{"id":9087,"date":"2012-05-29T14:50:39","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T14:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=9087"},"modified":"2023-06-29T16:26:04","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T15:26:04","slug":"sandwich-shops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=9087","title":{"rendered":"Sandwich Shops"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/sand_baconegg.jpg\" alt=\"Bacon and Egg roll\" class=\"wp-image-42883 lazyload\" width=\"699\" height=\"464\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/sand_baconegg.jpg 524w, https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/sand_baconegg-300x199.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 699px) 100vw, 699px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 699px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 699\/464;\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>About 10 years ago, sandwich shops started multiplying like\u2026 a lot of multiplying things! They were everywhere, taking over any empty retail outlet that came on the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of these places are real fly-by-night affairs. They\u2019ll be there one day, and gone the next. The problem is similar to that which affects many would-be instructors, where imagined success doesn\u2019t quite match up with the realities of running a business. In the case of the cob shops, it seems that any middle-aged woman who knows how to make a ham sandwich suddenly gets the idea she can make a living out of it. At one stage a few years ago, these places were opening up next door to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of them take little interest in their outward appearance, and simply begin trading with the shop in the same state as it was when they took out the lease. At best, they might give the decrepit fa\u00e7ade a coat of paint, and nail up a homemade sign, but that\u2019s about it. Inside, they will usually have bought in some second-hand counters and chillers, and maybe a couple of plastic patio tables and chairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/sand_front.jpg\" alt=\"Typical location for a sandwich shop\" class=\"wp-image-42884 lazyload\" width=\"697\" height=\"391\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/sand_front.jpg 524w, https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/sand_front-300x168.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 697px) 100vw, 697px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 697px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 697\/391;\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Location is simply a function of availability and price \u2013 a run-down, almost derelict shop, in a row of buildings earmarked for demolition sometime in the not-too-distant future, and with absolutely no parking anywhere near (unless you\u2019re a van driver, in which case there are plenty of suitable yellow lines for that purpose). They have colloquial working-class names like \u201cBarb\u2019s Baps\u201d or \u201cStuff Yer Face Cafe\u201d, and are run by people who seem just a little crazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Occasionally, someone will spend a little more on the shop and give it a name like \u201cChilly\u2019s Deli&#8217;\u201d, with bright professional frontage, though it will still have limited parking and be situated in an area completely out of keeping with its bright and fresh appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However they did it, they were all built around a small grill unit \u2013 sometimes just a domestic hob cooker \u2013 and served coffee made with granules in polystyrene cups. Skimmed milk, obviously. And tonnes of commercial-grade bacon and eggs, and commercial-grade sandwich fillings from the cash &amp; carry. In other words, no different to what you could get from one of those roadside caravans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to running a business, any food which doesn\u2019t have a Michelin star to its name is not high margin. Shop rent \u2013 even if the building is falling down \u2013 is not cheap, especially if it\u2019s close to the city centre. To succeed, you need to shift a lot of stuff, so you\u2019d think that having a good business model would be important, closely followed by a well-run operation. You\u2019re in competition with thousands of others and you need to build a good reputation. The instant you start providing poor service then you\u2019re on the road to ruin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I choose to go into any of these places I expect two things as the bare minimum:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #393e37;\">decent food <\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"color: #393e37;\">reasonably quickly <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So, absolutely the last thing I want when I fancy a simple bacon and egg roll before one of my early morning lessons is to be ignored. And this is where you encounter the first problem. Being run by one &#8211; perhaps two &#8211; people means that the person who takes the order also cooks it. Things get a whole lot worse when you then realise they\u2019re also in the middle of fulfilling some idiotic telephone order for 30 bacon butties, 22 teas, and 8 coffees for the building site down the road, and 12 custom baguettes for the local firm that\u2019s got a Team Meeting and is providing \u201coutside catering\u201d for its staff. People coming in off the street are treated as an annoyance rather than an important source of revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The owners of these shops forget very quickly why they went into the business in the first place. Selling bacon and egg rolls requires a completely different business model to outside catering. If you want to do both, you must have the staff to handle both. The subsequent telephone orders &#8211; which they encourage at the outset with \u201ctelephone orders welcome\u201d signs &#8211; are way outside the bounds of the business model required to shift breakfast baps in a manner which ensures your continuing profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The typical owner of the newly opened sandwich shop will just about wet themselves when that first telephone order for 50 bacon butties comes through. But they fail to appreciate that the building site it came from won\u2019t be there in 3 months time, whereas I will be. Except\u2026 I won\u2019t! Because if I go in just once and they can\u2019t serve me quickly, I will never go in again. Ever. So that\u2019s my money they\u2019ll never see &#8211; and I\u2019m sure others must similarly avoid these places if they get poor service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same applies to providing sandwiches for local firms. The hapless butty shop owner doesn\u2019t twig that they\u2019re being taken for a ride. The only reason the skinflint local firm is coming to them is that they\u2019re <strong>cheap<\/strong> (I know: I\u2019ve authorised outside catering for countless meetings in my time). The local firm is forcing the sandwich shop into bankruptcy in order to cut its own costs, and that\u2019s because the sandwich shop owners haven\u2019t got a clue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then there\u2019s the quality of the food. To start with, it would seem that me, my parents, and that bloke who runs that great burger bar just outside Lechlade-on-Thames are the only people on the planet capable of cooking an egg properly!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quite simply, the white should be solid and <strong>most<\/strong> of the yolk runny. Any runny white and it isn\u2019t cooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>None of this sunny side up crap you get at restaurants, either. If you\u2019re frying it in a pan then the egg should be splashed gently during cooking with a little oil (or you can put a cover over it). If you\u2019re using a hotplate with very little oil then the egg should be flipped part way through cooking (the Americans call it \u201cover easy\u201d). Whichever method, the heat needs to get at the egg during cooking from <strong>both sides<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An example: recently I visited a place I\u2019d been impressed with before. It calls itself a \u201cdelicatessen\u201d, and the interior is filled with exotic beers, wines, chutneys, cheeses, and so on, all on solid dark wooden shelves. I\u2019ve never seen anyone buy anything other than sandwiches, although the serving counter for this is tiny compared with the space taken up by everything else. On this occasion there were four women all frantically buttering and filling baguettes and flinging the finished wrapped product into large carrying hampers (at least four stood stacked on the floor). I also noticed carefully crafted wicker baskets of finger sandwiches and fruit piled on top of the cheese in the deli cooling cabinet. It was obvious that this was outside catering orders they were working on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, the owner took my order for a sausage, bacon, and egg baguette (I had a baguette last time) as if I was an unwelcome distraction, which I suppose I was from her perspective. She then persuaded me to have a roll instead of a baguette (I\u2019m fairly certain that \u201cit\u2019ll be better on a roll\u201d translates as \u201cwe need the baguettes for our telephone order\u201d). The bacon and sausage came out of a glass fronted heating box, and both appeared bone-dry. I had to wait for the egg &#8211; and I could have cooked 10 <strong>properly<\/strong> in the time it took for this one. When it eventually arrived I carried the roll away in a bag, got in the car, and drove for 10 minutes to a place where I could stop and eat it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bear in mind the \u201ccooked\u201d egg had had a further 10 minutes to cook in its own heat. I would have expected the yolk to be almost completely solid by now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I bit into it and was immediately covered in raw egg &#8211; not just the yolk, but gooey clear\/white gunk as well. And the bacon and sausage were like cardboard. I will not be going back. Ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my list of expectations I didn\u2019t mention hygiene (or perceived hygiene). I suppose that on the one hand, a certain level of basic food hygiene has to be assumed, whereas that is traded off against the general appearance of the place you go into. After all, if it <strong>looks<\/strong> like they keep chickens and other livestock on the premises, you shouldn\u2019t be <strong>too<\/strong> surprised if it turns out that they do! But I draw the line at smoking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It will take a lot to get me into any place where I see the staff smoking &#8211; at any time &#8211; and <strong>where<\/strong> they are smoking matters even more. Just outside the back door is a no-no, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another example: One place on Woodborough Road where I\u2019ve been ignored at before is run by two middle-aged women. Almost every time I go past they\u2019re outside smoking. To make matters worse, one of them is usually leaning with both elbows on a council waste bin &#8211; the ones where the top is for stubbing out cigarettes &#8211; and her apron is dragging against the letterbox openings where the locals throw their half-eaten kebabs and dog poop! I doubt that when she goes back inside to cook she washes her arms up to her armpits or changes her apron. And yet on the walls they\u2019ll be proudly displaying their Food Hygiene Certificates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And another example: I was walking through Ruddington just the other day and the two middle-aged female proprietors were sitting at the table outside (these places are never big enough for more than one or two tables at best) chain-smoking. The door was wide <span style=\"color: #2a2e29;\">open, so no prizes for guessing where the smoke was going. They were dressed in their food clothes and hats, and they were using a saucer &#8211; undoubtedly one they normally use to serve tea and coffee to those who ate inside &#8211; as an ashtray. Another place I\u2019ll never go in. Ever.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #2a2e29;\">The service and quality issues are exacerbated by the type of person who frequents certain of these places. The ones which attract people who drive lorries and vans are to be avoided, though this is obviously a very personal view. They\u2019re usually smokers themselves, and regard standing in the doorway to stay out of the rain as being sufficiently \u201coutside\u201d to allow them to smoke, and the owners don\u2019t give a damn about it. They\u2019re also likely to be placing an order for several people, so you\u2019re guaranteed a long wait.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The large chains aren\u2019t much better, though. I\u2019ve mentioned McDonalds before, but I\u2019ll mention them again. If ever you go in and order something that isn\u2019t ready and which has to be prepared &#8211; their breakfast wraps are a prime example &#8211; watch carefully to make sure you aren\u2019t being shafted by poor service. They often ask me to take a seat and they\u2019ll bring my order over when it\u2019s ready &#8211; but I always decline. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The drive-thru is given absolute priority over those waiting inside [<strong>2023 Update:<\/strong> this is no longer true. Now, absolute priority is given to Uber Eats and Just Eat couriers inside]. It isn\u2019t a stated or written rule &#8211; not that I\u2019m aware of, anyway &#8211; but the manager or manageress will enforce it rigidly to avoid cars backing up outside. They will even send junior people waiting for <strong>your<\/strong> order away from the stacking shelf so <strong>they<\/strong> can snatch the next wraps or McMuffins that come down. Trust me, they do this, and you have to stand by and make sure they don\u2019t get away with it. I\u2019ve demanded my money back on more than one occasion when I\u2019ve seen them do it, and I make it clear when I\u2019m watching that I know what they\u2019re up to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve seen cars drive into the car park while I\u2019m waiting for my order, go through the drive-thru, and drive off with food\u2026 and I\u2019m still waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you don\u2019t make a fuss, a 3 minute wait can turn into a 10 minute one, and I find that unacceptable in a place which allegedly sells <strong>fast<\/strong> food. Basford McDonalds on the ring road is easily the worst for this. It\u2019s bad enough they never have enough breakfast food prepared to start with, but they\u2019re not going to screw me even further if I\u2019ve decided I\u2019m hungry enough to tolerate the initial wait!<\/p>\n\n\n\n <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4532794719633406\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 10 years ago, sandwich shops started multiplying like\u2026 a lot of multiplying things! They were everywhere, taking over any empty retail outlet that came on the market. Many of these places are real fly-by-night affairs. They\u2019ll be there one day, and gone the next. The problem is similar to that which affects many would-be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-related"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}