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I used to work at the Pret during my student years. All employees, we were very puzzled by why Pret is so popular and why are they willing to pay so much for th

• philjackson 6y ago
  That free coffee thing. I used to go to a Pret frequently with one of my female colleagues who happened to be very traditionally attractive. She got a free coffee from male staff every single time.
• chrisseaton 6y ago
  > All employees, we were very puzzled by why Pret is so popular and why are they willing to pay so much for the food. 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.
  • danpalmer 6y ago
    The sandwiches are twice the price of a supermarket sandwich, and for many (especially students working at Pret) the idea of buying lunch out rather than making it at home and bringing it in may be a luxury. If you're on £16k a year, spending £1000 for a sandwich every day for lunch is a lot (£4 sandwich * 250 working days).
    • himinlomax 6y ago
      Thing is, for most people living in a large city and on a tight budget, it's not the cost of the ingredients that matters but the facilities to prepare them. 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.
      • danpalmer 6y ago
        Sure, but most people have food prep facilities at home, particularly for those who can't afford to eat out as much, so bringing in food in a lunch box is accessible to most.
  • ForHackernews 6y ago
    > not a lot of money This is the part that's puzzling to people working minimum wage. Their marginal utility of money is much higher than yours.
  • ben_w 6y ago
    Now that I’m a senior software developer, I earn enough that I don’t need to care how much food like this costs. 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).
    • chrisseaton 6y ago
      But presumably these people are aware that there are people who aren't living on a pound a day. They can't be genuinely surprised that most people out there can afford a couple of pounds for lunch? They'd have to be ignorant of the basic economic state of the nation to be surprised by this.
      • zelos 6y ago
        I don't know: as a reasonably well paid software developer I still find the amount people are prepared to pay for lunch surprising. As the article mentions, once you buy coffee+sandwich+pastry+fruit you can easily be over £10, which is something like the price of a new Macbook every year?
        • zwaps 6y ago
          What is the alternative? What is the opportunity cost of doing so? I'd imagine enough people going there earn enough such that even the price of a new Macbook is not even a thing.
        • wenc 6y ago
          Well my rationale is a little different. I tend to buy lunch every day because I like fresh/hot food, I like variety and I like putting money into the local economy (many lower income folks depend on their food service salaries). And I enjoy doing other things with my leisure time than prepping meals. 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.
• gadders 6y ago
  I like the Pret food, but their coffee is awful. Worst thing they sell in my opinion. I'm not a coffee snob - I usually drink starbucks - but I hate the Pret version.
  • tomduncalf 6y ago
    Yeah same here, sandwiches are not bad (better than supermarket equivalents, but should be for the price premiuum), but not a fan at all of their coffee at all. Kind of tastes watery and burnt at the same time.
• HenryBemis 6y ago
  Being an on and off customer since 1998, I was fascinated by the idea that I can walk in and pick a sandwich out of 20-50-100 combinations (I honestly don't remember how many options were available but I remember it as "oh sooooo many!!!". 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!
  • matthewmacleod 6y ago
    The idea that what’s essentially a regular sandwich shop (and not one particularly notable for pushing “chips” or “sugary soft drinks”) is in any real way contributing to obesity in the UK is laughable.
    • TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
      It really isn't. Small sandwich + crisps + sugary soda or coffee >= 700 calories, which is around twice what someone sedentary needs for lunch unless they start their day with a decent run. Add a chocolate bar and you're over 800. Start with a bigger roll or a wrap instead of a small sandwich and you're over 900. 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.
• Angostura 6y ago
  > All employees, we were very puzzled by why Pret is so popular and why are they willing to pay so much for the food. 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.
  • chiefalchemist 6y ago
    Or at the very least, consistently not bad. The larger to group, the lower the common denominator. Pret gets the job done. Quickly and conveniently. There's more to the decision than quality.
    • nemo44x 6y ago
      First time I reluctantly had one of their sandwiches I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it’s be bad being pre-made but it was fresh and well proportioned.
• mrkwse 6y ago
  I guess the coffee deal is mainly to drive footfall. I expect their hope is that when people are deliberating over lunch, those that already have the coffee deal will default to Pret so they don't pay twice for coffee with their sandwich etc.
• barrkel 6y ago
  The only acceptable sandwich lunch is a burger, IMO. These days, even working from home, once a week I ride my motorbike to Netil market to get a burger from the Lucky Chip stall. 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.
  • ivanbakel 6y ago
    Hot food is invariably more expensive than cold.
    • bigbizisverywyz 6y ago
      In the UK I think there's even a VAT rule that hot food must be taxed, but cold food isn't. It could've changed, but that's what I remember.
    • barrkel 6y ago
      Hot food is invariably more edible than cold... 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.
  • chiefalchemist 6y ago
    It's like anything else: convenience, quickness, consistency, perception of cleanliness, habits of others around you, and so on. 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.
    • barrkel 6y ago
      I hate it, and I hate what it stands for. I mentally associaciate Pret with bankers, and I haven't forgetten about 2008. 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.