Chartwells now offers Subway To Go

Subway standards say production should be one minute per sandwich, but at Southeast Missouri State University they're averaging 1.75 sandwiches made per minute, so you think Southeast would be ahead when it comes to the sandwich-making game.

But when you factor in close to 100 students coming in during lunch at the Subway located inside Scully Building to grab a sandwich, that's a 50-60 minute wait.

Chartwells dining services on campus thinks they found a solution to Subway's long lines with their new Subway To Go system.

"I'm not really sure what exactly triggered the idea, but our retail director Matt Ludwig -- I think it was originally his idea because he saw that 'Well Jimmy John's delivers, that's what they do' and a few of the obstacles that we've come up against too is that Jimmy John's mainly does just delivery, so you can go into the store and no one's in there. We have the opposite problem," Chartwells marketing director Shayna Arndt said.

The program was supposed to originally start up in January, but with all the snow and ice delivery just wasn't possible.

Arndt explained that they planned to deliver only to Dempster or faculty and staff in Scully Building, but constantly seeing Jimmy John's trucks on campus led to expansion.

The program was originally aimed at only faculty and staff because of the brevity of their lunch breaks, but the Subway To Go program is available to anyone who wishes to use it.

Chartwells corporate office gave Southeast the means to get the program up and running.

"Chartwells corporate started this thing called the 'green fleet,' which is a bunch of bikes," Arndt said. "Some of them are used for catering delivery and they had one and they wanted us to be a pilot school and they offered and asked if anyone wanted to be a pilot school and we were like, 'This could be perfect for our Subway To Go idea.'"

Right now the program is set up completely online. Anyone can go to dineoncampus.com/semo, fill out the Subway To Go form and then email it to subwaytogo@semo.edu. The website also has a full Subway menu and a map of their delivery route.

For quality purposes, the delivery system only delivers cold sandwiches; adding chips and a soda is also an option.

"We recommend paying in Redbucks because if you send in the email and you have your S.O. number we can just take it off your balance," Arndt said.

Arndt also said that they destroy all account information after delivery so anyone can use a credit card if they want to, but Redbucks is preferred. Cash is also accepted, but no bills larger than $20.

"As it stands right now we don't accept meal plans or flex dollars, not to say that it couldn't happen, but this program is just kind of like a new baby and we're just waiting to see where it grows and what people want and how to improve it further," Arndt said.

The Subway To Go route delivers to Dempster Hall, Seabuagh Polytechnic Building, Magill Hall, Rhodes Hall, Serena Building, Academic Hall, Crisp Hall, Carnahan Hall and Parker Building. Each building also only has specific times when Subway To Go can be delivered. All of this information is online with the Subway To Go order form.

"As it stands right now we tried to make it [the route] convenient for everybody," Arndt said.

Arndt explained that they restricted Subway To Go delivery because they're not really sure how much time it will take to deliver to buildings farther away and because they only have one bike right now. Chartwells may be getting another bike, but that depends on the success of the program.

"Our thought behind the spots that we did pick was that if it's something you really want to do it's not that far of a walk," Arndt said. "Crisp is the farthest that we go and that still is a little bit of a walk, but the idea behind it is that it's not that far if it's something you really want to do."

Arndt also said that they have hired a couple of guys who do nothing but deliver Subway To Go .

"We picked a couple of guys that love biking, so it's not like they're going to struggle riding the bike," Arndt said. "And they love it, it's precious."

Arndt explained that Subway To Go is still in the new stages of development as far as working out all the glitches.

"If anybody ever has feedback of what they think we could do or what we could do better for them, we'd love to hear it," Arndt said. "We don't know what the problems are if we don't hear about them."

Southeast student and public relations major Kali Blechle was excited to hear about the program but disappointed when she heard they didn't deliver to Grauel, which is where most of her classes are and where she spends most of her time at.

"I think the Subway To Go program sounds awesome, but I was so sad when I found out that they didn't deliver to Grauel," Blechle said. "I feel like out of most of the buildings on campus we're here constantly working on campaigns and projects that require us to be in the lab. It would just be nice to be able to grab a quick bite and it's something I'm definitely going to suggest online."

For the future, Chartwells is currently looking into integrating a small electric car into the Subway To Go program to possibly make deliveries that are a bit farther away or across busy streets that would not be safe for a biker to cross.