An attempt to improve food quality across Subway locations may have flopped among customers.
Late last year, the sandwich chain announced it would be swapping prepackaged and pre-sliced meat for freshly sliced meats in-house to be included in its sandwiches to improve the product offered to its customers.
However, the change reportedly has a different appearance on the customers’ side of the deli counter. With the new method of preparing meats came a metal cover preventing customers from viewing the freshly sliced meat options now promised by the company.
One customer, content creator Joe Kidd (@dadcasualtv on TikTok) thinks that the obstructed view of these new meat options may be part of some kind of conspiracy—although he said he is not sure what kind of conspiracy it could be just yet.
“Did you know that Subway used to use prepackaged, pre-sliced meat,” he says in a video posted to TikTok. “Now, they’ve apparently switched to slicing the meat fresh for you themselves. But the other day I went in there to get a sub and I noticed something very strange. You see, before, when they were using the old, apparently less superior meats, you could see the meats as you were making your selection and you could say I want chicken, or I want steak. You could actually see the meat in front of you.”
With the change in meat preparation came the lack of visibility, which he says he found concerning.
“But now that they’re freshly slicing the meat themselves, they’ve got this big a** metal cover over the meat and you can’t see it,” he says. “The question that I ask you is, what are you hiding, Subway? Show us the meat. Why can’t we see it? You are all ready to show us the meat when it was the pre-packaged, bad, not-as-good meat. But now that we’re ‘freshly slicing it,’ you’re trying to hide the meat from us. It’s a conspiracy. And I promise you, I will get to the bottom of it.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Kidd via TikTok direct message and to Subway via email regarding the video.
The change in how the meats are stored has caught the attention of more than a few people. One customer described the meats as “locked up,” and said it stood out as a weird thing to do when the other ingredients are left visible. Another customer has suggested that the meat is kept behind a metal screen to prevent customers from asking for additional meat on their sandwiches.
Some franchisees—folks who pay to use Subway branding, licensing, menus and other parts of the business to run as their own—have shared that the new slicers used for deli meats present a host of challenges, from running out of meats during peak hours and having to take the time to prepare more, or having product go to waste due to a shortened shelf life.
@dadcasualtv Subway is hiding their freshly sliced meat #JoeKidd #comedy #funny ♬ original sound – Joe Kidd
Some viewers shared that they long ago abandoned the familiar sandwich chain because of its pricing—not because of the meats on offer.
“I stopped eating at subway a yr ago they asking way to much for a bland sub no favor,” one commenter wrote.
“Foot long turkey, add bacon,” a commenter wrote. “It was 13.00. Yep. That will be the last time I’ll be at subway.”
“Subway has gotten way too expensive,” another commenter wrote.
Others suggested that the cover over the meat may have more to do with temperature control and freshness, although the company has not clarified its purpose directly.
“#1 you can still see the meat at my subway,” one commenter wrote. “#2 the metal cover is to keep the meat fresh.”
“As someone who worked at subway, it’s to control the temperature,” another said. “We sliced it every morning lmao.”
“It’s to keep the meat colder,” a third echoed. “Lol. I work at subway.”
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
