Many Nights and Days out at Jimmy John's

Let me first start by saying my brother that lives in Arizona has never experienced Jimmy John's but always hears about it.  He has asked me to write about it and has requested that when he comes for my wedding in July, for me to take him to get Jimmy John's... which I will.

Jimmy John's is a purveyor of fine sub sandwiches all over the USA (minus New Mexico, this is based on their availability for franchising page on their website.)  They offer an array of delicious subs that are made to order and come to you "freaky fast" according to their commercials.  This is not a Subway sub.  They have certain ingredients for each different sub, their bread tastes better as do the meat and vegetables (that's just my opinion).  The company headquarter are located in Champaign, IL. a college town itself (the University of Illinois).  Jimmy John Liautaud, only 19 years old in 1983, started the company with used equipment and hustle.  And it's his go-getter attitude that has now bolstered the company to 690 stores nationwide.

When I was in college in Kalamazoo, Jimmy John's stayed open late and delivered these delicious subs to the dorms (not freaky fast delivery... more on this later) to kids who were up late studying or who had the post party/bar munchies.  There were open to 4 a.m. at the two Kalamazoo locations.  They were the go to late night snack and they were very affordable.  It seems as though their prices go up each year.  I remember when the smaller subs were $3.25 and now they are upwards of $4.50.  When you add tax and delivery to that it adds up, plus if you like the bigger sandwiches you're now looking at $5.50.  But they still sell day old bread (leftover sub bread from the day before) for $0.49.

 

Now I live in Royal Oak and there are 3 Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich Shops within two miles of my apartment.  Here is a map of the location of the Jimmy John's that is closest to our apartment (B) and the location of another restaurant that does deliver to us (Happy's Pizza, A).  Happy's pizza has an okay deliver time and I would be willing to wait the same amount of time for a Jimmy John's sub.  When I recently was enjoying a late night with one of my college friends we tried desperately to relive our college days by ordering one of these delicious subs.  To our disappointment, when inquiring about delivery from all of the restaurants we learned that my apartment falls within the vortex of non-deliverable areas for each of the three Jimmy John's shops.  Finding this fact disturbing my fiance took it upon herself to write to Jimmy John's after a worker failed to explain the reasoning behind the blocked delivery.  The email she received in response follows:

Thank you for your feedback concerning the delivery area of the Jimmy John's in Royal Oak or Clawson.  At this time we do not have a location that can deliver to you.  Our goal at Jimmy Johns is to provide all customers within specific delivery areas freaky fast, freaky good sandwiches.  In order to do this each store must have a limited delivery area.  Delivery boundaries are based on strategy and not opportunity.   Our strategy is to deliver sandwiches as quickly as possible to the customers within the set delivery zone.  Making exceptions to this would not only confuse our employees but most of all our customers.  We have found that this is a successful strategy and although the manager at the store could not explain as such, this is why we have such a defined delivery area for our stores. 

 

While I know this explanation does not help you in your delivery dilemma, I hope you have better understanding of why the delivery areas are set the way they are.

 

Aimee

Thanks Aimee, I won't be coming to JJ's very often.

A Night out at Beaumont Hospital

The following story happened last night around 8:30pm as I was trying to prepare a tuna casserole type dish for dinner.  

This particular dish called for a can of tuna, drained.  So after measuring the other ingredients I opened a can of tuna and drained it in the sink.  After, I started to peel the label off of the tin can in order to recycle it.  It was at this moment that I fumbled the can.  What I should have done was let it fall to the floor and then carefully pick it up.  The reason being the sharp edges created on the lid of a tuna can when you open it.  Unfortunately, I tried to catch the can and did, but in the process sliced open the pinker on my left finger.  Of course I let out a yelp, probably an obscenity or two and then looked at my finger.  When I looked at it there was some blood, pouring out of the middle of my pinky, also the laceration stretched from the tip of my finger to the base of my first knuckle on the inside of the pinkie.

Immediately I ran some cold water and put pressure on the wound.  I was then handed a towel and proceeded to lay on the couch, hold my pinkie above my heart and keep pressure on it.  After a minute or two I took away the towel to reveal a very deep wound with fat cells from my pinkie jutting out.  I tried to convince my fiance that I did not need stitches but it was useless.  So in my pajamas we both headed to the hospital, which happens to be next door to our apartment.

When we pull up to the emergency entrance, which was not easy to find with all the construction going on at Beaumont, a man with a magical red wand waved us in to the emergency room parking lot.  We walked into the hospital and checked in at the emergency room front desk where they took my information and then gave me a wrist band with my name and birthday on it.  After that I was taken back to where the action happens and was asked to wait with another lady who was also suffering from a canned food related injury.  I full can had fallen on her hand and busted through her nail... totally gross.  I was then shown to a private bed and my vital signs were taken.

The nurse that helped me was very kind and relaxing.  She gave me two shots at the base of my pinkie to numb the finger, and I have to say it worked.  I didn't feel anything while she stitched me up (6 stitches) and dressed the wound.  I did however feel the tetanus shot I was given after the stitches that also had the whooping cough vaccine in it (apparently it's on the rise again).  It feels like my brother knuckle punched me in the right shoulder like 10 times. 

All in all the whole visit took about an hour and 15 minutes.  We got some good pictures, especially the blood stains on the floor, and afterwards my fiance wanted Jimmy John's so we headed there post-op.

All in all I would like to thank Beaumont for their good work on keeping me alive and keeping my pinkie on my hand.  Also thanks to my fiance for keeping her head and for making me go to the hospital for stitches.  I am supposed to go back in 7-10 days to get them out.