WESTBROOK, Minnesota (STPNS) --     Have you ever measured a foot long sub, or a foot long hot dog? No, me either. Recently someone  took  Subway to task because they claim the foot longs are only 11 and a half inches. Really!

    Of course whenever something like this occurs usually a raft of trivial law suits follow, and this one is no exception.  One person is suing Subway for five million dollars claiming he has eaten 50 foot long

subs, per year, at Subway for the past 14 years.



    Let’s see now — that’s about 700 subs at five or six bucks or about $4,200 — that’s a far cry from five million! Also, this guy obviously did not measure any of those subs either, so how would he know if the ones he ate were short of a foot. Then the question is this, assuming they all were short an inch, then shouldn’t he only be compensated for the one inch of each sub? If so that would only be about $360. The only other compensation I can think of would be for pain and suffering? I don’t see how you could make that one fly. I know what Judge Judy would say — BALONEY! I concur with that statement.

    I have eaten quite a few of those subs, only mostly the six inch variety. Unlike most people, I do carry a pocket size tape measure, but I have never measured a sub sandwich, although next time I have one I might do it just out of curiosity. But then there are a lot of variables involved with baking as most moms and grandmas will tell you. Temperature, rise time, yeast, baking time and much more can affect the final product. Most fast food joints have elaborate test kitchens where they define ingredients, weight, cooking temperatures and many other things that affect the final product at both wholesale and retail levels.

    When Best Friend saw the sub on a news cast, she pointed out the sub they showed on the report was cut in two pieces.  She said, “it would have been easy to cut a piece out of the center before taking the picture.” I guess if someone was going to sue the company for the short sub, then I could see that. There have been thousands, if not millions, of fraudulent claims against almost any business in America.  Remember the lady who sued McDonald’s for her spilling hot coffee on herself. That case was awarded by one court then overturned by another court. I can understand when people are wrongfully harmed by a product they should be compensated by the manufacturer of the product.

    Let’s see now, what about 2”x4”s — they have not been 2 inches by 4 inches for many years, and I have bought quite a few of them over the years. I wonder how much the lumber industry owes me?

    I used to really like foot long hot dogs as a kid growing up, I thought that really was a treat. But I’ll bet a dime to a donut they are not all a foot long, and the buns were seldom as long as the hot dog. Although, it seems today, most regular hot dogs are shorter than the bun.

    If you look at the product information of most burger joints it says the weight of their burgers is before cooking. That would be hard for the consumer to prove, however I suspect the food inspectors keep a pretty close eye on things like that, as well as quality control at the companies.

    The only thing I can say about a law suit would be if they could prove the company intentionally cut the amount of dough in their subs to save money.  Then I could see suing, but that would have to be a class action suit.

    I recall hearing a story about oil baron John D. Rockefeller. Back in the day when oil came in metal cans he asked the supervisor of the sealing operation how much solder was being used to seal the cans. The supervisor told him, and Rockefeller told him to cut back by so many drops. But then the cans started leaking so they had to add a little more solder  until they did not leak. The end result was they were able to cut back on solder and save the company thousands of dollars. However the consumer was not affected in any way by what they did.

    I am not sure what that has to do with short sub sandwiches, but I like the story. I guess you could say sometimes less is more, but not if you are eating a sub sandwich.

    

Have a great week and do good!