Subway: A Method to Their Cheesy Madness

A while back I made a cartoon about Subway’s goofy way of arranging cheese on their sandwiches, and I learned something after posting it up on the site: people are very passionate about cheese. I’ve gotten more commentary on that comic than any other so far.

I recently got an email from a guy named Stu, who said this:

I love your subway cartoon, I work at subway and printed your toon. The staff found it funny, my boss did not!!!

Next day a notice was put up about cheese! And I took a photo to send to you.

Here’s the photo he attached:

simple brilliance

It seems there’s some devious reasoning behind Subway’s practices! They choose to offend geometric decency to make their customers pay more to fill in the missing puzzle pieces! That’s evil genius. Stu also gave me this caveat:

Remember that all subway stores are franchised owned so every store will be run in its own way, and this notice is only from my subway.

And he’s right, so we can’t make the same statement about all Subway locations, but this is the best explanation I’ve seen for why cheese placement might be an important part of a business model. Who knew?

Thanks, Stu.

-Drew

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Comments (140)

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I for one, welcome our new Subway Cheese Overlords.
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5 replies · active less than 1 minute ago
I knew it. I can't stop looking at the cheese arrangement when I get a sub now because of that comic. Damn socialists.
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1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
Wow. You're officially famous now!
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"A life worth living" now has a $0.40 tax. Preposterous.
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That's so devious.

You can take my money, but you can never take my cheese preference! (Or my freedom!?)
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omg awesome ^___^ we dont even have a subway around -_-'

If i ever come across one, ill try to make them put my cheese in a filling way, without paying extra ^__^

_O_
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Jerry Kindall's avatar

Jerry Kindall · 913 weeks ago

This would be devious if they didn't overlap the cheese triangles.
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retsoksirhc's avatar

retsoksirhc · 913 weeks ago

It...it's all so clear now.
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Not a problem in Southern PA... where the Subway franchises I visit have workers who consistently give me double cheese without my asking for it and without charging me! :-)
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Wow. It doesn't work, for me at least. I just wonder why they do it that way.

To be honest, i don't actually really WANT more cheese. What they put on there is just right. I wouldn't mind if they arranged it properly though.

(Maybe that's the whole plan--it isn't that you need more cheese, it's just that you have to buy MORE in order to get proper arrangement! "Have it our way", perhaps?)
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liberamentem's avatar

liberamentem · 913 weeks ago

Me thinks your comic probably spurred the Subway owner into thinking about the extra $0.40 business model.

I too noticed the curious arrangement of cheese, but shrugged it off as a convenient (and fast) way to handle the triangle shaped cheese slice stacks.
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Italian BMT /wrap/, Double Meat, Double Cheese, No Sweetcorn, Light on the Jalapenos, Mayonnaise and Chilli sauce
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2 replies · active 732 weeks ago
This technique clearly worked on me, because I'd often ask for a bit more when they were putting the cheese on. However, I accidentally turned the tables on them by failing to use the magic phrase "extra cheese", so they'd always forget to charge me extra when we made it to the till!
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Charged for double cheese? Glad my friends work at subway it's *all* free :D
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1 reply · active 732 weeks ago
I have worked in a Subway for two years [part time] in Australia, and until I saw the comic I followed the overlapping triangle style of cheesing subs.

My store doesn't flog extras at all, and we still overlap the triangles. But I have broken with this age honoured tradition and now take the time to tessellate the cheese.

[Which IMO is way too much fucking effort for $8.30 AUD an hour]

There is no appreciation for the different style, just questions. I get asked, "Why did you do the cheese like that?" and get told that, "They don't do the cheese like that in Alice [Springs]".

It hurts.
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Way to go! Chase the long tail!
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cheese triagles are the very reason I never eat at that freakish place. I need squares. Lots of them, piled high. For $4 I can make my own sandwich. sink the subway for all i care.

Oh yea, and the fresh baked bread? Tastes like store bought. These guys know nothing about sandwhiches.

May 'Nicks Feed Your face' rest in peace. only through there all too brief presence on earth will I have ever known the true presence of greatness in a sandwhich.
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The detail that went into your managers note clearly shows he/she is insane.
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Mmmmm.... Subway. 2 Slices of meat, and a slice 'o cheese. Corporate downsizing meets sandwich making! um, Yay!
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Dangit.

Now I'm hungry for a substandard sub.
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For most customers, cheese tessellation increases the ratio of preparation time to perceived deliciousness of the sandwich. In addition, the rapid wrist rotation involved in the tessellation can contribute to the development of carpal tunnel syndrome. Although the preparation of the sandwich isn't geometrically sound, it comes out ahead in overall cost-benefit analysis.
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Che Guevara's avatar

Che Guevara · 913 weeks ago

wow that is fuck genius!!!!!

who would of known!
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Nevermind that you're paying $7 for for a bread, meat and cheese sandwich.
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GarbageDonkey's avatar

GarbageDonkey · 913 weeks ago

Subways can be (and for the most part are) very very evil. It's really up to the owners of the store though. Some of them are nice, some of them are clearly penny pinchers (bastards) as pictured above. Working at Subway for 4 years, we always would put our cheese in opposite directions, every other slice, to make a full layer of cheese... It just LOOKS better that way!

I say that you simply start asking for you cheese that way, no, demand it that way from now on. They'll get the idea after a while, and with any luck they'll already know what to do when you walk through the doors ;)
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1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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