An increasing number of Subways in high crime areas are adding thick bulletproof screens between customers and staff, just like banks have.
Another bonus for American racial diversity. I bet Japanese restaurants don’t need these barriers. I bet most Australian and European restaurants don’t either.
CHICAGO (CBS) — While out on an unrelated assignment, CBS 2 investigative reporter Dave Savini decided to stop by a South Side Subway sandwich shop for a meal.
Savini was struck by the fact that the counter of the store at 116th Street and South Halsted was encased in bullet-proof glass.
Such a sight would be common at crime magnets like gas stations or currency exchanges, but a Subway?
The store was clean and looked just like any other well-run Subway restaurant, except for the bullet-proof protection for the employees and lack of a bathroom for customers.
REPORT: The good news is there’s a new Subway sandwich shop on Virginia Street in downtown Vallejo. The bad news, some say, is that its employees and customers are separated by ceiling-high bullet-proof glass.
“It’s a great thing for downtown, but it’s too bad it has the bullet-proof glass,” Vallejo native Yvonne Parrino said, her husband Tony, a 55-year resident, in agreement.
Some Subway customers complain that the glass makes it harder to understand and be understood by employees, though some also said they understand why the owners might have felt it was needed.
The clean, airy, nicely appointed new eatery opened last week without fanfare, owner Daisy Sidlu said. Sidlu and her husband Kal, own at least one other Subway shop in Vallejo.
“We were robbed three times in our other store,” Daisy Sidlu said. “(We installed the glass) for security. My husband heard from people in the neighborhood that there’s drug dealing and prostitution around here. We already have a broken window.”
The couple’s other store(s) don’t have glass, though it’s under consideration, she said. It’s more difficult to add the glass to an existing structure, however, she said.
