For those of you who ever wandered into #FoodTok, it's likely you've come across one very well-known influencer by the name of Keith Lee. He has helped myriad small businesses and mom-and-pop restaurants through his viral food reviews. In fact, he recently reviewed a Black-owned chocolate company that led to the complete selling out of stock for them in 33 minutes. Talk about a good business day, right? With such massive influence over his near 13 million TikTok followers, of course, major corporations would try to use his influence for their gain. This is what set off a chain of events that TikTok is not so please about. The Keith Lee and Jersey Mike's collab on DoorDash was nothing short of disastrous.
So, what exactly happened with the Keith Lee and Jersey Mike's collab?
In a since-deleted TikTok video, Keith Lee outlined a promotion with Jersey Mike's in which DoorDash orders over $12 could receive $25 off with a code. The promotion only lasted from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. local time on June 7th and June 8th. You bet your fresh buns that this hour became a literal hell for anyone bearing a Jersey Mike's name tag. As you could imagine, stores across the country were inundated with orders the second their clocks struck 5 p.m. In fact, one TikTok user reported that the DoorDash Jersey Mike's in her area closed orders at 5:02 p.m. TikTok user That Guy From Ohio also experienced the app breaking only eight minutes after the video went live.
What happened at the Jersey Mike's stores?
Multiple locations of Jersey Mike's had lines out the door, were running out of ingredients, and more. With just a handful of workers, there was no way to meet the demand when receipts were coming in at this rate.
One Jersey Mike's employee said that she didn't even know that the promotion was happening and was actively caught off guard by the orders that came in. "I'm a Jersey Mike's employee, and you ruined my life, and I just clocked out at about 10 o'clock, we close at 9," she said. The comments under this TikTok highlighted similar Jersey Mike's employee experiences, including one user saying they had to stay until 11 p.m., another saying they put in their two weeks after they experienced 200 orders under in 30 minutes, and one user clarifying that the second day of the promotion was already canceled.
TikTok user @therickytan said that the Jersey Mike's subs have freshly sliced meat meaning the subs take about five minutes to create. Of course, this means that many people were waiting in line for an hour or more for their sub as tickets kept coming in for an already overwhelmed staff.
All in all, Keith Lee is not to blame for his partnership, rather the franchise owners and corporate communicators who did not make this a sustainable deal for anyone working or eating at the restaurant. However, the TikTok food reviewer has yet to address the controversy.