Subway, a sandwich chain accused of serving yoga mat chemicals in its bread to customers, now wants to charge an additional 10% “service fee” for customers to have the privilege of a worker assembling their sandwiches.
That is, according to a Redditor who spotted a notice on a sign placed at a Subway location they visited. Their post sparked a dialogue as to whether this service charge will pop up more frequently at other stores or if this is an individual business owner’s decision.
In a post uploaded to Reddit’s r/mildlyinfuriating sub by user @bologna510, a photo of a sign notifying patrons of the service fee was shared to the platform—and heavily criticized by others on the site.
The notice reads: “A 10% service fee is added to your check which is used to help pay for our team members hourly wages, insurance, and benefits. This will help us keep up with the rising cost of business while keeping the cost of products affordable for all our guests. Thanks for your loyalty and understanding.”
Judging by the Redditor’s caption, it seems like loyalty and understanding were a presumptuous expectation as they wrote, “Went to Subway for the last time,” before opining, “Now I know why the app isn’t working…”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Subway to see if this service charge has been implemented at all restaurant locations, or if this is an individual franchisee.
Word of the 10% tacked-on fee spread quickly on Reddit, where some users assumed Subway had implemented this fee on a large scale. Some sought responses from employees of the sandwich chain, asking directly how much of the 10% service fee they were pocketing for themselves.
Others speculated that the money wasn’t disseminated to workers, but rather used by management to help offset the costs of having to care for their employees.
As one Redditor wrote, “Lol it’s not like they gave the employees a raise when they implemented this. They’re still making cents above minimum wage. This is so the franchisee can subsidize food costs and overhead. The employees probably don’t see a penny of this.”
But several others expressed that they didn’t believe the service charge could’ve been implemented on a large scale.
“If something like this was reported the Subway corporate offices, would the franchise owner now owe a larger cut of the profits to the corporation?” one asked. “I would suspect that each franchise is required to report all income and expenses to corporate.”
Another seemed to echo this sentiment, writing, “More likely they would get f*cked by corporate for trying to get around the corporate pricing. They wouldn’t do it this way if they could control the prices. No one is going to notice a 10% increase, but they sure as hell notice a 10% service fee.”
One Redditor, who said that they used to work for Subway, didn’t think this would go over too well with the suits at upper management, either.
“Having managed a store for subway, head office would get very sh*tty about this,” they said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @bologna510 via Reddit chat for further comment.