In this economy, Subway can't afford to dis my kid

We go to Subway a lot.  My carboholic son loves Subway more than just about anything.  For years I have kept quiet while paying $5 for a piece of bread and a few triangles of cheese - that's all he wants on his "sandwich".  I've worked in enough restaurants to know what it takes to get that simple bread and cheese meal into my son's hands, so I don't complain about it.  And since my daughter and I both like eating there too, I'm just grateful there's something my ultra-picky son likes.

I estimate that in the past few years, the three of us have gone to Subway, on average, five times a month (that's a conservative estimate, it could very well be more).  Every single time, my son has gotten a bottle of chocolate milk to drink.  Every time.  So he's had almost 200 of them, maybe more.  He's never asked for anything different and never complained about the taste.  When he took a sip on Saturday at the Subway in the Atlantic Center and said that it tasted funny, I smelled it and concurred.  It smelled a little "off".  I didn't get a completely sour smell from it, but it was questionable.  I once fed my son spoiled milk in an airport on the way to a wedding, and he spent the entire weekend spewing out of both ends.  Suffice it to say I don't take chances now. 

I sent him up to the counter to ask for a water (I always have the kids take care of those things by themselves - better to learn early).  The date on the milk was still a ways away, so that wasn't the problem, and I didn't want another milk from the same batch.  We had some days in the 90s the week before, what if the crates had been left out for a while on the loading dock?  It happens.  Trust me, much worse than that happens.

Jake came back saying that he couldn't get something else once he opened the milk.  I took it and went to the counter, figuring they misunderstood, that they thought he just wanted something else, that he had left out the spoiled part.  I'm not going to bore you with the entire five minute heated discussion/fight that only ended when my daughter came over and said she wanted me to come sit down.  I think she was really scared that a strange man was yelling at her mommy, or maybe she was more scared that I was yelling back.

The manager or owner (not sure which, he wasn't wearing a name tag and refused to give me his name, I had to get it from my receipt), Mohamed, started out rude and got even ruder as the exchange went on.  He had decided from the beginning that we were trying to pull a fast one, that my son had changed his mind after opening the milk, that there was absolutely no chance that the milk could possibly be bad (I refused to taste it, and so did he).  As someone who used to back down in situations like that, I'm glad that I didn't, even if it ended in a shouting match and embarrassed kids.  One of the other customers tried to back me up and he was told to mind his own business.  Finally, Mohamed gave me my money back, but not until he had thrown the milk in the trash with a flourish and told me to go.  I did not.  I went calmly back to my kids and waited while they finished eating.

I feel that I was totally in the right asking for something else.  But let's say, for the sake of argument, that I was wrong.  That my son was lying (after all, he does have a history, but not with this).  That we travel the country scamming Subway restaurants coast to coast, $1.60 at a time.  Even if all of that were true, is this a time to be pissing off loyal customers?  The profit margin in a restaurant like Subway is not high, but they get more out of us than they do out of most customers.  We don't put much on our sandwiches (which doesn't save us any money), and we buy the expensive chips and drinks.  They profit from us over and over and over.

Plus, this wasn't a quiet conversation.  The restaurant was packed and couple dozen people heard what happened.  Maybe most of them didn't care or thought that I was at fault, but who knows?  Is it really smart business to yell at a mom in front of her kids in a public place?

I wish I could say that we weren't going to that Subway again until I get an apology from the manager.  Honestly, I'm too lazy to go to the effort of boycotting a store over a bottle of milk.  The location is convenient, and why should I make things more difficult for myself if the kids and I are at the mall and hungry?  But I will make an effort to not end up at the mall hungry.  I'll try to go the Subway closer to my house, where they know our order as soon as we walk in the door and are extra sweet to the kids.  They deserve our business.

I'm not sure why I'm writing this.  Partly to embarrass Mohamed the way he embarrassed me and my kids.  Partly to let Subway know in a public a way that one guy in Brooklyn is giving them a really bad name.  And partly to brag that I went toe-to-toe with a loud, rude man and held my own.  And last, to remind everyone that while I'm the biggest advocate of spending if you can afford it to help the economy, businesses are there to give us a service, and we should demand that they give it to us with a smile and not a shout, and even an apology if they screw up.

The saying used to be "The customer is always right."  I've had more than enough contact with customers from the other side of the counter (in restaurant, catering, and hotel jobs) to know that over the years, customers have gotten more and more difficult to deal with.  But at the same time, we've all come to expect less and less of the people who are paid to help customers.  Cashiers finish their conversations before even acknowledging that a customer is standing there.  They talk on cell phones while working and snap gum and put out tip jars for services that don't warrant them.  Everybody seems to be looking for ways to save money these days.  So if your business is down, take a good look at how your customers are being treated.  It's not a good time to be treating them badly.

This is an original post to NYC Moms Blog. Amy also edits the NYC section of Famplosion, blogs about parenting in Brooklyn while keeping herself sane and comfortable at Selfish Mom, and attempts to keep one step ahead of the stalkers and paparazzi at Filming in Brooklyn and Examiner.com.