Subway Customer Receives Extra Toppings….

by nicole ~ July 17, 2008

Last week I blogged about “stimulus burritos” and the “five dollar foot long” jingle but this week Subway is in the news for a less than flattering issue, which may be more memorable than any jingle.  According to this story from Reuters one Manhattan subway customer had more than whole grains baked into his fresh Subway bread… he also had a seven-inch serrated knife.

Luckily the surprised customer looked at his sandwich before taking another bite and no physical harm was done. While the customer is okay (and may soon be a little richer), I imagine the cost for Subway will go far beyond legal fees.  Aside from just the five dollar foot long deal, Subway has had many memorable campaigns including “eat fresh” and of course…Jared.  Now the sandwich shop will have to turn their wheels again to be sure they’re still remembered for Jared’s great weight loss, fresh ingredients and the five dollar foot longs instead of  for baking knives into sandwiches. 

A visit to the sandwich shop’s Website returns no mention of this incident, but Reuters did receive comment from a Subway spokesperson who said:

“At Subway restaurants, we take food safety and customer comments very seriously. We are aware of the complaint made and are investigating the facts alleged. As a pending legal matter, we cannot discuss this matter further,” said Kane.

It seems Subway may be doing all they can at the moment, but from the perspective of a concerned citizen, I’d really like to know how the knife ended up there in the first place, and what they will do to make sure it never happens again.

This story is somewhat reminiscent of the Wendy’s ordeal a few years back, when a woman claimed to find a severed finger in her cup of chili. Lucky for Wendy’s, they were able to save face when the whole thing turned out to be a hoax. Read more here.

The Subway news has already spread far outside of Manhattan, so it will be interesting to see what happens next and how Subway will save face in a time when people are reigning in on spending to begin with.  The Subway marketing team has done a great job of making sure their five dollar foot long jingle sticks in people’s heads…so I have full confidence they can come up with something recover from this too!

Nicole Amato is an Account Executive at Mediashop PR and a graduate of Northeastern University with a BA in Journalism.