London – Lambeth – Westminster Bridge Road Pret a Manger (Eat Out to Help Out)

I wouldn’t normally post about a Pret, but one thing that moderately surprised me is that around 75% of customers were saying they’d take out rather than eat in. This is surprising only insomuch that if any customer said they were eating in, then they’d get their food and drink at half price.

I took this photo at just about the only time there were no customers at the counter, there was a steady stream of sandwich and coffee buyers. The staff member at the counter didn’t mention the ‘eat out to help out campaign’, but then again he wasn’t meant to. I did though feel slightly sorry for the two people who dithered over whether to eat in or take away, then opted for the latter. It must have been quite a dilemma for Pret staff to know whether or not to mention this offer to customers.

And, back to Pret. Their food and drink is excellent, this was the half-price cheddar and pickle, one of the finest sandwich combinations that exist and, incidentally, pretty much the most popular choice at LDWA events. Anyway, I digress. I’m not sure how Pret are going to cope financially given that they are predominantly a London company and this is the area struggling at the moment to attract commuters back in. A fair few of their shops are currently closed in London and many are operating on reduced hours.

As another aside, Pret for years have refused to operate a loyalty scheme, instead they let their staff give free things to customers who they like. I’m not sure that this has been particularly effective and perhaps they should have gone down the Greggs route (I mean the Greggs loyalty app rather than selling chicken bakes, although the latter would work for me too). Now Pret has no contact details for customers and needs their customers to show loyalty.