Subway has long been known for its footlong sandwiches. However, the sandwiches became notorious not too long ago when it became obvious that not all footlongs were actually a foot long.
Not Quite A Footlong
It all started at a Subway in Perth where a teenager, Matt Corby actually measured his sandwich. What he discovered was that his footlong sandwich was actually only eleven inches. Realizing that he was missing an inch of sandwich, he chose to post his findings on social media along with a request from Subway to respond to the problem.
The Perth teenager may not have realized what he was doing with that one simple photo of a sandwich beside a tape measure, but the result was worldwide outrage at the Subway corporation. People throughout Australia and America began measuring their sandwiches, all finding the same thing. The vast majority of the footlongs from the restaurants actually only measured at around 11 inches and no more than 11.5 inches.
The Subway scandal began to get more recognition when The New York Post got involved. The newspaper did their own investigation, ordering footlong sandwiches from Subways across the city. The New York Post reported that they ordered seven different sandwiches from seven different restaurants, and only three of the sandwiches actually measured at a foot long. The New York Post front page is pictured above.
Subway Responds
After getting noticed by so many people and by major media sources, Subway finally made the decision to comment on the matter. The company did indicate it is very hard to guarantee the exact same length in a sandwich since each individual restaurant does bake their sandwich bread daily. The company also indicated that the footlong was not a guarantee of length but instead a trademark name for the sandwich. However, Subway did recently release a new statement. This statement indicated that they would be making changes to the bread system to ensure that all footlongs served at the 38,000 restaurants would actually be a foot long.
At this time, there are several lawsuits against Subway by customers who believe that the company made false or misleading claims. At this time, there is no clear information on how these lawsuits will progress or how Subway will respond to them. The corporation has not yet made a comment on any lawsuits or legal matters.
Surely, there will be plenty of people who continue measuring their footlong sandwiches to ensure they are getting what they paid for. This is especially true since the story has gone viral on social media, print media, and the rest of the web in America and Australia.
