Is Subway Discriminatory?

I have been a freqent Subway customer for years, and I enjoy the sandwiches very much. I appreciate the effort that Subway makes to offer fresh, wholesome ingredients at a reasonable price. So you can imagine that this loyal customer was very disappointed to learn that Subway is sponsoring a contest for children that is discriminatory.

According to a news story in World News Daily, Subway is holding a story-writing contest that specifically excludes homeschooled children. Of course, this blogger takes nothing for granted. She went directly to Subway’s website and read the contest rules. And there it is, the legal disclaimer at the bottom of the form, in black and white (okay, white on green): “NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted.”

Actually, I am not “very disappointed” … I am shocked and dismayed. By two things.

First, and probably a minor consideration, is that the contest rules are very badly written and contain a number of errors. Go and look for yourself! One of the prizes is a “gift bastket.” And the contest is open to people in the “Untied States”? There are other grammatical errors, including misplaced commas, in the promotional information. One would expect that professional marketing people could at least spell the name of the country and the prize descriptions correctly!

Second, and definitely the major concern for me, is the blatant discrimination against homeschoolers. I can think of several reasons for it: perhaps they were afraid that the homeschoolers would run away with all the prizes; or perhaps, since one of the prizes is athletic equipment for the child’s school, they couldn’t figure out how that would work with a homeschool. Perhaps Subway and Scholastic did not realize that the home school community comprises some of their most loyal customers.  Perhaps they underestimated the impact that this would have on their business — or perhaps they don’t care.

I know that my kids and I frequently grab Subway on the way to and from sports events and field trips. And we frequently buy books from Scholastic for use in both school and leisure. Or we did.

I’ve written and asked Subway to explain their rationale. If I receive a response and the reasons are defensible, I will forgive them for their serious mistake. If the reasons are not defensible, we will cease to be loyal customers of both Subway and Scholastic. There are other places to eat and to buy books that will appreciate us, rather than discriminating against us because of our educational choices.

Tags: contests, grammar, home schooling, homeschooling, news, Subway, True Stories