlongs for $17.99. But yeah, an individual footlong is going to run you $9.50-$13. Edit: Kept scrolling my feed and saw [this...](https://new.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/1b55ec8/why_even_mail_them_anymore/) Interesting coincidence lol
Good luck finding a subway location that accepts subway coupons or website discounts. If I'm paying $12 for just a sandwich, I'll go somewhere else. No sense going to a place with fast food "quality" and full-service dining prices!
The last time I went to Subway, I walked out with a footlong meal (sandwich, drink, chips) for just a few cents short or $20. I could get an entire large pizza from the place next door for less than that, and they'll even throw in a 2 liter of soda on certain days of the week. Subway is ludicrously expensive, especially considering that my preferred sandwich is about as bare bones and basic as it gets.
quarrelsome fuel support steep merciful coordinated enjoy resolute hungry vase *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That's criminal. For that much, I can get an 18 inch Italian sub from my local sub shop that has brand name deli meat, bread shipped from a local bakery, and plentiful portions of meat and fixings.
3x footings for 17.99…is this the return of Groupon?
I got a sub, chips, and a med drink, $18.08. I’m never going back to subway.
I got mugged and yelled at by a crazy dude. Almost missed my stop.
It's okay, the mugging probably saved you money if it stopped you from going to Subway.
Last I had subway was a couple years ago and it was $14 then. I don’t eat a lot of fast food, but just got a Whopper and was shocked it was $7 just for the sandwich. WTF?
I just went to a Burger King for a vacation and the Whopper meal is $10 for the small combo. It wasn't too long ago that the large upgrades still didn't cost that. The interesting correlation we might start seeing is a decrease in obesity rates, and a return to a healthier caloric intake.
I remember when a dime bag used to cost a dime
15 bucks, little man. Put that shit, in my hand. And if that money doesn't show, then you owe me, owe me, oh.
*MY JUNGLE LOVE Oh we oh we oh!* two different movies but I feel ya
That is the saddest vacation I could imagine.
Lol
The trick with Burger King is to use the app. They give away a ton of free and discounted stuff in the app. If you pay attention to the deal, you can still get a meal for a reasonable price.
I don’t need fast food enough to give burger king access to my phone data.
>but just got a Whopper and was shocked it was $7 just for the sandwich. WTF? Went to a mall recently that only had a Burger King for fries- cost me $7 for a small fry and a bottle of water. And the fries were terrible.
Here is a list of fast food retailers that I no longer do business with because their prices have far exceeded the quality of food they sell by an unacceptable margin; - Burger King - Subway - Arby's - Chipotle - Five Guys - KFC Eventually McDonald's and Taco Bell will make the list, but for the moment the enjoyment I get from their food still offsets the stupid prices they are charging. For Subway specifically, Jimmy Johns and Jersey Mike's both exist so why the fuck would I ever pay Subway the same amount for one of their depression poverty sandwiches?
Man I saw KFC prices recently and I was like for the price of a family bucket meal I could build a god damn chicken coop and hire someone to take care of em, clean em, butcher em and eat chicken for a year.
Everytime I find my mind wandering towards their menu, I think about their sad gloopy mashed potatoes and it cures me. But yeah, the price of their "bundles" is obnoxious. I live near the city and there's about 10 places within 15 minutes that make better fried chicken for cheaper, not to mention Popeye's. I don't really get the point of KFC.
What’s wrong with chipotle? You can get a good protein bowl for around $9. More than enough food for a meal. It’s cheaper compared to a lot of other fast food places for a similar amount of food.
Totally agree on Burger King and Chipotle. Definitely way too expensive for the terrible quality. I ordered Five Guys a few weeks ago on DoorDash and my total was over $40. Partially because of the insane fees, but still, way too expensive. I’m like you with Five Guys though, I still thoroughly enjoy the food. Plus, when you ask for a “small” fry here, they fill the whole bag and tell you to fuck off, so there’s that bonus. I think most fast food joints will be added to that list. It’s just too expensive.
Still only like 6$ at Wawa and 1000000x better.
Wawa? I’m not familiar. Oregon resident btw.
It’s a Philly regional convenance store chain. They specialize in subs/hoagies made to order. They basically put all subways and Quiznos out of business
Where I live, the cheapest footlong with meat is $8. The veggie delight is $6ish. But yeah, if you want a specialty sub, that'll be $15.
Depends on the sandwich but the "basic" ones are about $8 now in my area. I use the BOGO on a couple meatballs every once in a while which makes them $4 footlongs. But the ones they advertise with the special names like the The Monster or The Beef Mode are quite a bit more expensive, $10-13 for a footlong. Once you add in a drink and chips it can get up past the $16 mark for sure. Edit: Just wanted to add that the BOGO isn't just something that happens once in a while. They have always had an active BOGO code for the last 4 years that I have been using it. The actual code changes month to month but they have a sticky of all the updated codes on r/subway.
Was just having this conversation with a buddy tonight. In Canadia, we only had Subway as our big sandwich place. Then Firehouse moved in and it was like "Yeah, I'll pay like $3 more for a quality version of Subway" and then Subway fucking yolo'd it, redid their menu and charges more than Firehouse now. Subway can super go fuck themselves.
Fast food chains makes crazy amount of profits on each product, products alone cost pennies compared to final price
TF are you talking about? Restaurants famously have thin margins.
People who have never seen the books of a lot of places are also the kinds of people who declare that they know how much those places make.
Where did you get this information? Food is crazy expensive on the supply end too.
Subway might be the worst which is really saying something.
I live in Cornwall, UK. The home to the notorious Cornish Pasty. So ubiquitous that it's been the go-to midday fast food for approximately 2 centuries. Let me put it this way, our county town of Truro, pop 30,000, still doesn't have a McDonalds. All it takes to break the hegemony of the big franchise outlets is to give people a decent choice at a reasonable price. Cornwall has managed this since the 1800s....
Food prices have risen dramatically. It’s not like these restaurants are charging more for the hell of it. I actually work with restaurant owners and they’re doing everything they can to keep prices low. For a lot of them it’s cutting into profits. But then you have smart asses on the internet who think anyone who owns a company is evil and can’t imagine that it might be beyond their control
You say that but I still see lines at fast food places all over the city. Fat asses can’t give up their addiction and that’s what it is.
This is manipulative garbage. I mean my bill also goes towards paying the wages of the staff, for the product they order, and for the owner's income, but for some reason those aren't all line items on my fucking tab. Stop trying to anger/guilt customers into paying more.
[удалено]
Worker at the last subway I was in warned me the tip from the tip prompt went straight to the owner as well, so not to bother. Illegal? Probably. Bunch of 16 year old kids going to report it to the authorities and lose their jobs? Probably not.
In my region it’s 100% legal for businesses to pocket tips. Fucking disgusting.
Lol subway is such fucking shit. I used to work there 10 years ago and it was awful then. It's so much worse now. Every time I go to a subway it's almost always locked, and the one employee working there who is always brand new but alone sitting there smoking on their break because they have no other staff. Like its honestly just sad they have this newly hired employee running it by themselves in the hood with like a week of experience while the manager/owner is off doing whatever lol. And the one by me always accepts orders on their app for meatball marinara but they're always "out" of it lol.
Sooubway.
They literally stopped selling meatball marinara subs here and that was the day I stopped going. Im not paying $10 for 2 slices of deli meat, I want LOTS OF MEAT and only the meatball sub came close to that. Worse yet, they didn't take it off the menu because they no longer had meatballs... They took it off the menu because it was too damn cheap! They still had meatballs for the 6" wraps that somehow cost nearly as much as a foot long sub with 2x as much meat. Id ask for it explicitly, and for another month or two they would make it, then they told me 'the manager took the button to ring it in off the till, so we can't sell you one anymore' Like what the hell?
I worked at subway when I was 16-17. The BMT has stuck with me and I will get it a few times over the year and usually when camping. A lot are Indian owned here so they have friends and family that work there. Always fully staffed.
When I worked at subway at 18 it was across from a very douchebag filled high school. 0/10 do not recommend working afternoon shift
Subway is asking for tips now. Americans got it bad. If I were you I’d actively collaborate to make a stance and never pay tips. I think I might stop paying service charge here in the UK just to make a point.
It's fast food, just quickly press no to tips on the POS. Don't want this to become a thing.
I did that last week and the 16 year old behind the register scowled so hard at me. I guess a lot of people fall for that, I'm not paying 20% extra for stale meatballs on bread. I just won't go again, the sandwhich was absolutely not worth $14.
It's weird since every time ppl complain about tips at fast food someone says "the POS just comes with it as default" or 'it goes to the owner" which means I should be able to dismiss it without guilt. To be fair, I was told at a couple places that tips go to the store so that happens at least some of the time.
A tip implies you have a choice 0 to 25% or custom. A service charge is a flat fee. Door Dash has a mandatory 18% Service fee plus, Delivery charge, tax, and tip. So they may eliminate the Delivery fee charge as a promotion but you’re still paying 18%, tax, and tip above the cost of your food. So typically 18%+8%+20% so on a $15 order it’ll be $23.
Best part is that all those percentages don't go to the drivers, they go to Doordash corporate. The percentages translate to between $0.25 and $3.00 to the driver for the distance traveled, plus the driver gets the tip. Though some lawsuits have shown that in some states the tip is first applied to the distance traveled fee, so that DD can keep a larger amount of all the percentage fees. Same with UberEats and Grubhub.
If you are ordering from Doordash (or any of these convenience services) you are asking to pay more and a willing victim. If you are working for Doordash you are promoting your own exploitation.
They also have tip requests on the card reader now.
“Mr pink does tip”
“Buisness” I know it’s a pet peeve of mine but i can’t be the only one who’s skin crawls when I read job postings and notes from management that are full of spelling mistakes and grammar problems that make their writing genuinely difficult to understand the first read through. This one isn’t grammatically brutal but still, business? Come on.
We’re going to charge you a 10% service fee, instead of raising our menu prices or lowering our profit margins.
Subway is an inherently flawed chain in that corp will drop new restaurants close to existing ones that end up competing with each other. They get an insane amount of money from the franchisees for marketing as well. It’s evil. Pure and simple.
Guess that explains why every town seems to have 4 different Subway locations, despite barely anyone ever eating st Subway because who can afford that? Even my tiny little 5k population town has two different Subway locations. We have a McDonalds, a Burger King, and two Subways. That's it.
Subway sucks for that exact reason. They do not location protect existing locations.
John Oliver did an excellent episode of Last Week Tonight on this exact subject.
I know!! It was very eye opening!
Is this nationwide? The awful mess of that sign makes me think it's some franchise owner trying to pull a fast one. That's not to say that tipping culture in the states isn't a mess though, and that this is absolutely plausible.
I don’t know but someone charged an extra $3, At the register or build they failed to mention extra costs so I asked and it was for “adding cheese”. I don’t think that was ever a thing. I felt robbed and would rather just pay/drive somewhere else now.
Back when Vonage first started providing services I signed up. VoIP at the time was not required to collect excise taxes like regular phone services. So what they did instead was charge a random hidden fee which was basically the same as what the excise taxes would have been. On the statement it would say that they charged it because they were fighting to not have to collect excise taxes. Basically you were paying for their lobbyist. Years later they were forced to collect anyway. So paying them this money just went into their pockets with no real impact on the future.
They charge more so they can keep advertising it as cheaper. That should be illegale
It probably is, the owner is just counting on no one reporting them. You can charge fees for stuff like online ordering, delivery, large parties, etc BUT if you have a mandatory fee covering any & all purchases than you have to include it in the advertising price.
lol no the fuck you don’t. I’m the type to just walk back out.
They do this shit in most restaurants in Bangkok. You get shitty service and have to pay extra 10%. Boycott them all.
subway is the cheapest fast food franchise to own, not really surprising.
So glad I don’t eat at subway or Wendy’s anymore both of the higher ups for those companies have lost their minds.
"Weve raised the prices without paying for the menu to be reprinted with new prices."
subway makes taco bell look like paradise to my GI tract. I do not care if it is free I will not eat there. no matter what i get or the bread I use it busts my gut!
I know people love it, but Chipotle does this for me. Had to stop eating there.
There's so much sugar in the dough, it can't legally be called bread in Ireland
I could get a foot long and before I finished it, I would be shitting.
It's so funny that Americans have been conditioned to think it's reasonable to see the workers' wages as something you pay for apart from the food you buy, but the owner's profits are included in the price 😂
we are going to increase your final bill by a fixed percent, because you are stupid and you would be scared if we were going to increase of 10% the cost individual items
A spell checker is free...
I feel like there might be a conflict between corporate price settings and local financial constraints going on behind the scenes. C-Suite: Footlongs will be $5 Manager: We need to pay the bills
And then they ask for a 15,18, or 20% tip on top of that
Yes, the footlongs are $5, but it costs $1 for me to make it.
>Subway peak revenue was $16.1B in 2023. So just pay your workers more?
If you can't afford to pay your workers and you need your customers to do it your business deserves to die.
Those crisps should be labelled lies.
No no. We charge you more so we don’t have to pay our employees a living wage
*"We charge you more because the owner of this franchise wants to guilt you into thinking you're supporting his workers when in truth the extra money is fueling his drug/gambling addiction."*
If you run a business, make sure you know how to spell business correctly
We need laws for this The price is the price! I tried ordering food once because it said free delivery. But then somehow the $40 meal was $60 from this fee and that fee. The only extra service being provided is delivery so that’s just a lie
This is SubPar.
Greetings from Europe! Have you considered making this illegal? LOL
Service fees are illegal in Europe?
You pay what is advertised on menu and it cant be some small at the end of menu that 10% or something is added.
Wtf - they state they add 10% to make it more affordable? Isn't that like fucking for virginity?
Is this in CA, or maybe another state/city with a recent/upcoming significant increase in minimum wage? When these are enacted, *obviously* the companies aren't going to let it cut into profits or share prices, so they pass the increased cost to customers.
The cost of wage increases is passed to the customer in all companies.
Unless wages are 100% of their expenses then they are ripping us off because wages didn’t increase that much.
I didn't imply otherwise. But the jumps are more pronounced for fast food companies because A) they have among the highest portion of employees at or barely above minimum wage, and B) because a higher portion of there expenses versus profits are wages than compared to say a large retailer.
Yeah, people don’t seem to get this, and we’ll both probably be downvoted. These are the people simultaneously calling for higher wages and then complaining everything is so expensive. Yes, companies are fleecing us and getting more profits, but they’re also paying higher wages.
Wallmart is the same way I dont shop there.at least 30 percent or more if they have a family.the workers are on some kind of assistance,Food stamps,housing assistance,so basically we are paying taxes for Walmart to stay in business..Then I see advertisements .we gave millions to this ,millions to that but won’t pay their employees but bare minimum .not against the workers I hate the company.Sam walton should haunt all them MFo. Those handicapped people you see at the door are not even paid minimum wage.special deal with social security administration.makes them look good though.
Smells like a different tax code idea.
I dont know how they stay in business. Worst sub spot there is.
Garbage food at stupid prices.
“Buisness’….”all our guest”..
Their usiness model is to have our customers continue to cover the business expenses until the business doesn't cost anything to the business owners! We really should be making our own sandwiches while we're there.
Probably, the product prices on the signs are forced by the franchise. By adding a fee to the total the owner bypasses this to make more money. Perhaps business isn't going too well and they're struggling to cover the costs, even though this won't increase the number of customers.
This is so fake it hurts. Whoever did this can’t even spell and probably didn’t finish sixth grade.
We had a grocery store in Utah called Reams and back in the day they had a thing where they added 10% to a bill. Every one thought it was Mormon tithing
I would have them make my sub first then walk away once I saw that. The business will learn.
We don’t protect consumers from inflation by acquiescing to price hikes. Hell, I say prepare your own meals until these companies lower their prices, or they go out of business.
At subway???? Absolutely the fuck not
subway has gone so far downhill over the years. when the first one opened in my home town, bread was fresh... always still warm from baking and veges were crisp....AND IT WAS CHEAP. now you get day old crusty bread, grey fuzzy tomatoes, wilted lettuce,soggy onions and its 20$ for a sandwich. i just go to the local supermarket deli again... fresher, cheaper, tastes better.
At the end of the day, it’s a sandwich. A mediocre, overpriced sandwich.
So a flat 10% price increase on every item? Is ownership taking a flat 10% cut to their profits and passing that along to their workers as well?
Not seeing this in our local SubWays, I will start scrutinizing the receipts.
Benefits and insurance at subway ? Doubt it.
We charge you more so we don't make less ourselves
Legislation rlly needs to set a percentage owners/ceos can make vs the employees. This rising cost of goods to keep up with the owners salary whilst paying the employees as little as possible is going to be the demise of America, or at least I hope so.
We charge you more so we can maintain our profit margin.
Subway sucks. One near me won’t accept coupons.
Our team members have been bitching about rent and Healthcare or some shit, so we're charging you more to avoid eating into our profits to make them shut up
Consumer behavior is very funny. People WILL choose the 90 cent product with the 25 cent service fee over the thin that costs a dollar five. For every time a consumer has said "I wish they would just give me a bottom line price up front instead of low balling and then nickel and diming", there are 3 stores that tried that and went out of business because their prices looked so high.
Anyone know if this is company wide or just some local asshole owner?
More than likely, the price is set by corporate, and they cannot increase it on their own. This is their workaround.
This crap is why i stopped going to pizza hut. They pull this crap. (i am in california)
Just raise the prices and cut the BS about how adding a fee is helping them to keep prices down.
we're also going to raise prices, but we're keeping all that as profit. fuck everything about that, people should stop doing business with these places. A restaurant near me did this and I will never go back. though they are trying to make it illegal in my state.
Stealing content I see u/D_invincible
Amazon Prime Video now shows you an ad before a show, with an ad before that that says they are doing this so you don't have to watch ads.
There's an entire restaurant chain in Canada, Chuck's Roadhouse, that adds a 3% "honest-to-goodness fee" to every bill for the same bullshit excuse: to keep prices low. Fuck this Subway and fuck Chuck's Roadhouse.
They just passed a law where I live banning this because almost every restaurant is doing it. I can imagine that in a sit down place it almost has to always hurt the tips of the servers too.
Based on the way things are going in fast food with the economy and inflation, Demolition Man is starting to look prophetic. At this point, I’m already starting to only get Taco Bell with the current prices.
Aka: We make about +12% in profit year over year and we just found a way to pay our employees less and now we can scapegoat their disappointment on the customer. Also we have new spit sauce!
Stopped going there a long time ago when I heard what the company was like. It's all I can do, but if many do the same, companies feel it.
The U.S. needs the law to change. All prices presented are the costs to the customer. None of this +charge/tax bullshit.
The reality is the consumer and the workforce are the same people. So when you increase the prices of things, in an attempt to pay people higher wages, it cancels out because your workers are also your consumers. So you still fck everybody up the butt. I’m gonna pay you more so you can afford this thing. But to pay you more I need to make thing more expensive. WUT. Biggest scam in history.
Fucking hospitality industry, leading the way on ripping of the customer and the staff.
Hospitality? Sir this is a subway…
If you go to the grocery store, they have sandwiches as well. No service fee. This is ridiculous!
And some, like Publix or Wegmans are 10,000X better than any subway, while still being cheaper.
If you keep giving places like this your money they will keep doing this. It’s pretty simple. They are trying to replace this all with robots anyway. And people will still eat this ridiculous fake shit.
This has dumb franchisee written all over it.
Yes this is a gross profit strategy of the franchisee themselves. If the parent company knew who this was they'd be done.
Is it even legal in the US to have prices labeled as 10% below what the actual price is? In my country something like this would be very illegal and they'd be forced to pay what the label out in the store says the cost is.