Subway sandwich shop: “No home schools will be accepted.” Update: Parent posts company reply
The Subway sandwich corporation is holding a story-writing contest for kids. You can win athletic equipment, gift baskets, or sandwich shop cash cards.
Except if you’re a homeschooled student in the “Untied (sic) States.”
Perhaps they fear the homeschooled students will call attention to all their spelling errors. Looks like the Subway marketing department ought to hire a few homeschoolers to help them out.
More here.
I vote for this essay. Touché.
***
Update 5/26: A homeschooling parent received a response from the Subway sponsor of the contest:
Dear Christine,
We are deeply sorry that the Subway contest has offended you and thank you for voicing your concern. Our intention was never to make independent schooled children feel discriminated against or excluded from this specific promotion. Throughout the course of the year Scholastic runs a number of contests and sweepstakes that are open to all teachers and students. The eligibility of this contest in particular was solely put in place to award a large group of children with the grand prize of $5,000 worth of athletic equipment. We do however understand how home-schooled children could benefit from this type of prizing and will make sure eligibility is open to everyone in future promotions.
To show our gratitude for bringing this matter to our attention, please send us the ages of your children and your address and we would be happy to send you a complimentary book to share with them. We truly appreciate your feedback and will make sure a similar situation does not happen again.
If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me directly.
Best Regards,
Samantha Calastro
Scholastic Parent & Child
Good.
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They would probably take all the prizes. My last visit to subway sandwich was four years ago. That will be my last.
Subway continues to lose my business.
Un_tied. Wow.
Loved that little essay too.
No more Subway sandwiches or salads for me.
We home schooled out kids and they usually ran rings around the other kids in Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts when it came to reading and writing.
I guess it’s off to Quizno’s for the sammich.
Wonder if illegal aliens are allow to participate.
Suubwaye sux aneewaye!
Quebec anyone?
Things that make you go hmm.
WWJD
What Would Jared Do?
“Untied” and “bastket” ???
Unbelievable.
Sure they are. They take up space in the state sponsored indoctrination halls that they call schools. And since the school system is only interested in turning out “good citizens” and not teaching the three R’s it’s a perfect match.
Maybe they could enter the homeschoolers as if they were two grades higher so the public schrewled kids might have a chance of winning too.
Looks like they need to change their name to “Snubway”.
It would be interesting to hear their rationale for the exclusion. Perhaps they believe home schooled children would sweep the awards.
Our girls went to a charter High School. Every year at graduation they would announce how many kids graduated with an AA degree before they even finished High School. They also would announce the kids who scored perfect on the SAT. There would be about a dozen who would graduate with an AA degree and more times than not, the majority would be home schooled during the elementary years. Every time there was a perfect SAT score, the kids were products of home schooling.
No more Subway subs for our families.
Link to contact Subway – Please.
Yes someone please post a link to Subway so I can inform them I will no longer be doing bussiness with them because of this.
Here’s the customer service site address for those of you that might wish to respectfully let your feelings be known on the matter.
http://www.subway.com/Applications/CustService/frmCustomerService.aspx
Really, really sad.
I loved you Subway, even though most of your employees in Dallas don’t really speak-a-de-ingles.
If you were home-schooled, please use appropriate (i.e. dumbed down) vocabulary in order to better communicate with these people. Try to understand that big words are scary to them; as is intelligence.
I feel equally sorry for the children excluded from the contest and the franchise owners who will bear the brunt of corporate marketing stupidity. I’m certain that most–if not all–Subway stores are owned by entrepreneurs who weren’t consulted by HQ.
More effective than a boycott would be an action that leveraged the (limited) clout of the franchise owners against corporate.
I make better sandwiches myself!
I wouldn’t denegrate public, private or home schooled kids. A kid is a kid.
Morons
Sorry I can’t lodge an economic protest as I haven’t been to a Subway in years. Nothing there that I can’t make at home cheaper and better, and plenty of better places to eat when away from home.
I attended public school, but had a mother that encouraged me to read. I developed an interest in history early on and that was the type of books I would check out when I went to the library. Inbetween trips to the library to return the last batch of books and when I had read them, I would grab a volume of the encyclopedia set my mother had got with “Quality Stamps” and read one of those.
My mother told me that during a parent-teacher conference my high school history teacher made a comment about “taking my books away from me.” I think I was making him look bad.
As for sub’s – I go to Lenny’s Sub Shop.
You have to love it when these corporations continue to shot themselves in the face. I know several kids in our community that have or are being home schooled. They beat anything the NEA Union run federally funded and state mandated daycare internment camps can produce. Too bad most working class parents don’t have the financial means to send their children to a private organization or are able to have one parent stay home to teach their children. We really need school vouchers so we can let these indoctrination centers known as Public Schools die a proper death due to their continued failures.
SUBWAY HAS A HISTORY OF MARKETING GENIUS
HERE IS THEIR MARKETING STRATEGY FROM NOVEMBER 2005
LINK
“Another reason you’re lucky not to live in Kansas.”
IF YOU ARE HOMESCHOOLED IN KANSAS, GOD HELP YOU
Everyone gathered in the center of town for the start of the race except…
the homeschooled kids, who weren’t welcome.
Contact Subway Customer Service.
I’m going to Quiznos for lunch today.
I’ll gladly boycott these bums. While Quiznos is so much better, I occasionally grab lunch in an in-store Subway at WalMart. I’ll have to make time to stop at the Quiznos on the way. I just wish they’d bring back those little creatures that did the Quiznos ads.
I wonder how much the Scholastic magazine tie-in has to do with the rule. Publishing companies are notoriously antagonistic to all things not liberal!
Who was it that gave us the NEA? LGM? Care to answer the question?
Me thinks that the word is out and subway is in trouble now. Don’t, I repeat, Don’t under any circumstances tick off the bible toting gun clutching americans ’cause yer gonna lose your customer base.
I am a public school teacher. I can always spot a home-schooled child (they sometimes come in to take one of my classes. Home-schooled students are polite, intelligent, and creative. They could be an example to the dorks at Subway.
This flies in the face of one of their own “core values” as listed in their Mission Statement:
We expect fairness and mutual respect in all our activities.
Home-schoolers don’t get no respect at Subway!!
Subway was stupid to send out a press release with so many spelling errors and to explicitly say “No home schools will be accepted”….
But it’s really no different than the Campbell’s Soup labels for schools and General Mills boxtops for education – those programs only accept accredited a schools. The only difference is a better PR agency with a touch more attention to detail and a better ability to spin.
Not surprised in the least. The image most people have in their minds of homeschoolers (disclaimer – I was homeschooled as were my six brothers and three sisters) is something along the lines of ignorant, irresponsible hicks (think Ruby Ridge), who have absolutely no social skills at all whatsoever.
I wish I could take a picture every time I tell someone that I was homeschooled – I’ve never seen so many surprised expressions.
What Subway may have been thinking, though, is that if they allow homeschooled applications, people may defraud them and enter more than once per child. I think it’s a ridiculously stupid idea, especially considering some of the crap that comes out of the schools, public, private and Catholic, these days. A far better idea would have been to compare all entries and check for extremely similar or very close writing styles if they’re so worried about something like that. Frankly, the easiest thing to do if you find out that people are sending in multiple entries is to just ban them and move onto the next runner-up.
How can this be legal?
It makes me sick to think that Subway would do this. And to think Subway has Sub Stands here in Iraq on our military basses. Well no more business from me.
About 7 years ago I had a bad experience at a Subway here close to the house. I called and complained, and the manager met me the next day at the store. When I got there, she asked me for a few minutes while she did an interview with a kid. He wanted to work there.
While she was interviewing him, he got a call on his cell phone. He held up his hand to her, like “Hold on, I gotta get this” and proceeded to have a conversation with his friend. After the call ended, he said “Ok, what were you saying?”
When I finally got to talk to the manager, the first thing I told her was “Why did you even interview him after that?” and she said “That’s the quality of kids we get nowdays. Businesses have to learn to adjust”.
I haven’t been back to a Subway since.
Go O’BORG’ama in 08! Subway votes assimilate!
Meanwhile, back on planet earth, I’ll just take my business elsewhere. Quiznos comes to mind, as does the deli section at most grocery stores these days.
well, if the chemical tasting meat-esque sandwiches weren’t enough to stop you from eating at Subway, this sure is.
My message to Subway customer service this morning:
Your decision to exclude home school children from your essay contest is ill advised and blatantly political. You have given me a reason to go out of my way to NOT eat at Subway. Thank you.
I just received an answer from Subway customer service. They will contact me in 7 to 10 days. I can’t wait.
Hey NASCAR fans, Subway sponsors races and teams.You might want to let them know how you feel about this liberal idiocy.
I will be watching the Coke 600 today.
Go Jr.!!!
Marshall Russ…..+1
My last visit to Subway is my last visit to Subway unless they recant this ill-advised policy.
Before moving to Texas, I lived in Kansas. I’m lucky not to live in Kansas.
I will be homeschooling my oldest who begins kindergarten this fall and although he is not yet ready to write I will not be patronizing Subway any longer due to their policy. I’ve let my homeschooling friends know and will be alerting my parents who eat at Subway often. Bad policy, Subway.
Only a matter of time before they are sued for it.
More than likely, the Subway judges are public school taught. I can imagine their nervousness having to read some “home schooled” essays, and the comments made: “What does this word mean?”. “Are you sure a semi-colon goes there and not a period?” “What the heck is an adverb anyway?” Best not to let those home-schoolers enter, and embarrass the contest…and local politicans.
Quiznos should be sending Subway a thank you for all the new customers.
HOME SCHOOLED vs PUBLIC EDUCATION… Not FAIR, like 2nd graders forced to compete with college sophomores. Well, I have always wanted to try BLIMPIE’S, now I have a reason…
Well, it probably wouldn’t be fair to ask my homeschooled kids to compete against public school kids or Subway marketing executives too for that matter.
My 5 year-old reads at 2nd grade level and my older daughters perform at post-high school levels. If they win any more contests we will have to get a bigger basement to store all the prizes.
How about if we promise to give the gym equipment to some underperforming public school? Of course, selecting the most deserving underperforming public school would be an arduous chore. I mean the list would be enormously long.
Well, now I have another good reason to make my sandwiches at home.
Of course, Subway would disallow the home schoolers. They’re knowledgeable enough to know that Subway’s product is crap.
What an ingenious way to offend customers and diminish profits! Way to go, Subway!
As the article says, homeschooled kids are ineligible if they live in the “Untied States.” Therefore, since they live in the United States, they are automatically elible, and it shouldn’t be hard to find a headline-seeking lawyer to back them up on this.
It should be eligible. Sometimes, I need a spelling lesson as much as the Subway people.
Second that…their sandwich are just bad…and now this discrimination:(
Excluding home schoolers is ridiculous. But I wonder if the grand prize has anything to do with it. It includes five grand worth of athletic equipment for the winner’s school. I wonder if it’s equipment for team sports and Subway is making the incorrect assumption that a home schooler wouldn’t be able to use it.
Home made subs are the only way to go. it’s that old line “wish sandwich” you wish subways had some meat.
I have been boycotting Subway for some time. Mainly because of their advertising that tries to guilt people into not eating anything that might not be “healthy” such as burgers, etc. I think I am going to have a big fat cheeseburger in their honor.
This is an essay writing contest and the grand prize is athletic equipment for the school.
Unimaginable. Let us promote educational excellence and then make the top prize a reward for activity that is marginally linked to education, athletics.
Isn’t this some form of discrimination?
If it isn’t, it should be.
I’d love for some child that is home schooled due to a disability to file and ADA suit against Subway. That’ll teach ‘em a lesson.
I generally like Subway, but this makes them look like close-minded jerks.
TO: SUBWAY®
Doctor’s Associates Inc.
Scholastic Inc.,
RE: EVERY SANDWICH TELLS A STORY CONTEST OFFICIAL RULES
Does Rule 2 [below] mean that Doctor’s Associates Inc. and SUBWAY® and Scholastic Inc. believe that ‘home schooled’ persons are second class citizens? Home schooled students are not welcome to participate in your contest. Should they also consider themselves and their families not welcome at Subway stores?
“2. ELIGIBILITY. Contest is open only to legal residents of the United States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted. Employees and members of their families of Scholastic and Subway, their parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, and their advertising, promotion and production agencies are not eligible to enter. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.”
[emphasis mine]
Contest Rules
Contest Sponsors:
Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
SFAFT, 488 Wheelers Farms Road, Milford, CT 06461
Subway Contact Info
Subway Franchise Headquarters
325 Bic Drive
Milford, CT 06461-3059
PH: 203-877-4281
800-888-4848
Doctor’s Assoc. contact
Doctor’s Associates Inc.
325 Bic Dr.
Milford, CT 06460 CT
Tel. 203-877-4281
Toll Free 800-888-4848
Fax 203-876-6674
Officers:
President: Frederick A. (Fred) DeLuca
VP Operations: Millie Shinn
Controller: David Worroll
Doctor’s Assoc. googled
Apparently Subway is stuck on stupid. No problem for me. Plenty of other places to buy sandwiches. Who knows, I may even make a good one at home.
@#55: I agree. They’d be better off giving away musical equipment. But the monopoly that is public education in our country doesn’t believe in teaching creativity, art, or independent thinking.
I hope the winner is a parable about the Untied States going to heck in a handbastket.
It probably will be!
Mookie, re: post #52..
Your assumptions about why Subway did what they did is probably what happened-at least on the surface.
Still Subway, Starbucks, United Way, and other corps./orgs in this country seem to have fallen into a mindest similar to their neighborhood where they live and associate: urban, rich, and Blue-statish. There a member of the NRA, homeschooler, Michelle Malkin, you and I, etc. are to them like animals in a Conservative Petting Zoo.
I am a 44 year old double major in Economics and Statistics at University of Washington. As part of that deal I live part of the time with my well-to-do elite private school educated rich cousins on Queen Anne Hill to save gas…their neighborhood is very liberal as they are.
They are rabid supporters of public school funding (and several of the children have become public school teachers-even though none of them ever set foot in a public school for their own education
This kind of isolation makes for strange beliefs on their part.
Fear not…Their breadwinner their is now a member of the NRA (but has not always been as such), and I taught several of them how to shoot an Ar-15 for fun and have photos to prove how much fun they had!
Yes, in a way I am a fiendish Fabian Conservative working in deepest, darkest Seattle!
Good post, Mookie.
Okay, my note is off to Subway customer service.
“I understand that Subway is doing a school kids writing contest. I understand that my children, whom my wife and I homeschool, are pointedly not welcome to participate. Since I am their dad, a homeschooling dad, is my patronage likewise not welcome at Subway?”
Any bets on getting an answer back?
I know what you mean rumba. I will be visiting Ballard soon. Plenty of libs there too but we will be proudly flying the Stars and Stripes just to piss off the neighbors!
I’ve also sent a note to Subway stating my intentions not to purchase anything from there.
Thanks to Scottie and tc2011 for sending links to the appropriate page. Thanks also to Henry for the info on Subway’s mission statement.
Quiznos is better anyway.
Does this mean we get to boycott Jared as well? I hate that smug SOB.
I forwarded this story to my sister who homeschooled her two daughters; and another family friend who has homeschooled 5 children. Below is a copy of the email that my sister sent to Subway (I knew I’d strike a nerve):
I now live in the sate of Obamanation (illinois), but my best friend in Dallas had been an English major, and spent about an hour a day helping his son learn to read and study English. His son always read about 3-4 grade levels higher than his classmates, and the public school teacher told my fiend not to help him any more – he was doing “to well”. This concerted my forminally liberal friend (he went to UW-Madison, nuff said) into a rock rib conservative almost overnight
Boy, I should have proofed better (more DD coffee, please):
fiend = friend
forminally = formally
to = too
concerted = converted
I always thought Subway sandwiches had too much bread and toppings and not enough meat. Evidently that parallels their education standards.
How tremendously disappointing. No more Subway for me; I’m home-schooled and I actually quite liked their sandwiches. But if they don’t want my business, I suppose I really have no choice.
I realize I might be a minority on this, but I never found it appetizing to walk into a food chain (like Subway) where all the food is sitting out in its own juices on the front counter, and in the path of every employee…just the thought.
That aside, I don’t understand how it helps a neighborhood food establishment to stick its nose into a liberal money/power grab battle such as public v. home schooling.
Home schooling gives me hope for our country, Michelle! In Texas, we have hundreds of thousands of home schoolers. I’m grateful for the brave families who make this choice & sacrifice for their children. God bless you one and all!
Sent Subway an email. Thanks to those who provided the contact links.
I don’t eat there much, but I certainly will make a point to NEVER eat at a Subway, and as others pointed out, there are plenty of other places to eat a good sandwich.
Boy, I sure do miss those Italian hoagies in Philly… they put Subway sandwiches to shame.
Even if Subway changes their tune, I still won’t eat their dried-up, crusty breaded sandwiches. “Eat Subway. Eat Stale!”
I’m hungry for Quiznos. Anyone want to join me?
Put them together…says it all.
Maybe they could “manufacture” a new sammie for Obama…The Refreshing Change You Asked for…introducing the NEW, “HOT AIR ‘BARRY’ GYRO” sammie!! It looks filling, but has no substance! Made by our ELITE staff of
trainededucatedworkerswage earners, just for you!Sorry, did you miss these…?
sate – state?
forminally = formally = formerly?
Did they really mean to say over the age of 18? Not 18 and older, you have to be at least 19. What about 18-year-olds in the Untied States?
I home-school my son & even though I wouldn’t participate in their contest this still bothers me greatly.
I emailed their CS dept about this policy and forwarded to my HS group of 30 families strong what Subway has done.
I wonder what lame excuse they are going to give me if they ever return my complaint letter.
If Starbucks ever does this then I’ll be very rich!
mom of “backward unsocialized” home-school’d kid
Home schooling is favored by a large number of Christian households who feel that public schools teach and promote a value system that is antithetical to their Christian beliefs.
It seems everytime I enter a Subway it is run by Muslims, Hindus or other non-Christian people.
I wonder if there is a correlation as to why Subway chose to exclude homeschoolers in order to not offend their non-Christian franchisees.
Subway restaurants are franchises, owned and operated by hardworking entrepreneurs. As franchisees, owners are required to kick a percentage of sales up to corporate headquarters. Further, franchise owners usually have to kick another 2-4% of sales back to headquarters in “marketing fees.”
It’s my fervent hope that franchise owners band together and demand the termination of the corporate marketing “dude” who thought “No home schools will be accepted” would be a brilliant marketing ploy.
Subway sandwiches=illiterate taste.
#80- Only problem is that they would have to stop serving ham sandwiches….and what kind of Muslim would go against traditional convention?
tBear44;
Too bad you don’t live in Texas. There are flags on every other house in my neighborhood. Once I deliberately counted every American flag for the 171 miles to our 2nd home on the gulf coast. I counted 186…in 171 miles!
Subway is dumb!! I used to enjoy going there ever so often, now I will not!!!!
Dagney I live in AK but go down to visit the lib hellhole once a year. No way would I live there!
Right on about donating non-educational sporting equipment for a writing contest. How about BOOKS along with the musical equipment?
I’m not a lawyer, but I hire lots of them, and I think the contest announcement is what those mouthpieces would call a, ‘prima facie’ case against the public school system. For those of you who graduated from a public school in the past 25 years, in which Latin was removed from the curriculum, that means they stepped on their wanker, or for those of you who graduated in the last 10 years, that roughly translates as, “Doh!”.
Academic snobbery is alive and well at Subway.
I think the hundreds of thousands of people (perhaps more) who have abandoned the public school and university systems in order to attend charter schools, be home schooled, and/or attend private post-secondary education institutions have chosen wisely.
But don’t take my word for it, I’m a night school graduate.
On behalf of my son and daughter, both home schooled, submitted at Subway’s conetst site:
There once was a Mysterious Meatball who worked at Subway who decided to hold a contest. The Meatball wrote up the rules, but should have taken a hint from a home schooled child since the Meatball misspelled words throughout the rules. You could say his way was Sub…standard.
Unfortunately, the Meatball decided to be discriminatory, and exclude the child.
No loud knocks would be coming at the door of the home schooled child since the Turkey moved to Subway with the rest of the Turkeys, and Salami Sam had been fired since it was discovered by Subway that he had been home schooled.
Everyone gathered in the center of town for the race to Red Onion Ranch except home schooled children. They had been hauled off to re-education camps by the head Red Onions.
The remaining townsfolk decided there was nothing better than selfishly gobbling up the fresh baked bread without having to share with the home schooled kids.
The head of the Red Onions agreed.
conetst = contest
I see they have 19 in Iraq. Interesting to see they don’t mind making a buck off of a captive audience.
I am 55 and my two children are now WAY past school age……But Subway is off my list just on principle.
Well, looks like that is the last time I go to Subway. We homeschool our kids and even if we did not , I would find this to be rude and insulting.
I think they just wanted to give the public school kids a decent shot at winning.
I had to chuckle though when I saw that the parents had to be at least 18. If you have a 4-10 yr old, I hope you’re over 18. And if you’re not, you’re probably not sitting down with your kid writing essays.
At least they did specify you had to be a LEGAL resident.
Add me to the list of those who will no longer visit Subway. I actually do visit them frequently as they have a shop right next to my son’s Karate class and sometimes I’ll pop in for dinner but no more.
I never go to Subway. Cousin’s Subs is more [sic myself] better. Cheese Steak on Garlic Herb bread – yum! Cousin’s restaurants are only in the Midwest and Southwest, though.
I suspect that someone from the Dumbest Generation wrote the contest rules.
(I’m actually in the midst of reading Bauerlein’s book right now. I’ve read some criticism of the book, and I can tell that many of the critics are basing their complaints on their reactions to the title and the copy on the dustjacket. The critics also would say that I’m a hyporcrite, that I’m in no place to praise or criticize anything, since I haven’t finished the book and I haven’t read this or that counterargument, but I agree with what I’ve read in Bauerlein’s book so far. —Gasp! How dare you!—)
This is true to some extent, but if you ever met some of the women in our home school group, you would meet some absolute raving liberals.
Oh they are all for public school funding and support lib causes, but they refuse to put their kids in public schools because they know the type of education their kids would receive.
Whenever they get together, quite often my son (13yo) gets into some discussion with them, and being very conservative for his age, gives them fits. He seems to enjoy it immensely.
No worries terrig, there are lots of other options!