Less is More When Dining Out
“Freshly sliced onions, lettuce, tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, oregano and a dash of salt. Mike’s Way, the way we recommend topping all of our cold subs here at Jersey Mike’s.”
These words I rehearsed early and often in the first days of what would be a two-years-and-counting stint as the third-most charming and fifth-fastest slicing sandwich shop employee within ten miles of the Cook and Will County border.
Ten thousand sandwiches later, it’s more than a recommendation. It’s a way of life, for better or for worse.
Through years of sincere, serious sandwich crafting and careful customer consideration, as strange as it may seem, I’ve learned how basic inborn human drives and values can influence the world. At least the small world we do our individual business and play in.
I’ve given away more sandwiches than I can count. Free of charge. No tricks, no gimmicks. You only need to enter a phone number when making a purchase and it’s like magic. Sooner rather than later your $7.88 sub is $0.00. No questions asked!
This, and hundreds of other programs similar to it, is based entirely upon one admirable trait: Loyalty. The Loyalty Rewards Program, appropriately named Shore Points, is a literally free of charge system which accumulates points based on your purchase and redeems you with free subs when reaching certain benchmarks. There’s other perks and privileges too, including Double Points Wednesdays and optional text message coupons.
As an employee, I’m not subject to these fantastic deals. And it bothers me.
I want free food! Where else can I go to find free food?!
After asking myself this question over and over again, I’ve finally decided to find an answer. I’ll be getting my hands dirty in the darkest dungeons of the city (Orland Park, IL) as well as waltzing down the ruby red carpet into the ritziest of establishments (e.g. Ruby Tuesday, Red Robin, I’m a college student after all).
And I won’t stop there. I’ll be finding the daily specials, the breakfast, lunch and dinner specials, the military specials, the children specials, the student specials, the special-circumstance specials, and every other especially special special that can be found.
I’m dedicated to saving you and I some money and eating damn well while doing it.
