Subway restaurant chain is under scrutiny again, and this time it’s about length. The length of their sandwiches, to be precise. Subway has been selling what they call 12-inch and six-inch sandwiches, and there has been a strong consumer pushback, claiming that the sandwiches are not as long as they claim to be.
A viral photo posted on Facebook in 2013 revealed a so-called “footlong” sub to be only 11 inches long. Since then there has been a class-action lawsuit against the sandwich maker, claiming that Subway customers have been bilked in their sandwich purchases. As part of the lawsuit settlement, Subway has agreed that they will now measure six- and 12-inch sandwiches, to ensure that customers are getting what they paid for.
I will admit that a lawsuit over the length of a submarine sandwich seems extreme. But I can see a larger issue here.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s say that a six-inch sub costs $3, which means that each inch of sandwich is worth about 50 cents in the mind of a customer. If the customer only gets a five-inch sub, they are paying 60 cents per inch, which was not the agreed-upon value of an inch of sandwich. The customer is overpaying by 50 cents for each sandwich.
Say a store sells 500 sandwiches in a day, each an inch shorter than they claim. They are being overpaid by $250 per day by selling short sandwiches. Multiply $250 by 365 and you get $91, 250 per year per store of unearned revenue. If there are 50, 000 stores in the U.S., that’s over four billion dollars per year that the Subway restaurant chain didn’t earn! Four billion smackeroos a year is probably worth a lawsuit.
Subway has agreed to train staff to measure the sandwiches, and to do intermittent compliance inspections. Thus, the twelve inches you were promised will measure up to your expectations.
