Students flock to Subway opening

With lines streaming out the doors on its opening day, it is more than evident that Subway is a very popular addition to the campus dining scene.

A brand new addition to 1920 Commons, students are wasting no time in spending their dining dollars on Subway, located in the space formerly occupied by Chats, a late-night food spot that closed in December 2000.

"I love this place," College sophomore Herman Li exclaimed.

"I like the fact that it is Subway -- that it's an actual business, that you go in and know what you are going to get, and I love the dining dollars," College junior Ingrid Gustafson said.

The popular franchise was brought in by new campus dining management company Aramark in an attempt to change the face of Penn's faltering Dining Services. Subway is the first of several notable retailers that Aramark plans to bring in to draw Penn students back to the dining halls.

Commons Retail Manager Patrick Mearn also agreed that the name brand will help attract customers.

"I think it will attract more students. The Subway brand is just getting so popular. The franchise has about 19,000 locations," Mearn said.

Yet, Wharton sophomore Temilola Agbede said she feels that she is paying more to get better food.

"It's good but you have to realize that you are paying more for it," Agbede said. "I can't afford to come here a lot."

However, the biggest complaint of the day was the long wait in line.

"The lines are horrible. We've been waiting for half an hour," College senior Ariel Goldberg said.

And by 7:30 p.m., students were being turned away after an unexpected bread shortage. But officials were well aware of the problem and attributed the long wait to opening- day jitters.

"It's pretty much the first day for the employees. They're still learning how to put a sandwich together," Mearn said.

But many students said they would brave the long lines in the future.

"Even though the lines are absurdly long, I'll still come back," College junior Erin Rhoades said.

And Wharton and Engineering sophomore Vinay Viralam said he thinks Subway will help Penn improve it's dining services by creating competition.

"They provide good competition for dining, because not only are they right next to Commons, but they also serve high quality food which will make Penn dining watch their back -- it will force them to make high quality food," he said.

"If you're walking by this area where there's both 1920 Commons and Subway, Subway has clean utensils, whereas 1920 Commons normally has dirty forks, knives and spoons that haven't been washed properly," Viralam added.

And for the most part, students seem to be in agreement.

"This is a very big improvement for dining because there are really no health alternatives in the dining hall," Li said. "I don't care about the other places, just Subway. I wouldn't mind it if they put a Wendy's in here, too."

And Rhoades said she thinks that Subway is not only a more healthy alternative, but a better option all around.

"It's better than the dining halls because you pay less and you get the food you want and it's more convenient. Dining halls make it very difficult to enjoy your meals because it's expensive and not very convenient. The lines are absurd, they lost the 'to go' boxes and they start cleaning up an hour early. I've had that happen on more than one occasion," Rhoades said.

Subway is already overshadowing the other two eateries recently added to the 1920 Commons lower level -- Bene Pizzeria and Salad Creations.

"We didn't expect this much business," Mearn said. "The first day, 90 percent [of customers] have been going for Subway and we forecasted 75 percent. We're almost running out of products."

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