Subway Ran Out of…. Lettuce? lolwut

I stopped into a local Subway this evening. It’s the Subway on Columbia Ave in the same strip mall as the Giant, Taco Bell, and Starbucks. (I can rarely remember the names of malls for some reason). As I walked in the door, an employee greeted me from behind the counter with a typical “Welcome to Subway…”, which she followed with an apology explaining that that were out of italian bread and pepperoni, so if I wanted something with those two items I was out of luck.

I told her I wasn’t planning on ordering anything with Italian bread or pepperoni.

She then followed up with: “Also we’re out of lettuce…”

“Whoa!”  I said. “You’re out of lettuce?” Talk about burying the lead.

I was really hungry, and I had actually just bought a head of iceburg lettuce at the Giant, so I went ahead an ordered the sub anyway with the intention of just using a bit of my own lettuce to top off the sub when I got home.

Running out of lettuce is a pretty big deal. With the exception of rolls, I would think lettuce would be the most important item to have in stock in a Subway. As I walked out of the store, I began thinking “I just bought a head of lettuce next door at the Giant… If the Subway ran out of lettuce, why wouldn’t one of the employees run next door an pick some up for $1.99/head. Is it a corporate policy that they only use lettuce shipped by Subway? Did they need special permission to buy such an item? I wonder if it’s a legal issue? Or that Subway doesn’t want stores buying lettuce from anyone else? Or, did the employees just not think of it?  Just out of shear curiosity, I wish I had asked.