By DCist Food and Wine Writer Michael Mugmon.
Like Hall & Oates, DCist is so close, yet so far away. On Tuesday afternoon, we stopped by our local Subway sandwich shop at 20th and M Streets NW for a footlong meatball sub. When we asked for the two Sub Club stamps we thought we’d earned (one stamp for each six odd inches of grunt), the cashier brusquely informed us that the venerable Sub Club program –- Subway’s longtime frequent-buyer promotion through which 12 stamps and the purchase of a medium drink get you a free 12-inch sub –- had been discontinued. Now, DCist will forever be one stamp away from a free footlong.
To be fair, DCist had heard nasty rumors of the Sub Club program’s impending demise. It seems that enterprising counterfeiters have increasingly replicated Sub Club stamps on home computers and printers, either redeeming the fabricated stamps themselves for free sandwiches or selling them on eBay. Although individual franchisees may stick with the stamps if they choose (the Subway at 15th and L Streets NW, for example, reportedly continues to give out stamps with sandwich purchases), the Subway home office has officially replaced the Sub Club program. By using the Subway Card in conjunction with purchases, habitual Subway goers may accumulate points that they may then exchange for Subway food (and, we hope, life-sized Jared Fogle cut-outs!). It’s basically Subway’s version of the CVS ExtraCare card.
If your local Subway hasn’t yet clubbed the Club, find a Subway franchise that still distributes stamps and finish out your uncompleted cards as soon as possible. Why? The cashier told DCist that the 20th and M Subway would accept completed cards even if it won’t dole out any more stamps. Personally, and mainly because we’re bitter about the lone stamp that the 20th and M Subway had withheld from us, we prefer the close-out approach taken by Capitol Video Sales –- the local video rental mini-chain that recently ended its own frequent-renter promotion. Provided that you already have a frequent-renter card and are on your way to renting the 20 DVDs that will entitle you to a single free DVD rental (yes, we are gluttons for punishment), Capitol Video will punch the card for each DVD you rent until you’ve earned your free DVD rental. But they will distribute no new cards.
DCist doesn’t want to hike to 15th and L for our lunchtime Subway fix. So, if you have a single Sub Club stamp to spare, please send it in. We don’t want to know where you got it.
