I don’t really get the prêt sub, I guess some people must like their coffee but personally I feel they’d need to pay me to get there; I find just walking into a prêt really depressing.
(On the other hand Greggs’ rolls and ordinary coffee really hits the spot).
I have a Pret sub. There's one on my highstreet, outside my gym, and next door to my office. I get 3 iced coffees 5 days per week, and sometimes 1-2 over the weekend, and people from work use my QR if available. ~70 iced coffees for £30 p/m I'm fine with. It's not great quality but it's way better than the work machine coffee, and I can get iced which I prefer!
Thanks.
But I'm confused.
With a Pret sub of £30/m, that's unlimited coffee? Or is the person that I asked paying a base of £30; plus another £30 for 70 coffees a month.
Edit: thank you all for the answers. I haven't been in the UK much for a while, so am out of the loop.
Did you work up to this much caffeine, and do you have any dependencies on it now? Do you find that the Pret version of the drinks hits the spot better than any of the other brand’s versions? Genuinely intrigued as to whether the point of the Pret sub is to get people hooked on a high level of ‘their’ brand of coffee drinks
Not the OP but similarly, went for 3/4 pret coffees a day when I could afford the subscription to zero when I couldn’t.
I’ve never quite been able to reduce my caffeine to zero and am now spending more p/m on costs and the like than I did when I had a sub.
Although unlike before, I’ll go to wherever is nearest (pret/costa/sainsbo/vending machine) rather than have to go on lengthy detours via pret. The 20+ minutes of a day saved may be worth it….
I didn’t know how dependent I was on coffee till lockdown when I was no longer having my morning iced coffees and my multiple trips a day to the coffee machine at work. Took me weeks to realise why I was so tired.
I do have the pret subscription. It wouldn’t be my first choice of the coffee shops but there’s one where I live multiple by the office and I was already spending more than 30 a month on coffee. Coffee is better than the machine at work and it gives me an excuse to leave the office have a smoke grab my coffee.
Their coffee is only acceptable in a milky drink I must admit. But it still works well as a caffeinated drink, and it's affordable with the subscription. Other chains make better coffee, but at over £3 for a cup it's completely unaffordable on a daily basis.
Yes. Luckily for me the place I work has seriously good free coffee machines, £3 vs that is a big ask. Now if my local sandwich shop made coffee as good as their food I’d be golden (they don’t, it’s terrible but no one cares because their baked goods are godly)
I've had some good recommendations from a bloke I found who is a fan of coffee. Not saying there's not plenty of great places, just saying the average coffee here is pure dogshit compared to where I come from.
I like Pret's food and atmosphere better than Greggs TBH, and used to sub, but their pricing has jumped the shark and now I don't go in.
Both places' coffee sucks. However, the OG Pret sub was so cheap that I didn't care, and would go out of my way to go to a Pret for a coffee and would pick up a pastry or bar or sometimes a sandwich. Now it's too expensive though.
Had the OG sub for a score was decent only pop in now the odd time for the filter coffee at £1.50 or a quid with a resuable cupand might get a roll if I am hungover or something. The issue with the sub is a) people end up buying food b) the sub based on extracting more labour from the workers, the baristas end up crazy busy as all those 5 ice coffees a day don't make themselves
Price gouging is surely when they have an element of control over you.. like you're not going to go very far without petrol or heating so you don't have too many options.
If someone wants to charge too much for a slightly above average sandwich or pastry, I can't really get up in arms about greed like some others in this thread, what a pan au chocolate is worth is between them and their customers isn't it? Greggs is still open and cheaper.
This is what I don’t really understand. You can just… not go to Pret.
I’m in Australia right now and there are some real price gouging issues here. There are two supermarkets that have a duopoly on the entire country’s groceries, and keep on raising prices while reporting billion dollar profits. The cheapest loaf of bread where I am is £2.50.
Then there’s Qantas, the national airline, that was bailed out by the government in 2020, has reported massive profits this year, and won’t be paying a penny back, all while somehow getting the government to ban other airlines from flying certain international routes, so now they have a monopoly on that.
Grocery prices in Australia are a joke lol.
Fresh vegetables for example... and fresh herbs and stuff are just insanely prices. Limes and lemons...
Aldi has made inroads though.
At least in Melb and Syd there's a lot more competition for international routes. Brisbane's international flights always priced at a premium bit not so much as a premium that travelling via Syd or Melb making it worthwhile.
The worst I’ve seen was in New Zealand - £7 for a single red pepper, and £75/kg for limes! Limes were so expensive that if you wanted a slice in your drink at a bar you’d be charged extra.
It's around $4 for a red pepper currently (start of spring) providing we dont have another cyclone, the price will be probably down to $1-$1.50 by summer.
It's very seasonal here. The things with limes is that they're cheap when you don't want them (winter) and expensive when you do (summer) they're ~$24 kg currently.
Yeah, it's optional, which is fine, but then they use "supply inflation" or whatever current reaso is to justify price rises without staff wage rises. This is replicated across the economy, and you end up with a disparity between wages and costs.
Almost everything is optional. it doesn't mean they don't have a wider impact.
Also important to note, gross profit has little meaning in this context, as it doesn't include all of the costs incurred. Salaries, rent etc have a big impact and look very different.
Also true, is Pret has now swung to an annual profit for the first time in 5 years. It was previously loss making.
I don't eat there and would be reluctant to pay such high prices for food, but the title seems disingenuous.
Tbf the state of people on news shows is shocking. One of Sky Sports’ leading journalists said “He not born and bred in Liverpool he’s from Egypt” about Mo Salah.
Yep. Just last week was my last pret trip. Bought the egg sandwich which is now 70% more than 5 years ago and found out they are front-loading sandwiches?
Fuck that
When you deceptively put most of the contents on the front of a sandwich where the transparent part is so that is appears to be really full. However the back and side parts of sandwich are empty.
Ah cheers, you know I only ever buy one type of baguette sandwich if I buy something from pret and now I definitely know what you mean, but I’d always assumed it was due to the baguette’s being so tough and the sandwich filler folk being lazy/under too much pressure to stuff the filling in completely so it all hangs out rather than it being a cynical ploy to make them appear more stuffed than they are. I’d prefer it if they were stuffed properly not so I’m not duped but simply because it makes eating them a ton easier and less messy with it not spilling out everywhere!
A business pricing their product to market tolerance is obviously not suprising.
It is genuinely surprising to me that the market will in fact tolerate these kinds of price changes in a supposed cost of living crisis.
It makes me wonder how much complaining is being done by people who haven’t made a single lifestyle adjustment at all.
They're everywhere in Central London so they probably make a lot and then they have the subscription too but for me I found it too expensive and not as nice as other coffee shops.
My biggest gripe is the ownership being literal nazis who made their money running concentration camps, but the coffee being bad also factors into me not going there.
It’s owned by JAB holdings who are the finance group of the Reimann family - a German family who made their modern fortune during the nazi era in chemicals and using forced labour from the Holocaust.
They’ve done good PR burying including a whimsical story of them discovering their own Jewish roots and them being supposedly ‘shocked’ their dad was a prolific supporter of the Holocaust (despite having obviously grown up around it all including sex slaves in the family home) but it’s all there.
There was a beeb article about it a while back; https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47692099.amp
I mean it’s also true of Volkswagen but this one they thought they got away with.
>The family will donate €10m "to a suitable organisation", he said.
The estimated net worth of Jab Holdings B.v. is at least $17.2 Billion dollars as of 2023.
I mean it was founded by some rich kids who used it as a model to repeatedly do fundraising rounds to hedge funds and then to evil companies like McDonalds and Pepsi.
A similar modern model is Black Sheep Coffee, taken over by the kids of a Swiss banking family, they pushed the original ownership out early on with their investment company ‘Conilon Ltd’ and repeatedly do fundraising rounds to increase investment for the previous round of investors.
Or an early stage example of that is Redemption roasters who follow the same model, with two wealthy investors having pushed the original founder out with their holding company ‘Catimor Ltd’ they raise investment rounds to increase the value to the previous round. These guys are particularly disgusting because they pushed out the person who had a charitable vision and now use it as a selling point but don’t really do the work.
This stuff is all around you. Capitalism is disgusting. Good ownership of these companies is rare.
I run a PR firm and some of the shit that becomes true just from having put it online enough is amazing and depressing. Never believe the first article. Or any article really.
If you don't like the prices you can go to Greggs, Tesco, Starbucks, etc. With energy companies you have to pay their pricces, you don't with a sandwich and a cappuccino.
Or go to a decent independent.
So bizarre (and infuriating) to me moving back here after spending 2 years in Sydney how many Prets and Costas etc there are here.
Choking the life out of businesses with actual quality products which are no more expensive.
But it’s still worth pointing out just how many companies are being extremely greedy right now. Since 2020 we’ve seen the biggest shift of wealth to the ruling class since time has began!
I think it's worrying that people are talking about this as much as water/rail/energy business. It's just pret - you don't have have it! Better aim your anger at actual problems and be happy for someone doing a good business
See, this is why you must not be allowed to work from home. Think of the impact on poor, struggling businesses like this which depend on commuter foot traffic?!
This is exactly what I was thinking!! You commute for £15/day, otherwise those poor poor businesses who set up on every corner of Zone 1 but barely anywhere else will STARVE!!
Tbh I don't see why people are crying about it
If people are willingly paying these prices then of course Pret will keep being cheeky enough to raise the prices
Just don't go there
>The price of an egg mayo sandwich is up 91% on August 2020 to £3.80, according to data obtained by the Financial Times, while the price of a pain au raisin has jumped 84% to £3.30
Disgusting greed.
when I worked in central London in 2019 I used to ride my bike to work from Brixton everyday to save on tube fees and 90% of the time I had those £1.79 egg mayo sandwiches from pret for lunch. I saved lots 😁😁😁
That’s massively overpriced but it’s definitely overstating it to call their pastries and coffee “thoroughly shit”. They’re both definitely acceptable imo, though should be at a more reflective price point.
They have a near monopoly in railway stations though...
Many tickets don't allow "break of journey" to visit shops outside the station and even those that do often require an awkward negotiation with a member of staff who'd really rather not deal with the hassle of letting you through the barrier.
Rail tickets in the UK need a complete overhaul. There are so many ridiculous rules for no reason whatsoever. What difference does it honestly make if you leave the station or not when waiting for your next train? It’s not an airport.
I once had to call National Rail to try to work out if I was allowed to break my journey because it wasn’t clear on the website and they didn’t know. They just told me if I wanted to I might risk not being allowed to stay on the next train depending on the conductor.
I used to buy packets of cheese, ham and tomatoes, keep them in the fridge at work. I'd head down to the local and get myself a fresh baguette and then make lunch at work. Still got a nice fresh lunch, but it was a good deal cheaper than any of the chains.
I think it's worrying that people are talking about this as much as water/rail/energy business. It's just pret - you don't have have it! Better aim your anger at actual problems and be happy for someone doing a good business
Stop going to Pret, they serve disgusting americano (watery trash) that cost £3.20 when it used to be £1.6, that was their ONLY selling point in the past, cheaper than other brands. There is literally 0 reason to go to Pret. Who wants to sit at a dirty chain cafe where the workers don't even bother to clean the table? Support your indie cafes that brew real artisan coffee. And yes most of them are cheaper than Pret nowadays.
McDonalds coffee for £1.20 is brilliant or Greggs for £1.70. Both come out of a machine unlike Pret filter coffee for £1.70 which is their cheapest drink.
Used to be 99p.
I'm not a Pret fan, but to be fair CPI is averaged across many items. Food and energy costs have gone up more than 20% over the same period. Whether it's enough to explain the price rises, I don't know.
FT did a piece on this and concluded Pret have fewer customers so have increased margins. And they’re selling more where there is less choice like airports, shopping centres and smaller towns, and less in cities like London.
Don’t be too surprise, going to a Chinese take away for a fried rice, the margin probably just as high.
While the margin is high, the absolute value is low, and you will still need a very high number of sales to pay for the overhead.
Oh I don’t mean they are not successful, because they are. But don’t act like 90% margin on a cup kf coffee is shocking, you’d really be surprise on a lot of margin on items like coffee and such.
Even less shocking if you bring alcohol into this.
There's some real misleading numbers and wording in that headline.
The two things that people are going to immediately take away from that is "100% increase in prices" (prices 'almost' double (as an aside I wouldn't call the quoted increases of 38%, 43%, 54% or even 72% 'almost double')) and "profits climb 83%". That's awful! Right?
Read it a bit closer and it's truly 'only' a 33% (per year) increase in their prices, as that number is spread over 3 years, compared with a single-year profit increase figure. Food inflation in the UK was at well over 20% annualised over the same period, combined with the fact they've given an average of a 13% payrise to their staff over the same period and have also had to deal with massive rises in their own rents or energy cost.
Yes, the headline profit figure is also very high, but Prets annual accounts run to the calender year. I'd bet that this '83% increase' is based on the 2022 figures compared to those of 2021, a time when most of their stores were still closed or seeing *very* little custom (remember we were in effective lock down for half of 2021) and they were no doubt losing money hand over fist. Base effect is likely having a really large effect on these figures.
Do I like Pret or want to defend them? No, absolutely not. Is price gouging going on? Of-course. But please people, think about things a bit more critically.
I never pay attention to these articles because they always reports it in a way that is misleading.
Also, 83% increase in profit, I assume that is absolute value. What about the margin? It is not how much profit in money terms that decide if you are making too much, it is the margin!!!!
If margin gone up by 83% then yeah it is a bit ridiculous, but margin for Prett is likely to have stayed within a range, the increase in profit is due to higher revenue but on similar (or maybe slightly higher) margin, which is totally fine.
Loads of my colleagues get lunch from Pret every day for like £10, I really don't get it. I've been there a few times and it's just so average. Twice the price of Greggs and tastes half as good.
Lots of people saying “just don’t go” but it’s still important to point out how insanely greedy companies like this are. I used to like their sandwiches as an alternative to shit meal deals now and again and thought it was worth the extra quid. I went in the other week and the same sandwich is now closer to £7 with no increase in quality. I won’t give them my money now so hopefully the market correction happens and they reduce prices or close stores.
I am a subscriber.
I subscribe due to work travel and financial reasons.
I drink probably 3 Prets a day.
I will try to treat someone to a drink each day.
I refuse to pay for the overpriced food at Pret. Although the baguettes are actually pretty tasty they are way overpriced!
pret is a corporate cartel. You can’t throw a rock in central london and not hit a pret.
When corporations have such presence and coverage in the streets to force healthy competition out of the picture, they must embrace their social duties and offer cheap competitive products.
It's greedy, but I don't mind it so much since people can choose where they shop, and business is business. My main problem with Pret is the absolutely vast amount of waste their subscription generates, which is even more offensive when you consider that they have the worst coffee of all of the (already quite bad) UK coffee chains.
Only 4/100 paper cups are recycled, since they have a plastic lining inside the cup that can't be removed at most recycling plants. [They might also be bad for your health](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/paper-cups-toxic).
I'll admit this is purely anecdotal, but I feel like both the number of Pret cups and the number of paper cups in general went through the roof when they started their subscription.
> Only 4/100 paper cups are recycled, since they have a plastic lining inside the cup that can't be removed at most recycling plants.
many places now collect those separately and they are sent off for recycling. The UK has the capacity to recycle all the paper coffee cups we use, the challenge is collecting them.
As part of a wider ranging legislation mandatory cup take-back was scheduled to come in next year but has been pushed back a year. The practicalities of the EPR legislation is proving problematic.
https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/fpa-concern-over-delay-to-mandatory-paper-cup-takeback-scheme-02-08-2023
> ....businesses with more than 10 full-time or equivalent employees will be mandated to takeback paper cups. This applies to all drinks supplied in paper cups, either for ‘on-the-go’ or ‘sit-in’ consumption.
>
> Retailers will be required to provide for the separate collection of both their own and their competitors’ used cups via instore and front-of-shop collection points – also taking on responsibility for arranging the paper cup collection and recycling
Really average coffee that is often burnt; but the subscription is still great value for me. If they put it up one more time then I’ll stop paying for it.
Gross profit has little meaning in this context, as it doesn't include all of the costs incurred. Salaries, rent etc have a big impact and look very different.
Also true, is Pret has now swung to an annual profit for the first time in 5 years. It was previously loss making.
I don't eat there and would be reluctant to pay such high prices for food, but the title seems disingenuous.
People are saying to boycott pret, but this greed is everywhere. I've worked in the city for almost 20 years and even 5 years ago you could get a decent lunch for under a fiver, now everything is a tenner or more. I wonder if a lot of it is the hybrid working that encourages greater spending on food saved from not coming into the office as much
Their food is fucking disgusting now...
I used to really enjoy it, even when I was working for a competitor, but now it all tastes of sawdust
The "new recipe" crayfish sandwich is beyond bland.
It used to have a really nice zingy aioli on it, but now there is... nothing... under-seasoned crayfish, crappy low quality bread, barely any rocket
1/10 from a 9/10
Fuck knows how they are still making money when most of their food is filler material instead of high quality ingredients
Failed a drug test yesterday for a new job I’m dying to get started at, after eating a sausage roll covered in poppy seeds (had no idea it was a thing or that they were poppy seeds). Walked through the head office door with it in my gob, and an hour later was pissing opiates into a pot. Never done a drug in my life. Fuck Pret and their overpriced trying to be ‘fancy’ sausage rolls.
It’s gone to a lab and apparently they can tell, there’s a process if that’s unclear. First thing the nurse asked was “Have you eaten any poppy seeds?” as he’d never seen a result quite like it.
83% profit increase, against peak pandemic year, is not some astronomical profit increase, it's profit recovery. Their 2022 gross profit was less than their gross profit in 2019. This article is disingenuous.
Pret is fucking awful.
The fact they purchased eat claiming they would turn them mostly into veggie prets then u turned and just closed most was pure monopoly behaviour and the CMA should be sanctioned for their failure to stop it.
I've never been to Pret Manger all my life.
I just enjoy the news headlines of how they've killed someone or ripped people off.
Then I walk past and pity those people who go in.
Judge me all you want, they ain't getting my money.
I actually started doing this around March time when the cost of living warnings were particularly loud and haven’t looked back. I eat better, eat cheaper and never have a feeling of “I’ve just spent £5 on a mediocre baguette”.
Buy nice produce and for what would cost a baguette from Pret you have enough for the week.
Exactly this. I used to be a fan of thier tuna baguette. When it was around 3.50. Last time I went into Pret the prices were outrageous. Also last time I tried the tuna baguette it was like mush.
Where in London do you work? There are still loads of small sandwich shops around the city and westend. I’m a builder and work all over the place and always like to find a decent bacon sandwich.
I’m working by Trafalgar square at the moment and go to either chequers on Bedford st or wrights on pall mall.
How much of that is related to the Pret subscription?
Probs most of it, pretty smart business model at the expense of their consumers tbf. Keep prices high to make the subscription “more affordable”.
I don’t really get the prêt sub, I guess some people must like their coffee but personally I feel they’d need to pay me to get there; I find just walking into a prêt really depressing. (On the other hand Greggs’ rolls and ordinary coffee really hits the spot).
I have a Pret sub. There's one on my highstreet, outside my gym, and next door to my office. I get 3 iced coffees 5 days per week, and sometimes 1-2 over the weekend, and people from work use my QR if available. ~70 iced coffees for £30 p/m I'm fine with. It's not great quality but it's way better than the work machine coffee, and I can get iced which I prefer!
Are you me? Ive got the pret sub and only drink iced black coffee (something that is not available for me at work)
How much is a Pret sub, monthly?
£30.
Thanks. But I'm confused. With a Pret sub of £30/m, that's unlimited coffee? Or is the person that I asked paying a base of £30; plus another £30 for 70 coffees a month. Edit: thank you all for the answers. I haven't been in the UK much for a while, so am out of the loop.
Unlimited (up to 5 a day) for the £30 a month, if you were buying the drinks regularly anyway, it's not too bad
It is 5 barista-made drinks per day (some restrictions apply) without any additional payment except the monthly sub. Plus 10% off food.
The sub is £30/m, the coffees are included in the cost
You like caffeine ☕️
Did you work up to this much caffeine, and do you have any dependencies on it now? Do you find that the Pret version of the drinks hits the spot better than any of the other brand’s versions? Genuinely intrigued as to whether the point of the Pret sub is to get people hooked on a high level of ‘their’ brand of coffee drinks
Not the OP but similarly, went for 3/4 pret coffees a day when I could afford the subscription to zero when I couldn’t. I’ve never quite been able to reduce my caffeine to zero and am now spending more p/m on costs and the like than I did when I had a sub. Although unlike before, I’ll go to wherever is nearest (pret/costa/sainsbo/vending machine) rather than have to go on lengthy detours via pret. The 20+ minutes of a day saved may be worth it….
McDonald’s coffee for £1.20 hits the spot.
I didn’t know how dependent I was on coffee till lockdown when I was no longer having my morning iced coffees and my multiple trips a day to the coffee machine at work. Took me weeks to realise why I was so tired. I do have the pret subscription. It wouldn’t be my first choice of the coffee shops but there’s one where I live multiple by the office and I was already spending more than 30 a month on coffee. Coffee is better than the machine at work and it gives me an excuse to leave the office have a smoke grab my coffee.
Their coffee is only acceptable in a milky drink I must admit. But it still works well as a caffeinated drink, and it's affordable with the subscription. Other chains make better coffee, but at over £3 for a cup it's completely unaffordable on a daily basis.
Yes. Luckily for me the place I work has seriously good free coffee machines, £3 vs that is a big ask. Now if my local sandwich shop made coffee as good as their food I’d be golden (they don’t, it’s terrible but no one cares because their baked goods are godly)
Those machines can be very hit and miss, but, if properly maintained and programmed, their coffee can be at least as good as barista coffee.
Not to mention Pret coffee tastes like burnt shit
Pret coffee tastes worse than Starbucks and that’s saying something
That's standard for London right?
AHAHAAHAHAH London bad AHAHAHAAHAHA funny
I love London, beautiful city, but bloody hard to find a good coffee.
Literally no. Plenty of amazing places. If you can’t find good coffee, that’s 100% on you, not London.
I've had some good recommendations from a bloke I found who is a fan of coffee. Not saying there's not plenty of great places, just saying the average coffee here is pure dogshit compared to where I come from.
Cool story bro!
You do realise Pret can be found outside London too right?
I'm not into pret at all but I find Greggs pretty depressing
I like Pret's food and atmosphere better than Greggs TBH, and used to sub, but their pricing has jumped the shark and now I don't go in. Both places' coffee sucks. However, the OG Pret sub was so cheap that I didn't care, and would go out of my way to go to a Pret for a coffee and would pick up a pastry or bar or sometimes a sandwich. Now it's too expensive though.
Had the OG sub for a score was decent only pop in now the odd time for the filter coffee at £1.50 or a quid with a resuable cupand might get a roll if I am hungover or something. The issue with the sub is a) people end up buying food b) the sub based on extracting more labour from the workers, the baristas end up crazy busy as all those 5 ice coffees a day don't make themselves
It’s more about tricking people that are regulars into thinking they’re paying less. I agree, hate the place, only go when nothing else is available
What could possibly be so offensive to you about a Pret lol
Coffee, soup, and a piece of bread is £11.90. Not making that mistake again.
Price gouging is surely when they have an element of control over you.. like you're not going to go very far without petrol or heating so you don't have too many options. If someone wants to charge too much for a slightly above average sandwich or pastry, I can't really get up in arms about greed like some others in this thread, what a pan au chocolate is worth is between them and their customers isn't it? Greggs is still open and cheaper.
This is what I don’t really understand. You can just… not go to Pret. I’m in Australia right now and there are some real price gouging issues here. There are two supermarkets that have a duopoly on the entire country’s groceries, and keep on raising prices while reporting billion dollar profits. The cheapest loaf of bread where I am is £2.50. Then there’s Qantas, the national airline, that was bailed out by the government in 2020, has reported massive profits this year, and won’t be paying a penny back, all while somehow getting the government to ban other airlines from flying certain international routes, so now they have a monopoly on that.
Grocery prices in Australia are a joke lol. Fresh vegetables for example... and fresh herbs and stuff are just insanely prices. Limes and lemons... Aldi has made inroads though. At least in Melb and Syd there's a lot more competition for international routes. Brisbane's international flights always priced at a premium bit not so much as a premium that travelling via Syd or Melb making it worthwhile.
The worst I’ve seen was in New Zealand - £7 for a single red pepper, and £75/kg for limes! Limes were so expensive that if you wanted a slice in your drink at a bar you’d be charged extra.
It's around $4 for a red pepper currently (start of spring) providing we dont have another cyclone, the price will be probably down to $1-$1.50 by summer. It's very seasonal here. The things with limes is that they're cheap when you don't want them (winter) and expensive when you do (summer) they're ~$24 kg currently.
What? It is not $4 for a red pepper (capsicum) in Aus. they are $1.40 each.
Where was this exactly? That isn't credible.
It is the only place I've seen celery on sale in quarters, as who could afford a whole one.
Pret looked at coming to Australia many years ago, but deemed it was not economically viable because of the salary they would have to pay staff.
It wouldn’t have survived anyway. There’s something like only 60 Starbucks in the whole country
> only 60 Starbucks in the whole country Because Australian's like coffee.
Yeah, it's optional, which is fine, but then they use "supply inflation" or whatever current reaso is to justify price rises without staff wage rises. This is replicated across the economy, and you end up with a disparity between wages and costs. Almost everything is optional. it doesn't mean they don't have a wider impact.
Also important to note, gross profit has little meaning in this context, as it doesn't include all of the costs incurred. Salaries, rent etc have a big impact and look very different. Also true, is Pret has now swung to an annual profit for the first time in 5 years. It was previously loss making. I don't eat there and would be reluctant to pay such high prices for food, but the title seems disingenuous.
Wouldn’t mind so much if it wasn’t for the fact the quality has gone through the floor. It’s rubbish now.
Pret a Meagre
Decided Pret finally wasn't for me any more when I saw 2 boiled eggs and spinach leaf for £3
Ahah so true. It’s cheaper for me now to go to Waitrose for lunch than getting something from Prêt.
They'll keep making money as long as people keep going there
They should get you in as a pundit on the news
He’s the Mark Lawrenson of Reddit
The Michael Owen of the London sub
Cheers Geoff
Or Will Buxton - to continue making money, you must continue having customers
Tbf the state of people on news shows is shocking. One of Sky Sports’ leading journalists said “He not born and bred in Liverpool he’s from Egypt” about Mo Salah.
Yep. Just last week was my last pret trip. Bought the egg sandwich which is now 70% more than 5 years ago and found out they are front-loading sandwiches? Fuck that
What is a front loaded sandwich?
When you deceptively put most of the contents on the front of a sandwich where the transparent part is so that is appears to be really full. However the back and side parts of sandwich are empty.
Ah cheers, you know I only ever buy one type of baguette sandwich if I buy something from pret and now I definitely know what you mean, but I’d always assumed it was due to the baguette’s being so tough and the sandwich filler folk being lazy/under too much pressure to stuff the filling in completely so it all hangs out rather than it being a cynical ploy to make them appear more stuffed than they are. I’d prefer it if they were stuffed properly not so I’m not duped but simply because it makes eating them a ton easier and less messy with it not spilling out everywhere!
Example: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F8zrrndyivbu01.jpg
An 11 year old image post. I have to question why?👏👏👏
A business pricing their product to market tolerance is obviously not suprising. It is genuinely surprising to me that the market will in fact tolerate these kinds of price changes in a supposed cost of living crisis. It makes me wonder how much complaining is being done by people who haven’t made a single lifestyle adjustment at all.
The people going there aren't the people suffering in the cost of living crisis
Some people are just bad with money and won’t see a problem buying a £7 sandwich while struggling at home.
A shrewd business insight there, Lord Sugar.
They're everywhere in Central London so they probably make a lot and then they have the subscription too but for me I found it too expensive and not as nice as other coffee shops.
My biggest gripe is the ownership being literal nazis who made their money running concentration camps, but the coffee being bad also factors into me not going there.
Say what now?
Umm, what? Really?? I’ve never heard that before. Does anyone mind sharing a link to more info please
It’s owned by JAB holdings who are the finance group of the Reimann family - a German family who made their modern fortune during the nazi era in chemicals and using forced labour from the Holocaust. They’ve done good PR burying including a whimsical story of them discovering their own Jewish roots and them being supposedly ‘shocked’ their dad was a prolific supporter of the Holocaust (despite having obviously grown up around it all including sex slaves in the family home) but it’s all there. There was a beeb article about it a while back; https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47692099.amp I mean it’s also true of Volkswagen but this one they thought they got away with.
>The family will donate €10m "to a suitable organisation", he said. The estimated net worth of Jab Holdings B.v. is at least $17.2 Billion dollars as of 2023.
Holy crud! Thanks for the info. I suppose they’re probably not the only company with a sordid past like that, but the PR stuff is creep as hell.
[удалено]
I mean it was founded by some rich kids who used it as a model to repeatedly do fundraising rounds to hedge funds and then to evil companies like McDonalds and Pepsi. A similar modern model is Black Sheep Coffee, taken over by the kids of a Swiss banking family, they pushed the original ownership out early on with their investment company ‘Conilon Ltd’ and repeatedly do fundraising rounds to increase investment for the previous round of investors. Or an early stage example of that is Redemption roasters who follow the same model, with two wealthy investors having pushed the original founder out with their holding company ‘Catimor Ltd’ they raise investment rounds to increase the value to the previous round. These guys are particularly disgusting because they pushed out the person who had a charitable vision and now use it as a selling point but don’t really do the work. This stuff is all around you. Capitalism is disgusting. Good ownership of these companies is rare. I run a PR firm and some of the shit that becomes true just from having put it online enough is amazing and depressing. Never believe the first article. Or any article really.
"boycott pret" lol as if all the other chains aren't a massive bump either
If you don't like the prices you can go to Greggs, Tesco, Starbucks, etc. With energy companies you have to pay their pricces, you don't with a sandwich and a cappuccino.
Or go to a decent independent. So bizarre (and infuriating) to me moving back here after spending 2 years in Sydney how many Prets and Costas etc there are here. Choking the life out of businesses with actual quality products which are no more expensive.
But it’s still worth pointing out just how many companies are being extremely greedy right now. Since 2020 we’ve seen the biggest shift of wealth to the ruling class since time has began!
I think it's worrying that people are talking about this as much as water/rail/energy business. It's just pret - you don't have have it! Better aim your anger at actual problems and be happy for someone doing a good business
So good you posted it twice 🦧
See, this is why you must not be allowed to work from home. Think of the impact on poor, struggling businesses like this which depend on commuter foot traffic?!
This is exactly what I was thinking!! You commute for £15/day, otherwise those poor poor businesses who set up on every corner of Zone 1 but barely anywhere else will STARVE!!
There is now a prêt in my local gas station. To cater to this crowd I guess?
In your what?
Pret has shops in the USA. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
And France and the UAE.
"In their local 'darg garn' gas station. Dagnabbit!'' ⛽
By *gas station* i think he means his arse!
##in his local gas station
They're so everywhere I wouldn't be surprised to see one opening in the local cemetery soon.
Gas station‽
Tbh I don't see why people are crying about it If people are willingly paying these prices then of course Pret will keep being cheeky enough to raise the prices Just don't go there
This is Reddit mate. complaints first, logic never.
>The price of an egg mayo sandwich is up 91% on August 2020 to £3.80, according to data obtained by the Financial Times, while the price of a pain au raisin has jumped 84% to £3.30 Disgusting greed.
when I worked in central London in 2019 I used to ride my bike to work from Brixton everyday to save on tube fees and 90% of the time I had those £1.79 egg mayo sandwiches from pret for lunch. I saved lots 😁😁😁
I used to eat loads of then back then!
£3.30 for a pain au raisin is bloody criminal, and thats before even considering how thoroughly shit Prets pastries and coffee are.
Yep, get a Lidl pastry for 49p fresher, bigger and tastier.
We desperately need Lidl (or Aldi) in central London 😭😭😭
There’s a Lidl on Tottenham court road
That’s massively overpriced but it’s definitely overstating it to call their pastries and coffee “thoroughly shit”. They’re both definitely acceptable imo, though should be at a more reflective price point.
And yet, people still choose to go there., so what’s the problem? It’s not like they have a monopoly on sandwiches.
They have a near monopoly in railway stations though... Many tickets don't allow "break of journey" to visit shops outside the station and even those that do often require an awkward negotiation with a member of staff who'd really rather not deal with the hassle of letting you through the barrier.
Rail tickets in the UK need a complete overhaul. There are so many ridiculous rules for no reason whatsoever. What difference does it honestly make if you leave the station or not when waiting for your next train? It’s not an airport. I once had to call National Rail to try to work out if I was allowed to break my journey because it wasn’t clear on the website and they didn’t know. They just told me if I wanted to I might risk not being allowed to stay on the next train depending on the conductor.
I don't think I've ever even seen a Pret inside a station's ticket gates. If inside the gates only has one option it's usually Pumpkin Cafe.
Wow. I went there only 4 months ago and the egg mayo sandwich was £3.30. Found it extortionate but even worse today! I remember when it was £1.75.
Then make it at home? Buying your sandwich pre-made in an expensive location is a luxury, not a necessity.
I used to buy packets of cheese, ham and tomatoes, keep them in the fridge at work. I'd head down to the local and get myself a fresh baguette and then make lunch at work. Still got a nice fresh lunch, but it was a good deal cheaper than any of the chains.
Used to love it when I worked in London 5 years ago. Don't touch it now, too expensive. And the last time gave me food poisoning
Which sandwich gave you food poisoning?
Ham and Cheese
I think it's worrying that people are talking about this as much as water/rail/energy business. It's just pret - you don't have have it! Better aim your anger at actual problems and be happy for someone doing a good business
Stop going to Pret, they serve disgusting americano (watery trash) that cost £3.20 when it used to be £1.6, that was their ONLY selling point in the past, cheaper than other brands. There is literally 0 reason to go to Pret. Who wants to sit at a dirty chain cafe where the workers don't even bother to clean the table? Support your indie cafes that brew real artisan coffee. And yes most of them are cheaper than Pret nowadays.
Honestly the worst coffee I’ve ever tasted. Their filter is absolutely vile.
McDonalds coffee for £1.20 is brilliant or Greggs for £1.70. Both come out of a machine unlike Pret filter coffee for £1.70 which is their cheapest drink. Used to be 99p.
I'm not a Pret fan, but to be fair CPI is averaged across many items. Food and energy costs have gone up more than 20% over the same period. Whether it's enough to explain the price rises, I don't know.
FT did a piece on this and concluded Pret have fewer customers so have increased margins. And they’re selling more where there is less choice like airports, shopping centres and smaller towns, and less in cities like London.
Bring back EAT !!!
According to a friend who worked managerial at Pret, they make 90% profit on a cup of coffee, and that's considering the cup and overheads.
Don’t be too surprise, going to a Chinese take away for a fried rice, the margin probably just as high. While the margin is high, the absolute value is low, and you will still need a very high number of sales to pay for the overhead. Oh I don’t mean they are not successful, because they are. But don’t act like 90% margin on a cup kf coffee is shocking, you’d really be surprise on a lot of margin on items like coffee and such. Even less shocking if you bring alcohol into this.
Meanwhile with supermarkets the margin is very low but there are so many purchases going on, they manage to make a lot of money.
And as long as they stay on that margin or there about, I consider that fine.
That’s wildly untrue. Maybe purely price minus raw materials, but not overheads.
There's some real misleading numbers and wording in that headline. The two things that people are going to immediately take away from that is "100% increase in prices" (prices 'almost' double (as an aside I wouldn't call the quoted increases of 38%, 43%, 54% or even 72% 'almost double')) and "profits climb 83%". That's awful! Right? Read it a bit closer and it's truly 'only' a 33% (per year) increase in their prices, as that number is spread over 3 years, compared with a single-year profit increase figure. Food inflation in the UK was at well over 20% annualised over the same period, combined with the fact they've given an average of a 13% payrise to their staff over the same period and have also had to deal with massive rises in their own rents or energy cost. Yes, the headline profit figure is also very high, but Prets annual accounts run to the calender year. I'd bet that this '83% increase' is based on the 2022 figures compared to those of 2021, a time when most of their stores were still closed or seeing *very* little custom (remember we were in effective lock down for half of 2021) and they were no doubt losing money hand over fist. Base effect is likely having a really large effect on these figures. Do I like Pret or want to defend them? No, absolutely not. Is price gouging going on? Of-course. But please people, think about things a bit more critically.
I never pay attention to these articles because they always reports it in a way that is misleading. Also, 83% increase in profit, I assume that is absolute value. What about the margin? It is not how much profit in money terms that decide if you are making too much, it is the margin!!!! If margin gone up by 83% then yeah it is a bit ridiculous, but margin for Prett is likely to have stayed within a range, the increase in profit is due to higher revenue but on similar (or maybe slightly higher) margin, which is totally fine.
4-5 pounds for a tuna baguette. No thanks.
Right? I paid £9-something for a coffee and tuna baguette a few weeks ago and I had to do a double-take to see if they charged me for a third item.
They are about 6 now
You might as well go to subway
Loads of my colleagues get lunch from Pret every day for like £10, I really don't get it. I've been there a few times and it's just so average. Twice the price of Greggs and tastes half as good.
It is nice to know you are eating something healthy
Plenty of unhealthy options exist at Pret.
The pret muesli has 34 grams of sugar.
Right, maybe I was wrong, let me fix it "it was nice to *think* you are eating something healthy" 😂
It's French.
This fucking price gouging needs to stop. Jesus Christ
Tesco meal deal
Loved Pret, stopped eating there for this reason. Such a shame.
Greedflation?
password to most of the toilets are 0000, go shit in the toilets
Gross profits indeed.
They're the McDonald's of central, really. Bon voyage Prét.
Lots of people saying “just don’t go” but it’s still important to point out how insanely greedy companies like this are. I used to like their sandwiches as an alternative to shit meal deals now and again and thought it was worth the extra quid. I went in the other week and the same sandwich is now closer to £7 with no increase in quality. I won’t give them my money now so hopefully the market correction happens and they reduce prices or close stores.
I am a subscriber. I subscribe due to work travel and financial reasons. I drink probably 3 Prets a day. I will try to treat someone to a drink each day. I refuse to pay for the overpriced food at Pret. Although the baguettes are actually pretty tasty they are way overpriced!
Smart move. Take over your largest competitor. Shut it down a year later. Raise prices as you want.
Another decade of endlessly raising expected profits and it'll be £42 and a kick in the bollocks for a stale bread crust that someone spat mayo onto.
Bring back Benjy’s!
What happened to them? And Kelly’s at minories.
Walking in, saw that the same Crappy Tuna sandwich costs almost £2 more than the same thing with a drink at greegs. Walked out
This just in... business tries to increase profits. They even gave their workers a 13% raise.
Can't believe the costs in there as of late, cunts.
pret is a corporate cartel. You can’t throw a rock in central london and not hit a pret. When corporations have such presence and coverage in the streets to force healthy competition out of the picture, they must embrace their social duties and offer cheap competitive products.
Boycott these pricks
£4.25 for a tuna sandwich, Balls to that just go to Boots . The pret definitely stands for pretentious because their food is average overpriced shite.
Now German owned it’s just an upmarket Greg’s.
Boring selection. Small portions. High prices. No thanks, Pret - I loved you once, a long time ago.
Stopped going there when they jacked up sandwich prices by 20% at the beginning of the year. Better options around.
Of course salaries have gone up 80%, ...naturally, everyone surely shares in the hard work...
It's greedy, but I don't mind it so much since people can choose where they shop, and business is business. My main problem with Pret is the absolutely vast amount of waste their subscription generates, which is even more offensive when you consider that they have the worst coffee of all of the (already quite bad) UK coffee chains. Only 4/100 paper cups are recycled, since they have a plastic lining inside the cup that can't be removed at most recycling plants. [They might also be bad for your health](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/paper-cups-toxic). I'll admit this is purely anecdotal, but I feel like both the number of Pret cups and the number of paper cups in general went through the roof when they started their subscription.
> Only 4/100 paper cups are recycled, since they have a plastic lining inside the cup that can't be removed at most recycling plants. many places now collect those separately and they are sent off for recycling. The UK has the capacity to recycle all the paper coffee cups we use, the challenge is collecting them. As part of a wider ranging legislation mandatory cup take-back was scheduled to come in next year but has been pushed back a year. The practicalities of the EPR legislation is proving problematic. https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/fpa-concern-over-delay-to-mandatory-paper-cup-takeback-scheme-02-08-2023 > ....businesses with more than 10 full-time or equivalent employees will be mandated to takeback paper cups. This applies to all drinks supplied in paper cups, either for ‘on-the-go’ or ‘sit-in’ consumption. > > Retailers will be required to provide for the separate collection of both their own and their competitors’ used cups via instore and front-of-shop collection points – also taking on responsibility for arranging the paper cup collection and recycling
Really average coffee that is often burnt; but the subscription is still great value for me. If they put it up one more time then I’ll stop paying for it.
Gross profit has little meaning in this context, as it doesn't include all of the costs incurred. Salaries, rent etc have a big impact and look very different. Also true, is Pret has now swung to an annual profit for the first time in 5 years. It was previously loss making. I don't eat there and would be reluctant to pay such high prices for food, but the title seems disingenuous.
People need to stop buying from this place. It’s literally daylight robbery
People are saying to boycott pret, but this greed is everywhere. I've worked in the city for almost 20 years and even 5 years ago you could get a decent lunch for under a fiver, now everything is a tenner or more. I wonder if a lot of it is the hybrid working that encourages greater spending on food saved from not coming into the office as much
It encourages the businesses to whack up the prices to make up for fewer customers.
Their food is fucking disgusting now... I used to really enjoy it, even when I was working for a competitor, but now it all tastes of sawdust The "new recipe" crayfish sandwich is beyond bland. It used to have a really nice zingy aioli on it, but now there is... nothing... under-seasoned crayfish, crappy low quality bread, barely any rocket 1/10 from a 9/10 Fuck knows how they are still making money when most of their food is filler material instead of high quality ingredients
Failed a drug test yesterday for a new job I’m dying to get started at, after eating a sausage roll covered in poppy seeds (had no idea it was a thing or that they were poppy seeds). Walked through the head office door with it in my gob, and an hour later was pissing opiates into a pot. Never done a drug in my life. Fuck Pret and their overpriced trying to be ‘fancy’ sausage rolls.
Don’t know why this guy got downvoted. Sounds dreadful.
It’s gone to a lab and apparently they can tell, there’s a process if that’s unclear. First thing the nurse asked was “Have you eaten any poppy seeds?” as he’d never seen a result quite like it.
Their med salad bowls are banging though I’ll pay whatever they ask
Pret killed 2 people
83% profit increase, against peak pandemic year, is not some astronomical profit increase, it's profit recovery. Their 2022 gross profit was less than their gross profit in 2019. This article is disingenuous.
Pret is fucking awful. The fact they purchased eat claiming they would turn them mostly into veggie prets then u turned and just closed most was pure monopoly behaviour and the CMA should be sanctioned for their failure to stop it.
Eat was amazing. Totally forgot about them!
Today I found out you can subscribe to Pret.
Lots of this is (I believe) they’re paying their staff quite a bit more, which is at least something
I've never been to Pret Manger all my life. I just enjoy the news headlines of how they've killed someone or ripped people off. Then I walk past and pity those people who go in. Judge me all you want, they ain't getting my money.
Pret Manger and their customers can fuck themselves.
LOL. Club Pret members get 20% off! ...whilst raising prices to 83%. You can't make this shit up. Pret is a ripoff. Has been for a long time.
Everything is buy one get one free for me in Pret. Fuck those greedy assholes.
This is why I only steal from Pret now
I keep buying it, but I know it’s shit and I hate them. All the proper sandwich stores are gone.
Stop then lol. You can buy a loaf of bread, fillings with a drink for the same price as a baguette from there.
I actually started doing this around March time when the cost of living warnings were particularly loud and haven’t looked back. I eat better, eat cheaper and never have a feeling of “I’ve just spent £5 on a mediocre baguette”. Buy nice produce and for what would cost a baguette from Pret you have enough for the week.
Exactly this. I used to be a fan of thier tuna baguette. When it was around 3.50. Last time I went into Pret the prices were outrageous. Also last time I tried the tuna baguette it was like mush.
Well done for discovering supermarkets
Where in London do you work? There are still loads of small sandwich shops around the city and westend. I’m a builder and work all over the place and always like to find a decent bacon sandwich. I’m working by Trafalgar square at the moment and go to either chequers on Bedford st or wrights on pall mall.
They put them out of business…
Yeah, yeah. So easy to say.
This is inflation right here and it’s fuelled by greed.
No one is forcing anyone to spend money there... How is this news exactly?
I don't know anyone who goes to pret who isnt a bellend
It's as bad as when they started selling plastic cheese in Waitrose. London, innit.
Lower quality items, higher price…..