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Having lived in London and San Francisco I can say that from my perspective there is a real problem with getting affordable, convenient and descent sandwiches i
by FuckButtons 7y ago
Having lived in London and San Francisco I can say that from my perspective there is a real problem with getting affordable, convenient and descent sandwiches in the US. They’re ubiquitous in England, every shop has pre packaged sandwiches and few are inedible. Most people who work in the city can grab something cheapish from pret that’s pre made and tastes good. I’m yet to find anything remotely equivalent here, prepackaged food is often just made really badly, from low grade ingredients so much so it’s not worth taking a punt on half the time. So you wind up paying more for something that just got made in front of you because the alternative will make you regret buying it. It’s a waste because most of the working week all you really want is something that will get you through till clocking off time that you can buy and eat quickly so you’re not wasting too much of your time out of the office.
- Svip 7y agoThis is actually one of my favourite things about road tripping around Europe; you can just pull in at a random service station and get affordable, convenient half-decent sandwiches (sometimes even decent ones!). In my experience, the only real significant ticket item on a European road trip is the fuel price. Even accommodations are generally a lot cheaper than their US counterparts.
- seszett 7y agoUsually you can go to a bakery and get a much better sandwich, from fresh ingredients and usually much cheaper than what you'd get prepackaged.
- maccard 7y agoPretty much every town or villiage in the UK has a Tesco/boots/coop, all of which offer pre packaged sandwiches for less than £2. I don't think I've ever come across a bakery that sells pre made sandwiches for that price. YMMV on the mainland though
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoMy experience mainly outside the South East is virtually every half decent UK bakery will make barmcakes and sandwiches to order, for about the same or if they are more it's only by a little - say 10-40p. Yet you'll usually get vastly more fillings, so they work out much cheaper, along with scope for customisation. The chain bakeries like Gregg's etc just offer the same sort of carefully rationed pre-pack choices as supermarkets.
- lrem 7y agoWait, really two pounds? In Dublin it used to be more like a fiver...
- maccard 7y agoTesco has them for €3 https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=288175714 https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=288175714, and I'm sure Spar/Mace have their own versions which manage to be cheaper. £1.90 in Tesco in the UK https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/274622236 https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/274622236 If you go back to ~2015 or so, befire the pound tanked, the numbers were pretty much the same.
- lrem 7y agoI remember Spar specifically in the €4-€5 range.
- 7y ago
- danielscrubs 7y agoThe Nordics would like a word with you, especially the Norwegians.
- jacobush 7y agoOnly the Norwegians
- Symbiote 7y agoWith the changes in exchange rate in the last 2-3 years, Denmark will also feel in the same league as Norway. A fresh made (off site, I suspect) sandwich with a 50cL drink is €4.70 at 7-Eleven: https://all2day.dk/shell+7-eleven https://all2day.dk/shell+7-eleven
- CalRobert 7y agoDid a road trip with two buddies around Europe about 10 years ago and this was our experience. Italian gas stations felt like upscale grocery stores in the US. Even fuel was less than we expected due to getting 50+ mpg
- burntoutfire 7y ago> Italian gas stations felt like upscale grocery stores in the US. In some of European countries, shops are closed (by law) on Sunday. Gas stations are exempt from this, hence they morph into shops.
- johnnycab 7y agoThere aren't many countries in the EU, which emphatically restrict Sunday shopping. Even where the restrictions are in place, trading laws can vary and not strictly imposed or adhered to. This can also be coupled with diminishing political appetite to choke the local economy. 'Gas stations' morphing into shops, is related to the phenomenon of channel blurring, rather than just exploiting the exemptions in laws/rules. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_shopping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_shopping https://www.retailwire.com/tag/channel-blurring/ https://www.retailwire.com/tag/channel-blurring/
- mattlondon 7y agoIt is a huge pain in the UK and is rigidly adhered to. Most of the "large" shops (I think there is a square-footage cutoff point) and shopping centres/malls must only open for 6 hours on a Sunday. So the normally 24/7 huge supermarkets that are the size of several football pitches and are usually packed full of people are forced to shut. This means that everyone needs to get out in the 6 hour window, so traffic is insane and the shops themselves are insane because all the shopping that normally happens spread across 24 hours has to be jammed into 6 hours. It is really annoying. Smaller shops are allowed to stay open, so in the UK we now have a lot of smaller versions of the large 24/7 supermarket chain stores on high-streets that are typically open something like 8am-10pm/11pm/midnight 7 days a week. These are obviously much more popular than local businesses (cheaper, more reliable, loyalty schemes) so all small independent businesses (greengrocers, bakeries, small grocery stores, hardware stores, stationers, newsagents etc) are being forced out of business. I wish that one day this silliness would be abolished.
- bluedino 7y agoMom and pop gas stations in the USA almost always have a sub sandwich counter. Even the major chains have those factory made sandwiches that are cut into triangles, plus other hot sandwiches.
- snazz 7y agoThe factory made ones at chain gas stations aren’t great, from what I’ve had to have in the US. Iceland is an interesting example of wonderful food at gas stations because gas stations become a gathering place for rural communities there.
- pnutjam 7y agoI noticed this passing through Kansas.
- flycaliguy 7y agoEven up here in Canada, you see a contrast when you enter Quebec. Little self contained food businesses with above decent food along the highway rest stations.
- decebalus1 7y agoI agree. I work in a regular US 'downtown' and I just pack my own lunch because of that. At lunchtime, it's either a crappy prepackaged stale thing from a coffee shop or a 'culinary event' (read: expensive but rather basic food). Food trucks giving you the opportunity to taste other culture's foods (at a premium), restaurants charging $20 for a crappy meal during which you feel rushed, farm-to-table restaurants, etc.. The only good option would be a Whole Foods for which I walk about 20 minutes (not convenient) where I can grab a decent sandwich for under $10. I don't get why lunch needs to be so special. It's just lunch.. There's a Russian deli at about a 10 minute drive which gets it. At around 10 AM they start making and packing sandwiches and until 1 PM they're all gone. Very cheap, tasty, filling, etc..
- omnimus 7y agoDo people really have sandwiches for launch regularly? I can't imagine not having warm meal for launch. Sandwich always means rushed launch to me. I thought lauch was supposed to be main meal of the day.
- te_chris 7y agoDon’t move to London then, heh. Some background: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/24/how-the-sandwich-consumed-britain?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/24/how-the-sandwic...
- pinguinFromY 7y agoYes, they do, why not? If you are in a rush you have to grab something for a quick lunch, that's what sandwiches are for. Or maybe because they are cheap and people might want to save money. I'm like you, lunch is 1 hour fiesta where I just eat a hot meal and chat with whoever I'm taking lunch with. My American colleagues seem to like rushing lunch or "grab something quick" all the time.
- omnimus 7y ago"Grab something quick" sounds like emergency not something you should do often. I guess many people live in constant state of emergency.
- quotz 7y agoAhh London is so underrated, I miss it. I just moved to NYC from London and honestly London is much better
- rinkleby56 7y agoMy experience is the exact opposite
- VWWHFSfQ 7y agoI've lived 3+ years in each of NYC (10 yrs), SF, Seattle, London, and Stockholm. They all have their own charms and quirks and are all nice in their own ways. But from order of most favorite to least (not bad though): * NYC * Seattle * Stockholm * London * SF
- lhorie 7y agoIs San Francisco representative of metropolitan US cities? In my experience everything is expensive here in SF. In Toronto, I could get relatively nice (warm) meals around my office for nearly half of what an average one costs around SF financial district.
- adventured 7y agoThe short answer is: absolutely not. San Francisco could hardly be any further away from being representive of the average major US city. Any use of San Francisco as a comparison point, as though it represents the US well, is going to end up comical far more often than not.
- jrockway 7y agoSF feels a lot like every other major city to me. Do you think New York, Chicago, and LA have low costs of living? They're expensive too. What surprises me about the Bay Area, though, is how expensive the suburbs are. I remember seeing apartments in downtown Mountain View that were $3000/month for one bedroom. Now that's insane and I don't think that happens anywhere else in the world.
- inferiorhuman 7y agoSF feels a lot like every other major city to me. Do you think New York, Chicago, and LA have low costs of living? They're expensive too. The cost of living in San Francisco is dramatically higher than New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. What surprises me about the Bay Area, though, is how expensive the suburbs are. I remember seeing apartments in downtown Mountain View that were $3000/month for one bedroom. Now that's insane and I don't think that happens anywhere else in the world. Right, and you can find one bedrooms in the "outer" boroughs for well under that. Perhaps not for much longer, but still.
- OldHand2018 7y agoI don't think you'll find places like this in San Francisco (or New York, for that matter) https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1430-S-Michigan-Ave-60605/unit-301/home/12733808 https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1430-S-Michigan-Ave-60605/... ~$250k for a 1BR 3 blocks away from Trader Joes and the subway station and many bars and restaurants and parks. The walk/train/bike scores are all >90, so a car isn't needed even though a parking space is included (you could rent it out!). San Francisco is expensive.
- krapht 7y agoI have spent years of my life eating $5 foot-long Subway sandwiches for lunch. I have always thought Subway was ubiquitous. So there's a counterpoint to your affordable, convenient, and decent.
- seanhandley 7y agoDidn't Subway finally kill the $5 footlong last year?
- thrav 7y agoThe quality of Subway compared to the quality of something you’ll find on display at almost any bakery in Europe, is night and day. My wife and I just wrapped a few weeks traveling, and the sandwiches we occasionally grabbed on our way to the park were all outstanding and very cheap. Better than any sandwich I’ve purchased in downtown SF. I can think of at least 4 different specific sandwiches from previous euro-trips that absolutely blew me away, and were just grabbed from a random corner shop. (Paris, Positano, Barcelona, Copenhagen)
- newen 7y agoThe quality of Subway sandwiches are known to be terrible even compared to other chain sandwich shops in the US. It used to be better but cost cutting and greed has caused the quality of the ingredients to go down significantly over the years. I think Americans in general seem to accept low quality food much more easily than Europeans.
- Scoundreller 7y agoOhhhh Subway. They got in a lot of trouble when it was discovered that their "chicken" was half soy. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-chicken-fast-food-1.3993967 https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-chicken-fast-fo... If they just marketed the chicken as "Moving Beyond Meat", and IPO'd with the concept, they could have been richer than their wildest dreams.
- krapht 7y agohttps://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/food-scientists-weigh-in-on-50-subway-chicken-test-its-100-weird/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/food-scientists-weig... No, Subway chicken is not 50% soy.
- inferiorhuman 7y agoInflation's taken it's toll but I think you can still find Banh Mis for $5-6, even downtown. You can find premade burritos for ~$5 at grocery stores like Rainbow or Trader Joe's (but they're closer to 10 oz not the supersized stuff you'd get at a taqueria). And, quite frankly, I find the 7-11 sandwiches to be perfectly serviceable and usually in the $5-$7 range. London's a funny example to me because I've been consistently underwhelmed by the food in England (train stations are no exception).
- ahartmetz 7y agoEnglish food kind of deserves its reputation, but the foreign food is just fine IME. Especially Indian.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoIf you think it’s bad now you should have seen it forty years ago.
- ahartmetz 7y agoBut you already had Indian restaurants at the time, no? ;)
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoNot many, nothing like we have now.
- blackhaz 7y agoHoly freaking cow. Having lived around different places in Europe, and visited many others, I have an impression that London has the best food of just any city in the EU. I can only compare places like Berkeley and SF, and some in Turkey and Cyprus for the quality of meat, veggies and fruits you can get.
- inferiorhuman 7y ago
- m0zg 7y ago>> not wasting too much of your time out of the office Why not, though? It 's nice to have a bit of a break for lunch. What's the rush?
- DanBC 7y agoIt's nice to sit in a park and eat lunch. It's less nice to stand in a queue watching other people's sandwiches and coffee being made before you get yours.
- m0zg 7y agoThis is very easy to avoid: go to lunch at 11:30 or after 1PM.
- chc 7y agoI think you may have misparsed that sentence. To me, the meaning seemed to be "You'd like to have a nice break for lunch, so you don't want to waste too much of it just on acquiring food."
- FuckButtons 7y agoI’d rather get my shit done so I can go home earlier and spend time with my family.
- gandalfian 7y agothere is a real problem with getting affordable, convenient and descent sandwiches in the US Subway? I'm uninformed but is this not a common thing in the usa?
- Amygaz 7y agoThe keyword is “descent”, which I understand is relative to one’s experience, but for what seems like everyone on this board who travelled in Europe at some point, including myself, Subway’s is not even half descent.
- chc 7y agoIf our bar for "decent" is the sandwiches at Pret (mentioned earlier as a contrast to the lack of sandwiches in the US), I feel like Subway is fairly comparable in terms of quality.
- mgkimsal 7y agopeople will bitch and moan that subway isn't "real" food. my experience is that it's generally middle of the road. I think in 20 years I've had only a couple of 'bad' experiences there (over dozens - probably hundreds). Very much dependent on the franchisor. That said, it's still not 'convenient' in many areas - you still need to drive there, get out of a car, etc. No more convenient than other places.
- curioussavage 7y agoTo me subway has always been trash. More especially when you get out of the cities and go to the ones on the road. Lots of bad experiences. The meat is suspect. Others here have already mentioned a lawsuit. If you think the bread is ok then you must have never had bread not made in a giant factory.
- asveikau 7y agoHaving grown up on the US east coast and lived on the west coast for more than a decade (first Seattle, now SF), I need to point out that San Francisco and the west coast in general is not the center of US sandwich culture. I would go so far as to say the average quality of bread available in any random supermarket on the west coast is much lower than in the northeast. That was one of my first culture shocks here: suddenly good bread was a speciality item that needed careful selection.
- mackey 7y agoItalian and other European immigrants have certainly left their mark on sandwiches on the east coast. It's the best of both worlds. Quality cured meats and US portion sizes.
- asveikau 7y agoThe US portion size thing I am not so much a fan of lately. I tend to make my own and put no more than an ounce or two of meat. (28g-56g for non-americans) Whenever I am in Europe I am super impressed with the availability of good cured meats, often from Italy or Spain regardless of what country I am in, and cheaper than the same quality item in the US.
- mackey 7y agoI travel a lot to Europe for work, and that's one of my least favorite aspects of getting a sandwich. I am not a large person at all, but I am never satisfied by a typical European sandwich that is more bread than meat.
- asveikau 7y agoI think I used to experience something like this too. But I was also overweight. In the last few years I got myself used to a smaller portion and the weight just kind slid off, and I am now at a different baseline. That was my experience, not claiming any of that to be universal.
- dghughes 7y agoI'm in Canada and when I worked at a casino doing some overnight moves. The guy I was working with a Czech who said he has worked worked in Graz, Nice, Paris, Monaco, Barcelona. We had a break for lunch at 3am and of course almost nothing was open at that time. He was shocked there were no small cafes to pick up a fresh croissant or sandwich. He said especially in France cafes are on every corner and open early (although maybe not 3am).