This post is a bit off the menu, if you will, but I harbor some doubt about how popular Subway Now, the sandwich chain’s online and wireless pickup service, will work. As anyone who has ever been to a Subway knows, the sandwich is made before you by the eatery’s “sandwich artists.” I’ve long had a pet theory that people – at least abused Manhattanites – enjoy going to Subway in the middle of a work day because it provides an opportunity for them to bark orders interactively at somebody else – “Not too much sauce! More lettuce!” It’s the opposite of Seinfeld’s famous “Soup Nazi” experience. Once, I had to contain myself as a woman in line ahead of me– delighted that the perparer had finally accurately gauged that she wanted enough mayonnaise on her sandwich to enable the top layer of bread to float above the vegetables drowning inches below — purred in anticipatory self-reference, “Yeah, that’s how she likes it.”
Such immediate feedback and nuance will be hard to recreate in the asynchronous bit stream that is online sandwich ordering – just three easy steps. (It shouldn’t be a quiz, no?) And Subway is bringing back an expedited version of its former long-running Sub Club loyalty program for a limited time. Oder three sandwiches via Subway Now and your fourth is free. In any case, even if you order via Subway Now, you still have to get yourself to the store to pick up your order. Be sure to walk there and make Jared proud.