I went out to lunch today, and usually I either bring something or I grab something from the cafe in our building downstairs because it is convenient. Either way I generally have a half way decent lunch at a reasonable price. Back in Phoenix I would go out almost every day to places like Subway, Jack In The Box, Burger King etc … Generally franchise places. Now the food was always good for fast food. Made well and served by people who don’t necesarily like their job, but are nice anyways.
Today when I went out for lunch I decided to venture off to subway to try thier new Chicken Parmesan Toasted Sub. You may or may not have seen commercials for it, but it looks mighty tasty! Now the subway I went to was a little store(no seats) inside the Park Place building in downtown Boston. For those of you not from the area, its a pretty swanky place with a Fire & Ice Bar, Souper Salad, a few cafe style bistro deals, and some upscale shopping. Naturally I expected it to be one of the better subway’s and serve me some decent food. To my dismay when I get to the counter, the “Sandwhich Artist” is less than polite in asking me what I want, when I tell him what I want, he mutters something under his breath about my bread choice, i’m assuming it has to do with the fact that he had to get it out of the oven because non was out, adding to the amount effort required for him to make my $6.00 sandwhich. He proceeds to slopily toss a few slices of cheese and 3 pieces of chicken, followed by a splattering of marinara sauce. After that he tossed it in the “oven” to toast it, messing it up a deal more in the process. I asked for parmesan cheese and oregano on my sandwhich and he makes zero effort in putting any on. There was a small area with cheese and a small area with oregano and it didn’t help the flavor of it at all.
Now I know your thinking “I never would have paid for that sandwhich!” … and honestly, I would never pay for that sandwhich if I hadn’t asked them to make it, even if they did a shitty job, I just can’t do that sort of thing. So I pay for my sandwhich and go back to work. By now the bread is all soggy at the bottom from the marinara sauce and crunchy on top from the toasting. It’s quite disgusting. I wont bore you with anymore details, so lets just say I didn’t finish it. So I am hungry, irritated, and bored. The result of which is this pointless rant about subway. Now on to the point … Franchises.
I don’t think Franchises try hard enough in as heavily populated an area as Boston. It’s all about getting them out the door. The guy at subway was definately in a hurry to get me out of there with my haphazardly created(thier word, not mine) sandwhich. In Phoenix it’s more about making sure they come back. I went to the same places often and they all new my name. We would shoot the shit when I got up to the window, and I would get some good food.
I offer this piece of advice to everone who owns a franchise in Boston … Teach your employee’s some customer service and teach them how to make decent food. Until then … my hard earned money will be going to the much slower, much nicer, much better small operations. If you are in the Boston area, check out The Park Street Cafe in the Park Street building. It’s about 3 or 4 doors down from Subway and much much better.