Mustard

Those of you who know me, know of my love for mustard. All kinds of mustard. And really, what's not to love? Recently I ate at a sandwich shop that so many people rave about (mostly because of their bread). Anyway, I ordered a sandwich without mayo and asked them to add mustard. They informed me that they would not be able to put any mustard on the sandwich, but that they could give me some mustard packets and I could put it on the sandwich myself. Really? You are a sandwich shop, why wouldn't you have mustard to put on your sandwiches? This leads me to a very valuable question: Why is mustard always the forgotten condiment when there are so many varieties of it? I mean really, ketchup only has one kind and that's tomato.

Mustard varieties include, but are not limited to: Regular or "American" mustard, Dijon, Brown-spicy, German, Chinese, English, Sweet, Meaux (whole grain) and the list goes on...

So, with so much variety, why is mustard left out so often? Since my sandwich shop incident, I have taken mental note when I go to eating establishments of there mustard options, or lack of mustard options. I noticed that many places will have bottles and bottles of ketchup, but no mustard, or only that packets of mustard. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just have bottles of mustard like you do your ketchup, instead of the packets? Not to mention the amount of waste that is produced by the mustard packets.

Will someone please explain to me what it is about ketchup that makes it so special and why mustard is always left out?