theyarecomingforyou, on 20 January 2013 - 23:43, said:
Having worked in Subway I figured it would be helpful to describe the bread making process.
The bread dough is delivered to the store in boxes, each of which contain about 80 frozen breadsticks. Each stick contains the same amount of dough, though there are some slight discrepancies in length. Each day frozen breadsticks are taken out to defrost. One issue with the length comes at the next stage, as the defrosted bread sticks are supposed to be stretched when transferred into the bread formers (for the flavoured breads the toppings are applied at this stage) - if the bread isn't fully defrosted when it's transferred then it won't stretch. After this they are proofed in a heated cabinet. When the bread reaches a certain size - which is determined by a template - it is cooked. Sometimes bread is underproofed - either because of an inexperienced member of staff or because it is very busy - in which case the bread will end up slightly smaller than it should. After the sandwich has been made it is wrapped, during which it is compressed slightly; further, if it was heated then the moisture causes the sandwich to shrink slightly.
The point is, you're always getting the same amount of bread. And the fillings are applied to a formula, so the amount of veg should always be consistent. I can understand why people feel mislead when a sandwich doesn't measure to exactly one-foot but there are so many variables that the size can't be guaranteed to that level of accuracy. The sandwich pictured was toasted, which causes it to shrink.
Actually, it's more like buying a book that's normally 180 pages long but your version is only 150 pages because it has smaller print. You're still getting the same content but it's just distributed differently. Complaining that you have less pages is missing the point.
I was about to post something similar but I'll just quote this.
Customers are getting the exact same amount of bread, as well as filling, it's just not been stretched to 12".