I am a Subway® Sandwich Artist of over 4 years! AMA

Every single time I have went to subway, which is like maybe a couple times a year, it is completely empty until I order something? Is there some sort of queue law I don't know about?

It's really interesting. No cars in the parking lot and no one really comes in. One car pulls up and suddenly more cars come. Or maybe you just take forever to order.

I go as fast as the artists can handle.

Thank you

I live in Mexico and that also happens here

Te quieres lechuga, tomate, cebolla?

Why is it common practice for sandwich artists to smash my sandwich like they're giving it heart compressions? What was once light fluffy fresh bread is now a thin smashed pile of fuck off.

We try not to but if you get a lot on it sometimes we have to smush it a bit so it doesn't fall apart on you

4 olive slices on a footlong... what is the deal with that?

We're told to put 6 on a foot long. it's ridiculous

As someone who loves olives, I cry at this. I want my meatball sub covered in olives.

Just ask for it. Any Subway that follows the rules 100% sucks in my opinion

How do you put all of that sex flavor in the Southwest Chipotle sauce and how can I replicate it at home without the sex? ^{I'm So Lonely}

I've looked at recipes online and none come close to this sauce. My guess is that Jared jizzes in a giant vat every night and subway just adds food coloring to it.

So this is definitely not an official subway AMA lol.

Of course not.

What is the one item you would like to warn people that they should never order?

Flatizzas. They are a rip off and they are annoying.

If you're on a "diet" don't fucking buy cookies. Seriously they are awful for you.

Don't order a "crispy chicken" if your Subway has it, they are annoying as hell to make. They taste good though so if you like it, go for it.

Every soda machine in every restaurant is disgusting. Buy a bottle soda and not a fountain soda if you're going to buy a drink. We clean our soda nozzles every night because that's what we have to do but they still get mad amounts of sugar sludge built up and nasty slime.

Do not get ice. Ice is disturbingly dirty.

I'll add more if I think of any.

Flatizzas. They are a rip off and they are annoying.

God, thank you for saying this. I got one a few months ago and it was the worst thing I've ever had at Subway and one of my most horrible experiences with any sort of fast food. Just an awful piece of shit.

I mean, we're Subway! Not a fucking pizza shop! Go somewhere else for pizza.

Who's fucking idea was it to put PICKLES and CUCUMBER on the veggie one? So disgusting!

Not mine. I think the veggie one is supposed to get onions, green peppers, and olives but I don't remember. People stopped getting them.

As a sandwich artist, what is your favorite method of illustrating a sandwich? Pastel, watercolor, oil based paints, sculptures? Do you ever use your work to convey emotion to the viewer, such as painting lettuce a vibrant green, while contrasting the bread as a mundane white, in order to symbolize the dichotomy between the rich and the poor, and the agonizing strife that comes of it?

Tattoos.

Do you consider each sub art, or are they all just practice, getting you ready for your real masterpiece?

My real masterpieces are the subs I eat myself.

Why is chicken and bacon so fucking expensive?

We're like that guy from Pawn Stars. We have to make money so we buy the chicken and bacon for cheap and then price gouge it since it is pretty popular.

What kind of mayonnaise does Subway use? It's the best tasting mayo I've ever encountered and no brand I've bought from the store ever comes close. Where can I get a jar?

I don't know. It's subway brand. Maybe talk to a store manager and see if you can buy just the mayo in bulk.

A friend of mine loves the pulled pork. He was wondering: Is it possible to just order the pulled pork without the bread? Like in a bowl or something?

Pulled pork salad or ask for it on the side. If you want it in bulk, talk to a manager.

Thanks for answering! Would ordering pulled pork on the side or as a salad cost more or less than ordering as a sub?

Order it as a sub with the pork on the side. It would cost as much as the sub. If you order a salad, it only gives you the 6 inch amount of meat.

Have you had any regulars who have actually lost weight?

We have this one crazy lady who has been coming in regularly for over 6 years now. She claims to have lost weight but since I've been there for 4 years I'm not sure how much she lost in those first 2 years. She gets a salad with a lot of shit on it but also claims that is the only thing she eats all day.

Former sandwich artist here. Working there I was able to make the perfect sandwich for me. What's your perfect sandwich?

I've had too many haha. I like steak and cheese on herbs and cheese bread with jalapeños, onions, green peppers, monterrey jack, pepper jack, chipotle, and toasted.

You..... You just read my sub... I get extra Jalaps and Extra Chipotle but shit man....

Dude, extra Jalapenos and extra chipotle is implied. You can't ever skimp on those.

If I just keep asking for toppings... And more toppings... At what point will you cut me off?

I don't. Fill that bitch up all you want. Just don't complain when all that falls out haha

Lol but what if I take all the toppings in the containers and you have to keep refilling them. It'll be like a game of chicken at that point, who's going to stop first? Will I stop asking for more or will you stop giving me toppings?

In my experiences the customer always loses in a game of toppings. I will stop giving you toppings only so I can wait on the next customer.

Is it true that ducks eat for free at Subway?

Whenever our bread is over 24 hours old we throw it out or give it away so I guess.

My old boss used to feed their chickens with old bread.

If I asked, would you write my name in ranch dressing on my foot long?

Sure.

Edit: Unless it is longer than a footlong of letters.

Do you really consider yourself an artist?

It's in my job title. So yes. Only because it sounds fancy haha.

Hi, welcome to subway. What is your least favorite part of the job?

I was a sandwich artist/shift leader for almost 2 years. I hated closing and health inspections (we had a clean store, the manager would go apeshit though and stress everyone out). Other than that I loved the good and bad customers, always had stories for friends and family.

My least favorite would be the customers. Most favorite is that the local cops come in all the time so they don't really give any of the employees tickets or pull them over.

I had a lady come in every day at the exact same time when I first started working ...it was around 810 every morning. Amazing lady, got the same sandwich every time, had a cool British accent. After about 3 weeks she talked and didn't have the accent! She was messing with me the whole time!! Haha it blew my mind. Is your pay decent?

My pay fucking sucks. No reason for it to suck either, I am the best worker at my store and I have been told that by all my bosses. I've asked for raises tons of times and I've gotten a few. Then minimum wage went up and guess what, I make minimum wage now! After 4 fucking years. And people think that when minimum wage goes up they make more money. Well guess why subways prices went up! Yeah, minimum wage increase!

/rant

Well you are making sandwiches, not exactly a skilled job...

I know. It's annoying to be promised a raise every year and not ever get one.

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Baking bread and cookies. We're told to bake cookies before we open, before lunch, and before dinner so the store always smells like cookies.

You can tell a bad Subway by a very disntinct... weird smell, have you ever noticed that?

I've gone smell blind from working at subway. At least subway smell blind. But I know what you mean.

Is it just me or does not only the bread keep getting shorter, it is also less in diameter?

It has gotten smaller in diameter and for length, I don't think so. The Cold Cut has shrunk though in recent years. We're told to tell complaining customers that it's so it fits on the bread better

Ever thought of riding the perfectly normal beast into the domain of the King?

All the time

I have worked at one for 10-years and I am the store manager. Sometimes my employment there conflicts with my morals. Does that ever happen to you?

All the time. I just do my job and try to suppress those morals.

How do your morals affect your decisions making sandwiches? I am genuinely curious..

The job is really stressful and makes me just want to yell at idiots and beat people up, but I know better.

I like the chopped salads, but I feel like every sandwich artist hates me when I order them. Most of them sigh and then reluctantly go get the bowl and the curved chopper thing. Do you hate to make the salads? Am I being a jerk for ordering them?

I hate hate HATE chopped salads. I understand the point of them and all, but they are just annoying to make. You're not being a jerk, you're just a customer. If you get a chopped salad, get more than 2 things in it to make it worth my time to chop it up.

Why if the bacon egg and cheese if an all day item, is it such a pain in the ass to get someone to make in the afternoon, or evening?

It is not an all day item at my store. The egg and cheese used to be but then it got taken off. Also because we store the egg in the back after breakfast hours so that we have more room up front.

There's a subway on base here in Italy...what is a sandwich you love to make for yourself? I'm gonna copy you.

Dude, you're in Italy. Experience Italy and not shitty Subway haha. But to answer your question, I want you to get a Steak and cheese on wheat with onions, green peppers, jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, chipotle sauce, shredded Monterrey, and then toasted.

Trust me, Italy is like...overwhelming. There's so much to see and do, that sometimes, a shitty sub is all I need to take home and chill with.

I hear you there man.

Have you ever had sex with someone's sandwich before you give it to them?

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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We used to have it in big cans and we could drain it really easy so it would be dry and easy to add the mayo. Now we have pouches so it doesn't drain easily and it has a worse taste to it.

Why do you guys put so much mustard and mayo on the sandwiches? Even if you try and specify how little you want?

The rule is 3 lines of sauce. Some of our containers are broken though and they will shoot out big globs instead of neat little lines and that always sucks. If the employee isn't a complete moron, they should have no problem putting on a little bit of mayonnaise. Sometimes though the amounts that people want are insane. Everyone's definition of "a lot" and "a little" is different.

Former sandwich artist here. My store used to have this little fat kid come in and order a 6 inch ham on white with a ton of pickles. I don't mean like I covered the bread in pickles. I'm talking pickles stacked like 2 inches off the bread. I even addressed him as pickle kid and he loved it. He was a cool little dude. What's the wierdest thing you've made behind the counter?

Pickles piled high. Some people are crazy about pickles.

Is it true that all the deli meats are actually the same thing but just flavored differently to pretend they are things like ham, turkey, salami?

I don't think so. They all look and smell differently too. The Cold Cut Combo/Trio is bologna, salami, and ham but those are all turkey based. That's the only sub that uses a different based meat. That being said, it's still all processed foods.

What is the weirdest sandwich that you've ever made?

This guy comes in and gets a chicken bacon ranch with seafood sensation on top and then gets it toasted.

I've made a sub that was two handfuls of pickles and lots of vinegar.

Just cheese. Only American cheese.

So many more but that's just the ones I remember from this past month.

Weirdest sandwich and scariest customer in one for me.

Guy walks in about 10 PM, and orders five sandwiches, but with all the cheese. We try to explain to him that that's going to cost more than the actual sandwiches, and he just waves us off. Oookay, you asked for it.

We get to sauces, and he says "all of them." Wat. We explain that we have upwards of a dozen sauces, and again, he waves us off. Oh boy, this is going to be fun.

We get finished, and these things are absolute disasters. Sauces all over the paper, soggy bread, gloves absolutely caked in oil/vinegar/sauce mixture.

We ring the guy up, and I think his total was something like $60. Of course, now the guy flips his shit. "How can they be that much, they're only five dollars, cheese is 1.50 bitch bitch moan moan." I'd expected as much. What I didn't expect is for this guy to lean across and start messing with our computer, yelling about god knows what, threatening to bring his buddies back later. We immediately go behind the window and call the police. As soon as we finish our call, the guy takes his shit and bolts. We never saw him again.

That guys sounds like a fuck head. Those type of customers are the ones always trying to get free shit. I love waiting on them because it's so funny to see assholes get pissed off at me for just doing my job

the seafood sensation, don't remind me, why does this exist!

I think it's alright if you put some old bay on it. Or eat it with crackers and not on a sub.

• Do you eat subway still or when did you quit if you ever started?
• Is it shitty for me to come in 15mins before closing time while the sub maker is in the middle of cleaning/putting away food for me to order a sand which for my graveyard shift? I don't really care anywhere else but it seems like subway workers have a lot of clean up/sanitation work to do.

I still eat there. Even on my off days.

15 minutes before closing for one sub isn't bad. Just don't be an asshole. That being said, I hope the employees are not assholes to you. It is annoying when anyone comes in with 15 minutes left but it's part of our job. So no worries.

I know. I had a residual hatred of almost every customer that walked in, but there's a special place in hell for the people that would walk in five minutes to closing and say "Oh, looks like we got here just in time, teehee." And proceed to make us pull the entire line back out for half a dozen sandwiches.

Those "just in time" fuckers! It's not so much I hate the customers, it's just that for every 100 good customers, there's that 1 bad one that ruins it for everyone.

Have you ever had to refuse to make something? Why? Has anything scary or creepy happened to you?

I refused to make a call in order last night. Mother fucker called 2 minutes from close. Here's our conversation.

ring

Me: thanks for choosing ____ subway, how may I help you?

Him: yall not closed yet, are ya??

M: no we close in about 2 minutes.

Him: ok 12 inch blt on white bread

All my rage since this guy is ordering a sub. He finishes that sub and then starts a second one.

Him: and a foot long melt on -

Me: sir, we are closing in literally less than two minutes now. I do not have time to make more than one sub.

Him: you can't make more than one sub?!? Fine cancel that order I'll go somewhere else.

That was me being nice and actually considering making him one sub.

People phone in their subway order? Hrm, TIL!

Please call them in if it's over 3 subs. Makes my life easier.

Can you make a sandwich with the old wedge cut? Why was there a change in the bread cut franchise wide a decade or do ago? What are the advantages to the different types of cuts?

I can't wedge cut. The advantages of the "new cut" is that it is easier to learn for employees and also it looks like there is more meat on the sandwich. It's a fancy way to make less look like more.

I like mayo on both sides of the bread and then build my sandwich. I swear the makers act like they would spit on my sandwhich if I wasn't right there. Would you spit on my sandwhich for asking for mayo first if you had the chance?

No. Most people who work in fast food are pissy, angsty teenagers whose parents forced them to have a job. It is annoying to put mayo on the bread but I would never purposely do something wrong to a sub because I'm slightly annoyed. That's just selfish and doesn't follow the golden rule.

Why can't the mustard dispenser dispense an even amount of mustard?

I've been asking myself the same thing for 4 years.

I see it on the apron, but are you an actual sandwich artist through subway certification or does everyone who works there now just have the title?

I've done all my training and even some management training. It used to be called "person in charge" training and levels 1 and 2. Now it's changed to "sandwich artist pro". When you get employed you become a normal sandwich artist

I am a sandwich artist and have been for 6 months, how the hell do you do it for four years? Job fucking blows

Because I need to pay my bills and pay my way through college so I can get a better job. All you have to do is tell your self "My shift ends at X" and tell yourself that every day. It'll be over soon.

Can you make a living working at subway?

If you are a manager or higher you can. Plenty of room for advancement here

Do you actually make your bread on site or just bake it? (or neither ha)

It comes to us in frozen sticks. We then let it sit in the walk in fridge for a while and it thaws out. Then we take it out from the fridge and prep it for the oven and we then put it in the oven.

Fun fact: The process of the bread thawing is called retarding the bread and the cabinet that hold the thawing bread is called a retarder.

Why do they keep trying to push that Flatizza crap? It looks like something a couple of sandwich artists made for themselves, then a nosy district manager walked up an was like "BOOM, I have an idea!"

And will they ever put the Cuban sandwich on the nationwide menu?

I am 95% certain that happened. Way before the flatizza crap, some people got similar things on the Flatbread. It's just a way to get more people in the store

When I ask for double lettuce, why don't you give me double lettuce? Should I ask for triple?

Everyone's definition of extra varies. Ask for a normal amount and wait for them to put it on. If it's not what you want, ask for more until you get what you want. I put on extra when I am told extra.

What is your favorite TV show?

Breaking Bad.

how much does your branch makes every day ?

How much money or subs?

Usually like $3k on a busy day and $2k on a normal day. Subs, a lot.

I've worked at Subway for almost a year, except that mine is in a Love's truck stop.

If you don't mind me asking(or if you're able/allowed to answer), what's the starting pay for a standalone subway in your area? How often do you get customers that basically ask you to ruin their sandwich, then complain about it when it's done? Have you tried the new and "improved" salad choppers? Oh, and how old is the equipment in your store?

Minimum wage starting pay. I've had that happen a lot. It's not my fault you want everything and then are a shitty sloppy eater. And we just got new toasters and a new food baine. Our oven is like 11 years old.

How long is bread usually kept at your location?

Less than 24 hours.

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I've gotten used to it.

What's an odd request you've gotten that isn't gross? (Personally I get my sub toasted after I put the veggies on, and then get the sauce on last).

I was once asked to put a cookie in the toaster oven to heat it up and not in the microwave. Best decision ever.

What's the cheapest way to get as much meat as possible on that steak and cheese?

Probably by ordering somewhere else actually haha. At my store the steak is $7.50 and I can go to any near by deli and get a real cheese steak for less than that and much better quality.

Sounds like someone works at the subway on south street, i'll take one wiz wit plz

I actually work in a small town right outside of bumblefuck, nowhere. We have some good places around here though

only reason I figured philly is because every place around here that has a philly (firehouse, pepper jax, philly time, chartroose caboose, etc) is only one thats $8+ i miss the days of being in philly and getting a 10-12" philly for $4.50

Those days are long gone buddy. I only wish they were still here

Why did it take you guys so long to realise to tessellate the cheese?

I've been doing it since day 1 because we are trained to do that. Some people still don't and I have no idea why not.

This type of downvoting is natural for any new post on reddit. It's usually a couple hours after posting that it starts working its way up into positive territory. Unless, of course, you're a celebrity.

With that being said, what's the crack to "meat" ratio in the meatballs? I can't get enough of them.

The secret is in the Trans fat! No really, the meatball has the most trans fat at like 1 gram for a foot long which isn't bad really.

So you are close to graduating!

About to graduate SU! Subway University!

If I were to try to piss off a sandwich artist what sandwich would I have them make? Or whats the most difficult /time consuming sandwich to make?

I was waiting all fucking day for this question!! Write this down and I hope you come in to my store and make me make it!

1. Footlong meatball on flatbread.
2. Double meat.
3. Ask for extra shredded cheese.
4. Toasted.
5. Order all the vegetables but not at once, one at a time. Extra lettuce first. and make sure that the last two are cucumbers and then spinach. Maybe even finish with black olives on top.
6. You know what, can I get avocado on that?
7. Extra ranch sauce on top of the veggies.

That's the best I can think of.

How have you survived this long? It took me a year of working there until I finally got sick of them hiring managers that needed help from me (a minimum wage worker) to know how to do their job. I had to work late during inventory nights because I knew how the process worked, and some of my managers didn't. I had one that refused to pay me overtime because he knew he would get in trouble for keeping me late, so he offered me homemade salsa as payment. I also had a manager who told me to scrape mold off the vegetables because throwing them away would be a waste (I threw them away and got written up). I had another manager look terrified when I told her that, "Yes, all of the cameras in the back room work even after closing". I don't want to know what she did.

That, and all the shortcuts they want you to do when preparing food, cleaning, etc. It sickened me. I worked shifts in 4 stores in my area and all of them operated in the same way. Cutting corners to save a buck.

Fortunately for me my subway owner owns like 7 other subways and a whole page full of other businesses so he knows how to run a tight ship. I've never had to do anything as absurd as that.

Why are the napkins kept under glass? And if it's to save money, why do they print so many colors on the napkins?

I have no clue. I always give out like 5+ napkins when we're told it's 1 for a six inch, 2 for a footlong.

Why are you called sandwich artists? Every time I get a sandwich from subway, it's the biggest pile of shit on bread possible. There is no order or beauty to it. Now if the sandwiches always looked nice I'd be okay with calling it artistry. However they never look nice and calling yourself an artist is just ridiculous.

I don't know man. It sounds fancy. It's like calling a janitor a hygienic specialist.

Shillspam sucks.

Who cares?

I agree.

Why so much mayo?

3 small lines is what we're told.