Customer: “How long is the footlong sandwich?”

Me: “It’s one foot long.”

Customer: “Yes, yes, one footlong. But how long is it?”

I worked at a sandwich store. On very busy days, like today, one of us takes your bread and meat order then the next person adds your veggies and toppings, and the last rings you up, like an assembly line.

A man and a woman in their early twenties come in. The woman is glued to her phone.

Me: “Hi, what can I get you?”

Male Customer: “I’ll have the Italian bread, footlong, with meatballs.”

Me: “That’s great, and you, ma’am?”

She ignores me, glued to her phone*

Me: “Ma’am? What bread would you like?”

Male Customer: “She’s been on that all morning. Let’s see how this plays out.”

They get to the veggies section, and he loudly explains what vegetables, toppings, and sauces he’d like. He says this in the direction of his female companion, who is still staring furiously at her phone.

They get to the register, and she finally looks up.

Female Customer: “Where’s my sandwich?”

Employee At The Register: “My coworker asked you what sandwich you wanted, but you ignored him.”

Female Customer: “Whatever, I’ll have—”

Employee At The Register: “You can get to the back of the line if you’d like to start ordering your sandwich.”

The guy she’s with laughs.

Male Customer: “Sorry, hun, but you ignored us. They’re not going to let you in front of everyone else waiting!”

He paid, she stewed, and they both left. I could see her shouting at him as they walked down the street while he smiled and ate his sandwich.

My sister recently developed alpha-gal syndrome. This is a medical condition, sometimes passed by a bite from a Lone Star tick, which causes the person involved to have an allergy to meat and dairy products. It is a total upheaval in someone’s life. Luckily, my sister was vegetarian anyway, so there was almost no change in her diet. We sometimes like to joke that these things were genetically modified by PETA, or that it must be horrendous for people who are already allergic to another food group, but we understand the seriousness of the disease.

This occurs when my sister goes to a well-known sandwich chain while visiting some friends of ours that we haven’t seen in a while. They know about her new allergy, so they decide to help her when she eats at this store. My sister hasn’t been to this chain since she developed the allergy, so she doesn’t know what she can have.

Sister: “Hi, can I have a [sandwich]?”

Employee: *Friendly* “Sure.”

Sister: “I just want to check, are there any meat or dairy products in this?”

Employee: “Okay, why’d you ask?”

Sister: *Awkwardly* “You see, I have alpha-gal syndrome—”

Employee: “No, no, it’s absolutely fine.”

My sister sits down at a table and talks to her friends. When her food is ready, she takes it, but as she is carrying everyone’s meals on a tray, the sandwich slips and falls to the ground, and the two halves separate. She then notices that her sandwich clearly has ground beef inside.

Sister: *To the employee* “Hey, my sandwich has meat in it!”

Employee: “Oh, you’re the vegan, right?”

Sister: “Yes, but not by—”

Employee: “You know, I’m sick of you vegans coming in and ordering rubbish. Do you have any idea how much meat we end up wasting?”

My sister’s friends have gotten up at this commotion and come over.

Friend: “She asked for vegan; give her vegan.”

Sister: “I can’t eat meat!”

The employee sneers and rolls his eyes crossly.

Employee: “Of course you can. You’ve got a mouth.”

Sister: *Getting frustrated* “I already told you, I have alph—”

Employee: “Calling yourself an alpha girl doesn’t make you an Alpha!”

My sister is too shocked to say anything.

Friend: “It means she’s allergic to meat, dumba**!”

Employee: “No one’s allergic to meat! You’re all just too stuck up to change your diet! Have a burger once in a while; it won’t kill you! Now, get out of here before I call the cops.”

Our friends called the police, instead. After confirming that my sister did have an allergy to meat, the employee was arrested for endangering her life. Alpha-gal syndrome is a very real and dangerous condition, and if my sister had bitten the meat, she could have ended up comatose or even died.

I am behind a customer at a sandwich place.

Customer: “I want a turkey sandwich, and make sure you put more turkey on it because the amount you normally put on isn’t enough!”

Employee: “We charge extra for extra meat.”

Customer: *Going ballistic* “I should not be charged extra as I didn’t say I wanted extra! I said you never put enough on!”

Employee: “The meat comes in a pre-measured amount, so we always put the same amount on every sandwich.”

Customer: “I am not paying extra! I just want more turkey! Why are you being difficult?”

Employee: “Ma’am, you’re holding up the line, and it’s the lunch rush. Please let the person behind you order if you can’t decide.”

Customer: “I have decided! I want more turkey, but I don’t want extra turkey!”

Note, the cost of extra meat is $2.

Employee: “Extra turkey is $4. ‘More’ turkey is $2.”

Customer: “Ugh! Fine! But this is daylight robbery!”

She got her sandwich and stormed off to her late-model Mercedes.

I worked for a sandwich shop chain for a while. At first, it was nice. It was a lot more low-key than jobs I’d had before — less business, so fewer people to deal with.

I was there for a few months when things started getting weird. It started with the air conditioner breaking, and even though the cheese was melting and the lettuce was wilting, the store owner refused to close. Then, we had a visit from corporate and that happened again, but he actually cared about something (maybe not necessarily the workers, but all the product being lost, at least) and made us close until they got the AC fixed.

Then, one day, the store owner burst in at about 2:00 pm. She was drunk, and she started loudly berating [Manager] and [Assistant Manager] about personal matters (something to do with [Assistant Manager]’s boyfriend if I remember right). Customers could hear. A couple of other workers (one of whom was a teenager still in high school) and I were just awkwardly standing out by the line, doing our best to avoid being seen and involved in her wrath.

Then, the AC broke again. The owner absolutely refused to close the store because she’d be “losing money”. I texted my friend who was closing that night, and she called that same corporate representative, who called up the owner and flat-out told her that if she didn’t close until the AC was fixed, she’d lose her franchise license.

The owner freaked out. She made all of us working come out back while she screamed and (probably fake) cried.

Owner: “How could you do this to me?! You’re like my family! I’m just going to shut down the store and open it again in a week with a new crew!”

For some reason, I still stayed.

And then, they apparently found out it was my friend who had called corporate. (I’m not sure how since it was just her and me who knew — or so I thought.) [Assistant Manager] flat-out told me that she “needed to be careful” because they could fire her at any time for “her attitude”.

So, I texted my friend again. She quit. [Assistant Manager] blamed me for telling her. I was just about to start my shift, and what did I do? I grabbed all the pay stubs and stuff left in my cubby while [Assistant Manager] stood outside, and I walked right out the front door and to the gas station across the street to call my sister for a ride home.

Several others quit, as well. The store has had to close early for lack of staff several times. It hasn’t closed down yet, but from what others have said, the place has just been spiraling since, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they do.