Subway Employee Denies Pregnant Woman's Sandwich Request, Lives To Tell The Tale

Subway employee refuses to microwave meat for a pregnant woman, all hell breaks loose

Don’t f**k with a pregnant woman’s food, okay? It’s not a hard rule to understand. Just don’t do it. One Subway sandwich maker in Iowa apparently didn’t get the memo, and he’s paying in bad press.

Pregnancy+food=annoying. There are so many things that pregnant women are supposed to avoid, and there’s always someone ready and waiting to let them know about it. Remember the pregnant woman who was refused a cup of coffee by an overly-concerned barista? This story sways a little too far in the other direction. The Subway employee refused a pregnant woman’s request to microwave her sandwich meat, and all hell broke loose.

“I’m expecting and doctors recommend that you don’t eat deli meat unless it’s thoroughly heated,” Kassidy Small told her local news station. “Usually when I eat at Subway I ask them to microwave my meat then toast it.” The male employee was not having it. He allegedly said “no,” and told Smalls, “This is fast food, not fine dining.” Yeah, lady. This isn’t fine dining. How dare you ask him to flash microwave your meat for 30 seconds before he jams it in a six inch sub?

Smalls said the employee would only toast the sandwich, but refused to warm the meat in the microwave. She said he even tried to prove the meat was hot enough by pulling out a thermometer and showing her it registered at 140 degrees. All of that seems way harder than just shoving the meat into a microwave for 30 seconds. According to the CDC, deli meat needs to be 165 degrees to be safely eaten by pregnant women, anyway.

Why go through all of that effort — the arguing, the temping of the meat, the rudeness — rather than just give the customer what she wants? It’s a simple request. And I say this as someone who was a waitress for about 1,000 years. (Maybe not exactly, but it felt that way.) This is not an over-the-top request. It’s really a simple one. The sandwich maker allegedly told the woman he’d “already made 90 sandwiches” that day. Who gives a shit? You’re a sandwich maker, which you clearly hate, but it’s not this pregnant woman’s fault.

Smalls started crying and left, because pregnant.

This made local news for reasons that are some what inexplicable, but since it did, let’s talk about it. There is no reason a pregnant woman should be driven to tears while ordering a damn sandwich. Taking 30 seconds to warm her meat is just not a big deal. There are two sides to every story. Maybe she was a total bitch about it. Even if she was, still not a big deal to pop it in the microwave and keep it moving.

Don’t mess with a pregnant woman’s food. If you haven’t gotten the memo, there it is.