Speaking To Me

Many years ago I was captivated by a radio commercial. I don’t know if it was the voice of the celebrity or the simplistic approach that the producers took. It just grew on me and so did the image of the company that it was touting.

The commercial was for one of those national motel chains and the actor had a cool name that just rolled off your tongue and it always ended with a welcome telling you these places left the light on just for you.

I happened to be traveling one day and I was in need of a place to stay. It was late and I wanted something inexpensive because I would be getting up early to continue my travels. The happy feeling of the commercial washed over me as I saw one of their signs blazing through the darkness. My heartbeat kicked up a notch and I realized that I had an opportunity to stay with “friends”

I checked in and walked into the room and stopped short. It smelled kind of funny. No bother I told myself. Just a few hours of sleep was all that I needed. I pulled back the covers of the bed and clearly saw that the linen hadn’t been changed from the last customer’s visit. That happy feeling quickly disappeared. The smell in the room pounded at me. There was no way I could sleep in this room. A quick trip to the bathroom confirmed my sentiment and I was back on the road to the next motel thankful that they did not leave the light on for me.

It is amazing how susceptible we are to advertising. Many times a good talking, good-looking politician can get our vote over a more capable candidate.

Large chains with big advertising budgets know this. They know that if they spend enough money and have the right flavor of commercial they can convince us that they are something that they really are not. One of our competitors uses a deluge of advertising to nails the word “fresh” to their name. I wonder what their concept of fresh really is though. Their lettuce is sliced, chlorinated and packed in bags a week ahead of when it makes it to your sandwich. Ask them to let you see a slicer for their deli meats and they can’t because there isn’t one in their restaurant.

Sometimes we are lucky and the contrast is so big between the promise of the commercial and the actual product that we can see through the hype. Many times the lines are a bit blurred and they fool us for a while. At Mr. Subb what you see should be what you get. All photos are taken in one of our stores without fancy lighting or a professional food stylist using fake products to try to fool you.  We don’t have that huge advertising budget and we’ll let you form your own opinion of who we really are.

And yes… Please continue to be a good customer and tell us when we can do things better or when we did things that let that “happy feeling wash right over you”.