Aaliyah ONeal

Robert Arnold
UWRT 1101
5 November 2014
Ethnography Report
For my ethnographic research paper I pondered for a while on what subculture
topic to choose. After browsing the web for ideas I stumbled across fast food places as
a topic. I have been working at Subway (restaurant) for quite some time now, so what
better topic to choose than one I know about but still have questions about as well?
When first choosing this topic I decided to have the mindset of an outsider. By outsider
I mean someone who has never worked at Subway before. Once I got into that mindset
and before I began to research and observe I assumed that it would just be a few
people making sandwiches and processing money transactions. After observing and
researching I found out that I wasnt totally wrong, but I was missing a large amount of
what Subway workers actually do. To most people working at Subway is simply making
sandwiches, but to Subway workers, it is much more than that.
Before I began my research I decided to write down a few background facts that I
knew about Subway, how they operate, and their employees. I knew that there are
typically two to three employees working at a time, depending on the size of the store
and the time of day. From prior knowledge of just having gone and gotten some food
from their, and from my cousin having worked there before, I knew that they focus a lot
on maintaining a clean restaurant. I knew that they, like all other restaurants, had
standards to go by and meet. I knew that the food had expiration dates, it was mostly

fresh, and that it would be changed periodically and as necessary. I always noticed that
the workers wore hats/visors, an apron, and a Subway brand shirt. I wasnt quite sure
about what color pants they had to wear or if that was apart of the dress code, but I did
know that they had to wear close-toed shoes. I learned in my Foods and Nutrition II
class that I took in high school that Subway mandated that gloves must be worn when
handling food. So, about 80% of the time that an employee is working, they are wearing
gloves. The only times I would assume they werent required to wear gloves was when
cleaning or on the register. My cousin who had worked at Subway for two years was a
closer, meaning he worked the evening into the night shifts and closed up the store.
Because I used to have to pick him up, I knew there was no definite time that an
employee would get finished closing. Some nights are slower than others so some
nights he would get done sooner than if they had been busy. He always told me that
working at Subway included many duties but I never asked him exactly what he had to
do. That was always the mystery.
On October 21, 2014 I did my first walkthrough of a Subway restaurant with the
purpose of simply observing. Upon entry I noticed the amount of business that they
had. It was a Tuesday and they were fairly slow. It was around six oclock in the
evening. I purposely went to observe at that time because I figured that would be a
peak time for business, which it was, but it wasnt as busy as I thought. The lobby area
was clean and in good standing. The tables looked sanitized, the floor looked as clean
as it would be after a long day of business, and the aroma of the bread and cookies
filled the store with a wonderful scent.

I then began to observe the workers, their appearance, how they handled food
and customers, and how they interacted with one another. They dress in a Subway
shirt, black pants, close-toed shoes, an apron, and a hat/visor as I had previously
observed. They always wear gloves when handling food and change them periodically,
usually when the gloves get soiled or they deal with different types of foods (raw,
cooked, etc). From the moment I began to watch them, I couldnt keep track of how
much they do even when theyre simply making the food and ringing customers up.
Subway employees have to do a lot. They begin with coming from the back room and
greeting the customers. As they greet the customer, they put on their gloves and begin
a series of questions. They first as what can I get for you? That question is very
vague so sometimes customers do not go into enough detail, which is why they have a
string of questions that they ask. This particular customer only stated what size and
which type of bread they wanted. The employee then asked what type of sub was it
going to be? The customer responded with a spicy italian. I observed the worker cut
the bread and place the meat on the bread in a very strategic way. The worker then
asked what type of cheese and whether or not the customer wanted their sandwich
toasted. All of that took about 60 seconds. From then on I knew their intentions were to
get customers through the line as quickly as possible. Once the sandwich finished
toasting they had to listen closely as the customer stated which veggies and sauces
they wanted. During this particular time a timer began to go off while the employee was
still making the sandwich. The employee then stopped, asked to customer to wait for a
second, covered the sandwich, took off their gloves, put on oven mitts, and took six
pans of bread from out of the oven. She placed the bread on the cooling racks and then

removed the oven mitts. She walked to the sink, washed her hands, put on a new pair
of gloves, and proceeded to finish making the sandwich. The employee acted in a swift
and polite manner when multitasking and dealing with her customer. After she finished
creating the sandwich, she wrapped it, bagged it and took her gloves off. She asked a
promotional question upon ringing the customer up. She then made the transaction and
sent the customer on his way. From that first employee-customer interaction I noticed
how tentative you must be when working there. Every time you miss something the
customer says slows down the process of getting them in and out. Their goal is to get
the customers through the line as quick as possible while still offering them the best
quality of food. I noticed that sometimes the Subway employees bump heads. By
bumping heads, I mean they may not get along or agree. In front of the customers they
will put on a smile and act as if there are no hard feelings, which is the professional
thing to do, but in the back/prep area, they may struggle. I noticed one person doing
majority of the work and one person taking longer breaks than offered. The workers had
to prepare the bread for proofing, change out the food containers, put the bread in the
proofer, put the bread in the oven, manage to keep cookies stocked in the display, keep
the lobby clean, and take and complete orders when customers come up. I noticed one
employee counting the register before clocking out. There was just simply so much to
do before leaving that one employee there by herself for the remainder of the business
hours. Subway workers truly have a workload that is unlike other fast food restaurants.
In the fast food business, there are many pieces that one must put together in
order for things to run smoothly. Subway restaurants have a unique style and way of
presenting their food and employees to their customers. They have set up tactics,

techniques, and specific steps on how to do everything that is needed to know when
running the restaurant. When observing Subway employees, you see neat, clean, and
trained employees who follow a system of rules in order to achieve maximum success.
I was very impressed by the employees professionalism and the cleanliness of the
store in whole. I learned that Subway workers are like none other. Subway workers run
an entire business practically alone. I now understand why Subway workers get
offended when people say that all they do is make sandwiches. Subway employees do
much, much more than that, and for that they should be applauded. They deserve
much more than $7.25-7.75 an hour. Bravo Subway.