Posted on 07/11/2015 6:20:50 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
The restaurant industry is an industry where smaller is better. For the bigger a chain gets, the more pressure gets put on the stores to keep their margins high so that they can feed back profit dollars to the mother ship.
What happens from there is easy to figure out. In order to keep margins high, costs must get cut. So the headquarters starts negotiating tough with the suppliers (vendors) to drive down costs. In order to do this, they are willing to trade off quality and to cut corners.
In a chain of 33,000 stores, even the tiniest tweaks can result in millions of dollars in cost being saved. It might be subtle, like getting one or two less napkins stuffed into your bag, or making the meatballs smaller, or using less tomatoes to make a sandwich. In all these cases, the quality of the product is incrementally decreased.
Corners continue to get cut until the customer squawks loudly enough. Then they ratchet back a bit but eventually go down the same road.
That's why I prefer to go to restaurants that have recently opened, as that is where you tend to get your best quality of service and food. Or better yet, independent stand-alone restaurants where the owner is intimately involved and has his reputation at stake.
Getting back to subs, the very best subs are not to be found at Subway or even the smaller chains like Firehouse. Go to an independent outlet - such as a privately owned pizza joint that offers subs on the side.
Subway has become what Steve Martin used to say about McDonald’s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4u9dv-YPzA
I remember we drew short straw once for a run into Los Angeles. I thought it odd at first we hauled dry goods in on a reefer. Then I found out fast you either wait there & haul produce or deadhead out to leave. It took us three days and three stops to finally get a load out of there. We ended up unloading the truck ourselves in St Louis. None of it on pallet and mainly onions from Yuma. The lumpers wouldn't touch it for the $40 our company paid to unload.
It's odd many will cringe at a restaurant standards but yet their own refrigerator is dangerous and they accept it or rather never give it second thought. I'd say if the health dept checked many peoples home refrigerator temps they would fail. {No I don't think the health department should. I'm just making a point}. I set my fridge with a remote read thermometer. It cuts on at about 39 degrees and off at 34. Food last twice as long too. I check it twice a year. Second biggie is leaving food out too long.
It seems to be happening everywhere, I moved to this little town halfway between NY and Miami in ‘72 and travelers from all up and down the East coast used to write letters to the editor about some of the great food they had here. Now I can’t think of a place I would recommend to anyone. It seems as if the more food shows we have on TV the less food fit to eat is available. Maybe I’m just a grumpy old man but that is how it looks to me.
I pulled many loads out of Liberal, KS. I never minded pulling their loads.
They had good standards for temps and trailer cleanliness.
If you thought California was bad, try Florida!
If I was in northern Florida I would deadhead into Georgia instead of waiting around for a load out.
I knew a fella who would wait around for a week for a decent paying load instead of making an empty run.
If I was stuck in southern Florida I could usually get a fair paying load in 2 days.
Best money I ever made was pulling potatoes out of Florida for Frito Lay.
From Florida north as fast as I could go.
Unload at the tipper and fly back to Florida.
Followed the potato harvest from southern Florida to Georgia.
Good times.
Hardest part was remembering which log book I was using that day!
I have seen some terrible home refrigerators.
Why do people think they can leave mayo out indefinitely?
Same people who will rush chicken to the refrigerator will leave other things sitting out for hours.
It’s a wonder more people don’t die from food poisoning.
Most of my loads once I got away from team driving was up northeast along the coast. Places I never care to see again from NJ on up LOL. We had McGraw Edison Electrics contract for hauling transformers from their plants and if I came home for a weekend I hauled newspaper rolls out of Calhoun, TN up to northeast.
The California Ports of Entry have always been bad. Same as their scale houses.
There was one, Banning or Bannington (?) I forget, that was so bad drivers hired lawyers to talk to the feds.
Friend of mine called me at home.
Seems the feds rolled in with 4 perfect trucks, when all 4 failed inspection the feds locked the place down and, allegedly, took the scale personnel to lockup.
I do know that scale stayed shut for a couple years.
Ohio scales had a bad attitude too.
I had one Ohio officer tell me up front he was a “revenue enhancement official”.
Only real trouble I ever got in was in Texas.
I got pulled over and couldn’t be find the *right* log book.
The trooper knew what was going on, but I took it like a man so he went easy on me.
I even had a cute little she bear ask me out once in Nebraska.
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