The Rise and Fall of Pret a Manger
wired.co.uk
wired.co.uk
I wonder how the subscription idea will work for them. Pret is a sandwich shop, but most of the profit comes from coffee. When I used to work there, the price of a coffee was £2, and the cost was £0.20. I guess they expect most people to not max out on the offer, which is probably a reasonable assumption.
At the time, we were told the reason Pret does not offer free coffee after N transactions is because they want to make a customer feel special when they get free coffee. That's why all employees are allowed to give free coffee to anyone at their discretion, just not too many :) Sounds like it is about to change.
I treated it as a snack. Once I moved back to London some years back I was (negatively) surprised that MANY people consider lunch to be: "1 sandwich +1 bad of crisps/chips +1 sugary soft drink". I believe that Pret helped push obesity in the UK (and McD, and KFC, and many more - but Pret definitely contributed).
It is sad to see that jobs are on the line, but in all honesty people need to start eating better and stop considering Pret as "the place to get lunch/dinner"
It should be only for a quick lunch for tourists that may want a quick bite before they go from tourist_attraction_A to tourist_attraction_B without spending time and money for lunch.
To the profit point: liquids tend to make most of the profit. Sandwich takes time, effort, material, cost for quality, etc. A coffee (nowadays) is cheap and easy, it won't go bad after 24h. I was reading somewhere (HN? Reuters?) that BP sold 150mil cups of coffee.. easy money for all!
It's also a huge carb hit, which is not ideal for staying awake later. And it's low in bulk, which will lead to snacking later.
All of this gets worse as you get older and your metabolism slows down. It's sort-of-ok for someone in their twenties, but literally lethal for someone in their fifties.
Pret are at the better end of the spectrum, and they also sell salad-related items which are less of a problem.
But this kind of sandwich lunch culture in general is a huge contributor to obesity. It doesn't look like a lot of food, it doesn't really fill you up, but it is a lot of calories.
Basically what you're saying is "eating too much food is bad" which… well, obviously. If you are eating a large sandwich, crisps, a sugary drink, and a chocolate bar for lunch… isn't it obvious that's too much? Eat a regular-sized sandwich, some popcorn, and a banana – like all the people who went to the Pret next to my office did pretty frequently.
literally lethal for someone in their fifties.
This is quite funny. "Sandwich culture is lethal to the over-50s".
What are you on about? That's under a third of the daily recommended calories for a man.
Even if you ate this three times a day... you're going to be under.
> around twice what someone sedentary needs for lunch
So a 350 calorie lunch? So that'd be under half the recommended daily intake total even if you ate a large breakfast. So people living on about 1000 calories a day? How does that work? Most people's weights would be in freefall.
People have weird warped views about how many calories things are. For example did you know if you ate a full McDonald's meal with fries and regular Coca-Cola for every meal... you'd be under your recommended calorie count?
But those weights were for her smaller stature, not mine, and she's always been terrible with numbers (we agree that's my job, so I should've known). I actually got used to it surprisingly quick, and I have to say, it worked and I lost 20kg in a few months without much real discomfort. I cheated one or two meals each week which helped keep me sane.
I mostly stopped because we were cooking certain recipes on the plan and it was just annoying and uninspiring after a while. I did learn a lot about food and how much I actually need if I'm just sitting around some days. But I don't think my 1000 calorie diet was healthy or recommended and a lighter touch is probably better.
If you're a sedentary person then maybe it worked for you, but it's under half what medical professionals recommend for a normally active man. Many somewhat active people (less than an hour run a day) are going to burn half your calorie intake on exercise alone. You do need some calories to simply live and think beyond that.
I think people are out of their minds saying a shop selling 400 calorie sandwiches for probably your main meal of the day is excessive.
Somehow I wasn't even underweight when I stopped, but in another couple of month I probably would've been. There is of course a good chance the calorie counting was wrong too.
I like to eat at Farmer J's. Decent food (quality/quantity), costs around £8. A "lunch" (laugh/cry) on Pret costs £3? £4? People that spent £10-20 per day to commute, £3-5 on dry cleaning, £6-8 for x2 coffees, will try to squeeze every penny. So yes they may go to Pret and save £4 from their "lunch".
I don't blame the shop, they don't sell heroin, they sell sandwiches. I merely focused on the fact that people see it at a "source for nutrition". The fault is to both sides. People prefer the tasty quick-fix (salt/sugar) instead of a balanced nutritional lunch. The Pret is positioning itself in every other block for convenience. The people (especially in the square mile and Canary Wharf) are overworked, stressed, and they need the quick bite/fix and then run back to work. I've heard a million times the line "I got no time and/or money to spend for a normal/decent lunch".
It is a mixture of the above. Plus the revolution of caffeine (no need to eat and sleep well - coffee will fix everything, will keep us going).
So yes, a "sandwich shop" (aka fast food) is also to blame partially (just as McD, KFC, etc.)
It is a hydra with a thousand heads, and COVID helped cut some of them, show how we can thrive with a different lifestyle.
People work from home. They will eat (hopefully) better, caffeine/sugar consuption (I hope) is reduced, the work is done, people will spend 1-2-3h less on trains/buses that they can spend with their loved ones (or sleep).
And yes, a sandwich shop (in every bloody corner) selling cheap junkfood 'packaged' (offered) with fried salty junk (crisps) and sugar (soft drinks) DOES contribute to obesity. Thinking that it doesn't is illogical. It's not a discussion on causality/coincidence.
A different stable equilibrium: shutting the country down during 90 minutes for the midday repast.
(Are the two coffees liquid substitutes for the 10 o'clock and 4 o'clock? What about tea ladies? Are they no longer a thing?)
I'll leave the fight-club fantasy to one side, but point out that a sandwich from Pret is basically some bread, some salad, and some protein. It's fine. If this is where you're starting as a contributor to obesity, then literally all food is obesogenic.
What's was puzzling about it? They're reasonably nice and fresh sandwiches in a nice room for not a lot of money. And as you knew yourself it seems clean too.
If you're on £16k a year, spending £1000 for a sandwich every day for lunch is a lot (£4 sandwich * 250 working days).
I once worked at a large web company located in the center of Paris and that had a free use kitchen. It took me less time (<1h) to go shopping and cook for a few colleagues than it would have for us to go to a restaurant, and cost the same as buying supermarket sandwiches.
This is the part that's puzzling to people working minimum wage. Their marginal utility of money is much higher than yours.
When I was a student, during term time (rather than the summer holidays when I had a job and lived with my parents), I made a game out of spending as little as possible on food. My record was 50p per day sustained over an entire term in 2004 (adjusted for inflation, that’s about £1 per day today).
Accounting for disposable income rather than gross income, being surprised that students find £4 sandwiches expensive is like being supposed that someone on €60k doesn’t eat every lunch in €100-a-head restaurants. (Those sorts of restaurants are still “fancy special occasions only” for me).
I'd imagine enough people going there earn enough such that even the price of a new Macbook is not even a thing.
Nothing wrong with prepping food on the weekends — many find it therapeutic while others do it out of financial need or for dietary reasons - but I personally wouldn’t do it to save a few bucks. I was a poor student for many years, and I’ve had to do it out of need, but I’m glad to be able to live differently now.
I know what good a meal is if I already had one.
Because it is consistently good. When I used to work near a Pret I used to really look forward to lunch because it was yummy.
There's more to the decision than quality.
I don't understand how people can tolerate buying pre-prepared sandwiches from shops when street markets are an option, fresh hot tasty food cooked right in front of you.
It could've changed, but that's what I remember.
I'm not so sure on the value front. There's a lot of meat on a typical £5-7 hot meal. You can't generally pay that much for a sandwich, and when you buy a cheaper one, it's miserly.
If it's a group decision - and often enough it is - a place like Pret becomes the acceptable least common denominator. No one might love it, but more importantly no one probably hates it.
I'm being facetious, but only just... I work in fintech, and I end up associating with a bunch of bankers, and I give those who still patronize Pret a bit of a hard time.
Definitely overpriced but you’re paying for the convenience too. A burger here are there for lunch is nice too.
Seriously. You get their "famous ham and cheese" and it's a mini baguette with like a single layer of ham and cheese. Like the ham and cheese is a condiment, rather than filling.
It's a stretch to call what they sell "sandwiches". It's closer to just flavored bread. And remember -- it's not just sugar that increases the risk for diabetes, but massive amounts of processed carbs, exactly like Pret.
I'll take my corner deli please, where a sandwich is more like a balanced meal: an actual full serving of protein inside, with lots of tomatoes, peppers and lettuce too.
They're kind-of excessive. the US didn't invent the foot-long sub for no reason, worldwide obesity scores had to be earned.
It's meant for two people: https://youtu.be/Hvzw7MOFhQo
That's true of some things at American sit-down restaurants.
But hardly true for a cold sandwich at a sandwich shop. Even a Subway "footlong" club sandwich is just 620 calories. Assuming a 2,000 cal/day diet, that's a little under a third of what you need. Or, in other words, exactly the right size for a balanced lunch if your calorie requirements are on the lesser side.
How exactly does 620 calories feed a family of four? Or how is it excessive at all?
Obviously it goes without saying the sandwich is the complete meal (no adding soda or chips).
From Subway's nutrition datasheet (PDF): http://www.subway.com/~/media/USA/Documents/Nutrition/US_Nut...
There are several standard menu items over 900 calories for a "footlong," with the Chicken & Bacon Ranch Melt coming in at 1,060 calories.
Of course you can get some mega-cheese melt if you want, just like you can get a triple quarter pounder if you want. But I don't see anybody who sees those as examples of a normal portion. Within America they're seen as excessive. They're not representative of a normal American lunch.
Super-size-me as a film required the market to exist. They didn't make the problem up.
It is very rare (on my personal observation, I have no stats here so its anecdata) for anyone to walk out of a ready-made food outlet without the soda and chips.
I have also felt at times "pret" was a bit stingy. If I get a turkey and brie sandwich, I want the brie to be visible, not hypothetical.
Katz' deli, I didn't have a boy in the army to send a salami, but the thickness of the meat layer in my salt beef sandwich was .. unreal. I think, they do this because its now expected. In most salt beef outlets I've been to which didn't feature in films, they are a bit more reasonable.
There is an Aussie food called "a halal snack pack" which is a heart-attack in a styrofoam box. Its a box of gyros/kebab/doner/shwarma meat, with all the trimmings but no bread: healthy, since less carbs. Oh wait, its poutine too: they put fries and cheese in there...
I'd say pavlova as well, but we're trying to be nice to our Kiwi cousins so they'll let us visit.
Until then, she thought that the sandwiches she saw on American TV shows were just a joke: she had no idea that our sandwiches were actually that big (yeah, Mike's used to really stuff them, but still). As she explained, back in the UK, you could maybe get one half the size and even then it would be unusual.
I nodded in understanding as I sucked the entire thing down.
But this metric is widely misunderstood [1] -- "it’s the minimum amount you need to keep from getting sick — not the specific amount you are supposed to eat every day."
If you follow the link, you'll see that doctors actually recommend around double that for full health, and that Americans on the whole actually consume too little protein in comparison. The idea that we consume too much protein is actually a long-popular myth.
So no, the Pret sandwich is nowhere even close to half the protein you should be consuming daily.
[1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-much-protein-do-you-...
It's a little more than you'd get from a standard serving of a quality protein shake.
Why don't they call it Recommended Daily Minimum?
"She has received research grant support from The Beef Checkoff and the National Dairy Council and compensation for speaking engagements with The Beef Checkoff and the National Dairy Council"
Pret's smoked salmon sandwiches (unavailable at US locations) are moderately filling and utterly delicious. A quick bite at the Holborn Pret in the morning before work is a cherished memory.
By comparison, I actively avoid sandwiches from Potbelly/Jimmy John's/Ike's, because chasing down a lump of pickled and brined meats with a cool glass of mayonnaise makes me queasy for hours.
the egg and spinach pot was my go to lunch most days. it was just nice for a one person meal. the sandwiches were more than enough for me.
when i lived in chicago i didn't eat much either, but also that could just be the constraints of being an impoverished student.
If France, bread is amazing. A baguette from a boulangerie is so tasty all by itself that all you need is a little bit of French butter (which is also incredible, compared to its English and US cousin) and ham, and you're good to go. Too much meat, and you'd overpower the flavor of the bread, which is the reason we're eating a sandwich in the first place.
Personally, I'm also a fan of the American philosophy, where a New York deli will use a a couple slices of bread as a convenient handle to wrap six pounds of (freshly roasted today in an oven at the shop) turkey, so that you don't get mayonnaise on your hands.
I think the disconnect comes from the fact that Pret a Manger's baguettes aren't really anything special. They're just the kinda tough to chew, bendy crusted thing that you get whenever you try to make one in England or the United States. So yeah, if that's all you're getting, coupled with some boring English butter and a slice of ham, I can sympathize with your disappointment.
But next time you're in Paris, be sure to grab a real baguette from a real boulangerie, along with some Paysan Breton butter and a little pack of ham from the quickie mart next door. You'll see what they're going for.
When Pret launched, your options were a packet sandwich from Boots or something, which would be stale sliced bread with a single layer of tasteless waxy cheese, or something from a sandwich shop, where the choices are (1) tuna mayonnaise that has been there since yesterday (2) a cheese bun wrapped in cling film and kept in a fridge (3) a (one piece of incinerated) bacon, (limp) lettuce, and (tasteless, but mercifully thinly sliced) tomato.
Things are a bit better now, but to be honest, still terrible. You can wander around New York or Madrid and find a random sandwich place on a street corner that would be in the top 10 in London.
My theory is that this a manifestation of a broader cultural weakness of (most) British people, which is that they can't imagine that a better world is possible. Nobody looks at that "famous ham and cheese" and thinks, "okay, but what if there were five slices of each of those, and the bread tasted of something, and there was lashings of a delicious wholegrain mustard dressing?". Because they don't imagine it, they don't demand it, and Pret keeps on churning out abysmal lunches.
Pret's sandwiches hold up to any sandwiches I've had in any of those countries. I've had the occasional better sandwich (especially in Paris), but I would take Pret's sandwiches over most of the crap sandwiches I ate in New York. New York sandwiches tend to assume that packing in TONS of shit quality meat makes the sandwich better. I don't actual like to eat through an inch of American-quality processed meat to mask the fact that the bread is crap.
French style sandwiches have less total filling but the filling itself is high quality and tasty, including the butter. Also the bread tends to be extremely delicious by itself.
The only sandwiches I would get in New York are freshly made bagels from the better bagel places in Brooklyn. However, this is comparing apples to oranges because this whole discussion is about pre-made sandwiches which you get off a shelf and go, not freshly made sandwiches.
On an average day, if I don’t have 5-10 minutes to wait for a freshly made sandwich, I’ve gone wrong.
Trust me, I spent years getting those bodega sandwiches in New York and sure, when you're drunk they seem good, but it's not quality fare by any stretch of the imagination.
I have easily found better sandwich shops than Pret in NYC, Boston, Chicago, LA, Berlin, Paris, SF... I could go on.
Specifically in NYC there are some amazing sandwich places all over Manhattan (though that's not to say the other boroughs don't have excellent shops as well). My favorites are generally the Italian-style sandwich shops which have great Italian cured meats.
In response to your last paragraph, I think that's part of what people are complaining about – there are precious few places in London where you can get a freshly made sandwich, and for being pre-made, Pret isn't much cheaper than a lot of the fresh-made sandwiches you can get in other countries.
Also I think fresh-made is maybe giving a bit too much credit to that idea, as Subway is freshly made but I'd much rather have a Pret.
My theory is that this a manifestation of a broader cultural weakness of (most) British people, which is that they can't imagine that a better world is possible.
What a load of bollocks that is.
As with most things in the UK, price comes before quality. Sainsburys, who used to be my "Thank God there's an okay sandwich" place when on the road switched to a lower quality supplier, to an online backlash [1]. I can vouch for the quality drop; after that there wasn't much difference between the major supermarkets.
1. https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/sainsburys-moved-supplier-before...
To be fair they weren’t great sandwiches in general. I sort of agree with him though that a French proportion on a jambon buerre is better than a typical ham and cheese sandwich here.
I chatted with a guy who says his business is down 90%. The guy at Subway said something similar. Before the apocalypse, the business made sense because of the sheer number of people walking by. You could pay for the food, the labour, and the landlord, reliably, because there are so many jobs based in central London.
Now that WFH has been "discovered" it's doubtful. I mean if everyone works from home just one day a week, that's 20% fewer sandwiches they will need to buy.
What do you mean by this? What's the status quo? WFH? the pandemic?
I’m not so sure. Just because you’re working from home, that doesn’t mean you want to spend a significant amount of time shopping for and preparing lots of different things for your lunches. If you were OK with that, you could easily have taken a packed lunch to work before and probably saved quite a bit of money, but the existence of the sandwich shop as a concept suggests that plenty of people prefer the convenience and variety they offer.
What I do expect to see now is a rebalancing of where these places are found. Not so long ago, we moved from a busy area of Cambridge (UK) to a village a few miles outside the city. Life is different here, but better in most ways. We don’t have a Pret sandwich place or a Wetherspoons pub here. We do have a couple of local cafés and a baker, though, and several other pubs. We also get something I had only noticed in passing while living in the city, which is the food trucks that travel around and set up in a different spot each evening. Each truck typically has its own speciality cuisine and they’re great if you want something interesting for dinner.
As far as I can tell, these are all independent small businesses, often run by the owners. We were worried for them during the months when almost everything was closed down because of the virus, but fortunately they made it through and now they seem to be thriving, presumably because they’re well placed to serve a suddenly-larger local market.
I have nothing against Pret. I've eaten there many times when I’ve been travelling for work or shopping for a while in a big place. But almost everything is better about those local businesses I mentioned. If the strange circumstances this year cause a permanent change in our lifestyles and if that makes local catering more viable at the expense of the big convenience chains aimed at a commuting workforce, I find it hard to see a downside, at least in the long term after a possibly disruptive period of change. The trade and jobs will probably still be there, just in smaller businesses serving their own communities.
We're trying to support our local pub by showing up for social distance weekend brunches, ordering booze and food and massively overtipping, but downtown is a wasteland.
The food trucks thing makes sense. I've also spoken to some people who run that type of business, and they probably have the best outcome of all the food businesses.
Several of them do this thing where they will book a popular spot in town centre on certain days, then the commuter belt on the weekends. They are of course not bound by long term rental contracts, so it's easy for them to simply not book the expensive now-empty locations on their apps. They also seem to sell out wherever they go (great inventory management), so they can simply adjust their locations.
Agree almost everything about the family owned experience is better. I'm not sure it will be so easy for Pret/etc to move out to the suburbs. Name recognition is all they bring, nobody thinks a Pret sandwich is particularly good. There's also more options for people who are at home: you can cook, you can meet someone for a proper lunch at a pub, you've got the food trucks, the supermarket also sells sandwiches and you might go there anyway, and you've got farm delivery. Pret might be worse off but the rest of us are better off.
That makes sense. Out here in the villages, having the trucks visit is mutually beneficial, too. They provide a diversity of takeaway options that wouldn’t otherwise exist in the smaller communities. We provide lots of small markets who are generally welcoming when they’re coming to visit, and because they move from day to day, they can be successful with a smaller menu that makes sense to offer from the truck. Everybody wins.
I'm not sure it will be so easy for Pret/etc to move out to the suburbs. Name recognition is all they bring, nobody thinks a Pret sandwich is particularly good.
I doubt it will be businesses like Pret that come out well from the change in lifestyle, assuming it does happen as we’re imagining here. The brand represents a safe bet when you’re visiting somewhere unfamiliar, and that probably has a lot of value. But if many of us are staying closer to home, we’ll probably get to know our local places pretty quickly anyway, and then that name recognition for the big brands and their franchises just isn’t that important any more. As you say, the likes of Pret might be worse off, but the rest of us will probably be better off.
That aside, if someone is here under freedom of movement that doesn't mean they qualify for a work visa, surely? No low-skill jobs would meet the income threshold needed to get a visa?
https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/eu-londoners-hub/settle...
It's a great place if you want to eat healthy and have a short lunch time, but there are better options to deliver from if you're WFH.
I just hope Chicgao's own euro-style sandwich chain Hannah's Bretzel survives.
I haven't been in downtown Chicago since the middle of March; my employer is keeping us at home until at least 2021.
I did love the graphic design on their marketing. It was very creative.
I came back to nyc with a healthy respect for pret and often ate from there at my last job. I will miss it, personally speaking, but I understand when others see it as unworthy of eating.
That is why a market with variety is so important, different tastes are served by those who serve them best.
Their food is hardly amazing, but it is wonderfully consistent. Truly hope they survive and flourish once more, London simply would not be the same without them
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/26/is-it-w...
Specifically, they have a playlist for "Company declines" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9_9_unNR_e7MU1-fJy9B...
Covers: Kmart, Blockbuster, RadioShack, Toys R Us, Pan Am, Kodak, Sear, Payless, Hostess, Nokia, Quiznos
Onigiri look like what happens to picnic loaves when they reach islands at the other end of eurasia?
1) Amazing food
2) Very nicely set up
3) Just read the blogs etc. that London women write about Pret a Manger. In their minds it's the kind of place where they can get good food and also find 'the man of their dreams'
4) very little real competition
5) most people have a decent amount of disposable income. You can eat utter rubbish at a fast food joint, or you can terrible tasting food from a convenience store, or you can eat at a good place like Pret a Manger
6) Quick
*
They do a lot of things right
If your target audience has money, then providing them a high quality service and pricing it higher is good
It's also a big help if the pricing ensures that only upwardly mobile people can afford it
Go into a fish and chips in london and you have half of East London in there, innit?
go to Pret a Manger and it's people you wouldn't mind having a pint at the pub with
It's just bread, salad, vegetables, meat, butter, prepared conventionally.
You're talking about it like it's some kind of synthetic replacement? It's just normal fresh ingredients. I'm not sure it's possible for them to be doing it so bad as to justify your reaction.
Even my local supermarket bakes baguettes all day long instead of 'driving them in' in the morning and being 'maximally 1 day old' according to Pret (which is contested all over the web but let's say 1 day old max is true); 10+ hours is far too old for bread with toppings wrapped in plastic), IMHO. I understand this should be much cheaper to run, but, for instance, my supermarket is cheaper still and nicer, so the cheap (looking, feeling, tasting) factor of premaking everything does not reflect in the prices.
Which is, again, the matter of taste; some people like those soggy things. Maybe you do too or you have a different experience because you went to a US one or one that has different facilities (maybe in other countries they are better; I cannot believe French or Belgian people would eat this quality food while surrounded by freshness)? I went more than once to different ones and it was all equally bad. Especially when you are in London, there are far more superior places around every corner (even at the airport; Jamie's / Wagamama are next door, why would you ever...). I just rather skip a meal than eat a bad one, which is fine I think.
Even most of the images make me cringe [0]. And most of these images are pro images and promotion images; the soggy gunk in my hands didn't look this 'nice'. This for instance [1] would be a reason to go; however, they pulled it because this pic is not real; the real thing was... not good, hence they pulled it (ofcourse the bread is bad if you trying to emulate a french feel but then prepack it). While the Le Pain version [2] is always spot on; nice baguettes, consistent quality and not premade.
Disclaimer: I can only speak for the London Prets as I worked close to one (at a bank) there and went a few times with my colleagues until deciding it was too horrible to actually eat. And only went to the HK Le Pain; I didn't know they had them in London, but seems they do (at least before Covid). If you only care about how quick it is, then, yes, it's quick; I don't however; I care about the taste and quality.
And like I said; it's taste, can't really agree/disagree (or justify as you say), just chat about it; you have a different taste than I have; that's fine; it's not worse or better or whatever; it's probably more convenient (I am very picky about what I eat; it has to be good always, which is why I cook/make most of what I eat myself for the past 20 years, including baking bread (not bread machine; by hand)) to be you, but I seek convenience/saving time in other things.
[0] https://www.google.com/search?q=pret+manger+sandwich&tbm=isc... [1] https://london.eater.com/2019/10/25/20931811/pret-manger-jam... [2] https://www.openrice.com/en/hongkong/p-le-pain-quotidien-p54...
> It's just bread, salad, vegetables, meat, butter, prepared conventionally.
Some reading materials: https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2142241/uk-ad... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/12/pret-a...
Nothing conventional about it unless you mean mass manufacturing, added chemicals and storing it for a day are conventional for a fresh made sandwich with toppings. Maybe they are in some places, not here though.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/24/how-the-sandwic...
One nugget: the lunch sandwich was invented by M&S in the early 1990s, and it was immediately hugely popular. Yet management missed the chance to capitalise on it by opening standalone sandwich shops.
A lesson in organisational inertia, leading to a business missing a huge new opportunity right under their noses. My view: businesses should compensate for this by doubling-down by default on any form of enlargement that works, deliberately not considering overall strategy. The limit to consider strategic implications should be higher than it currently is.
What is even more mind boggling is when you work with British people abroad at places with genuinely great food culture, like Tokyo or Singapore, and they then lament that there is 'no where around to get decent sandwich`, by which they mean their industrially produced cardboard tasting abomination, since typically you can get actually good sandwiches in those places as well as a variety of other thing.
You don't have to make decisions about what to order, you don't have to queue (or at least not for very long), it's acceptable fuel.
I’m decidedly the opposite - more of a food as culture and as something to be appreciated kind of person.
I think we need all kinds. But I’d also rather work in the UK but eat in Italy. (To be fair, Indian food in the UK is top notch)
In Singapore there were amazing food centers, and I saw Singaporeans eating at McDonald's! Why were they doing that when there were so many good options about?
I've never understood why people are so judgemental about what others eat.
This would be like finding out Pret had a side gig in quantum computing ...and crumpets.
Even if people continue to WFH in the long term, I think many would still like to buy Pret a Manger (and others) products because it's not because people are at home that they necessarily want to cook their lunch every day or don't want to buy snacks.
So there may be an opportunity to adapt and perhaps we'll have Pret a Manger vans driving around in residential areas like ice cream vans do on sunny weekends.
People have been saving on this and the hugely expensive train fares (around London) and realise how much more cash they have left at the end of the month, which also explains why they don't want to go back to office. But that means that there is an opportunity for new services to make people spend that cash.
I actually love this idea but I question whether Pret will be the people to do it. They're set up all wrong now: they have a huge number of retail properties in locations useless for residential area delivery! I'd suspect the market is open for a new challenger to arrive with no such overhead.
But these headlines need armchair prognoses now!
Fortunately, lots of food carts out in London that'll benefit.
If you stack toast, the moisture from the toast below in the stack makes most of the stack soggy. Racking it lets the steam escape. You still eat the toast warm, just not wet.
If you find yourself without a toast rack, you can lean them against each other as if you're starting to make a house of cards to keep them crisp.
I never understood the allure, especially in a city with so many other options. It was a reliable place to get in out of the cold during our trip to London.
My kids loved it, though ;)
I associate Pret with airports for some reason.
I’ve eaten at several Pret a Mangers in London and they were ok, nothing to write home about but not bad. Better than a grocery store sandwich. Similar to an Amazon Go sandwich. Better than Subway. Here in Chicago we have a chain called Potbelly that’s pretty good and Pret is definitely below them. (Also it seems the only Pret still open in the US is the one on the UChicago campus)
What killed them? We lost ours just about 18 months ago.
They seemed to be in a perfect spot, too. Only restaurant in a 20 floor office building. We used them for lunch when customers came in all the time.
How could you screw that one up? Or was it that all their leases expired simultaneously and they just couldn't pay the now-expensive rent?
That seemed understandable, until I learned a lot of them had been replaced with other fried chicken places.
wonder how many of the people claiming Pret a Manger is worse than 7-11 have actually ever eaten at Pret a Manger
OTOH, I havent bought a single cup since March since Im getting my beans from Pact.
Perhaps they could have done like Panera and renamed themselves to something that wouldn't upset easily confused American diners?
English misreads confuse everyone, not just Brits and Americans, because for better or worse, English is the international language. Lingua franca, to make an obvious pun.
We could just say 'common tongue', but that's just not the English [Language] way - far too simple.
Ingredients they use aren't necessarily fancy or expensive, but they balance them appropriately and consistently.
My partner and myself both WFH in Peckham, we would love to buy a couple of sandwiches and coffees from pret via an app. We get the occasional falafel wrap on just eat but there are not enough quick delivery options for healthyish lunches.
The name is a pun on the fashion term "prêt-à-porter" which is often used in English. See https://www.net-a-porter.com/ for another example of a brand that riffs on the term without being French.
I doubt Pret’s name really makes much difference to who it appeals to, though. It’s a well-known brand, but if you’re selling sandwiches and coffees for those prices as an everyday thing, you are clearly aiming for a certain type of customer anyway.
If they were more useful many more Brits would speak foreign languages to a useful level. I can get by in French and German and I can read Spanish. It’s been of extremely limited use to me except when I lived in Germany. English OTOH is the world’s favorite second language and the language of science and international business. If the British had a land border with people who spoke another language many more would speak that, and if fewer people spoke English more Britons would be motivated to learn a foreign language. Learning foreign languages is great but it’s kind of a giant waste of time for most English native speakers on any monetary level. Most people never live abroad and holidays are an atrocious reason to learn a language considering the enormous time investment necessary to get to passable never mind fluent.
For example, I enjoy travelling and exploring other cultures. If I’m going to be spending some time in someone else’s community, I feel both a little vulnerable and a little… inconsiderate?… if I haven’t studied at least the rudiments of their language and culture before I go. Sometimes the locals seem to appreciate it if we’ve made the effort as well, even if we’re obviously tourists and only able to do basic things like ordering lunch or simply being polite and friendly using their language. And of course, not everyone speaks English, particularly once you move away from the main tourist areas.
Sometimes I also find it interesting to see foreign perspectives on current events. Brexit is the obvious recent example given I’m a Brit, but more generally, I think it’s healthy to see different views of international relations or global issues from time to time, and sometimes also to understand the domestic politics of our geographic neighbours and our foreign partners in trade or other matters.
As a rather different point to end on, I think studying languages in school can also be helpful just for expanding the young mind. It requires being able to see things from different points of view and to think logically, and I think those are healthy characteristics to develop in general. IMHO, school at that age shouldn’t just be about memorising raw facts and figures and about learning economically valuable skills.
Q. What do you call someone who speaks multiple languages?
A. multilingual
Q. What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A. bilingual
Q. What do you call someone who speaks one language?
A. english
Q. What do you call an englishman who speaks multiple languages?
A. MI6
London signage is the most unilingual I’ve seen anywhere. In the US you will often see Spanish, and in Canada you sometimes see French but in the UK, nope, just English. I guess it makes sense... what other language would one put on UK signage?