Sophomore John Traub is calling for a boycott of Subway sandwiches because the Subway in LaFortune does not offer the famous $5 footlong deal that is offered at other Subways across the nation.
"Basically every time I get Subway it's in the back of my mind that I wish we had $5 footlongs and until a few weeks ago I figured there was no way to change that," Traub said.
Traub initially contacted Subway to find out why the deal was not in place, and the manager said that it would not be a good business decision to implement it, Traub said.
After receiving what Traub felt was an unsatisfactory response from the manager, he created a Facebook group, called "Fighting for Footlongs," to see if other students would be interested.
Sophomore James Hinckley, who is boycotting Subway along with Traub, said that within three hours of its creation, the group had a few hundred members, and within about a day, the group had more than a thousand members.
"I realized everyone felt the same way as me. They wanted $5 footlongs," Traub said.
Hinckley said that because of the Flex Point system, "they can get a way with charging more per sandwich than people are aware of."
After seeing that other students were interested, Traub and Hinckley, along with sophomores Colin McNamara, Andrew Baeckstrom and Dom Golab, submitted a letter to The Observer calling for the boycott of Subway.
Hinckley said he didn't see a significant jump in group membership after The Observer printed their Letter to the Editor, but the group currently has over 1,400 members.
Traub said he started discussions in the Facebook group about the possibility of creating T-shirts and pamphlets.
The next step, Traub said, is to meet with student government and work on focusing the boycott to a specific amount of time, like one week, so that it will be more effective.
Traub said he plans to meet with student body vice president Grant Schmidt in the next week to discuss options.
It is each student's individual choice whether or not to eat Subway, Traub said, but he personally "[doesn't] plan on buying it any time soon."
"It's tough at 8 o'clock when it's kind of too late to go to the dining hall and they're no other options really, but I've been getting by," Traub said.
Hinckley has also been surviving without eating Subway.
"I haven't been eating Subway for a long time because of the $5 footlong deal," Hinckley said. "I'm having to eat more at the dining hall which I guess is punishment enough."
