A fancy Pret A Manger cheddar baguette was once my favorite work day treat.
The cheese is plentiful, the pickle has just the right balance between spicy and sweet, the mayonnaise and watercress elevate it above its street rivals.
But several months ago I swore I would never buy one again, or anything else from the ubiquitous coffee chain.
This is because in September last year it introduced a 20 per cent discount on food for subscribers to its Club Pret loyalty programme.
In return for paying an attractive £30 a month, members get up to five coffees a day at no extra cost, plus a discount on food.
Loyal customer – but Money Mail editor Rachel Rickard Strauss is leaving Pret A Manger behind after growing tired of its high prices.
Now, we must endure seeing two prices presented for each item: the price that seems reasonable to the subscriber and the outrageous price in comparison that non-subscribers must pay unless we deliver the equivalent of £360 a year.
I didn’t dare subscribe or pay the higher price. Handing over £4.50 for a glorious sarnie feels quite rich and a stark reminder that I should make my own at home.
But paying that when Pret can clearly make a profit selling the same sandwich for £3.60 completely puts me off.
And I’m not the only one who has been bothered by Pret. Their Trustpilot account is littered with customer reviews criticizing the high prices.
It has a rating of 1.9 out of five at the time of writing. His page on X, formerly Twitter, is similarly littered with comments about pricing.
And in recent weeks, Pret has angered some subscribers by forcing them to log into the app every time they want to claim drinks or discounts.
This prevented them from sharing their membership with friends and family. And glitches in the system caused some customers to have difficulty logging in.
Co-founder Julian Metcalfe, who sold his stake in 2018, said his heart goes out to “customers who are disappointed”. Pret said the issues affected a small number of subscribers and have been resolved.
The company is also battling a £700m debt that has risen during Covid, higher costs, a decline in office workers and the challenge of convincing people burdened by a rising cost of living to pay close to £ 4 for a coffee.
Unsurprisingly, Pret announced a boardroom shake-up last week and plans to bring back co-founder Sinclair Beecham to help it get back on track.
Posh sarnie: Pret’s cheddar baguette is a cut above the average supermarket sandwich, but its £4.50 price tag, reduced to £3.60 with the loyalty scheme, leaves a bitter aftertaste.
So what went wrong? After all, when two university friends opened the first outlet, in Victoria, London, in 1986, it was like a breath of fresh air on the High Street.
David Sables, CEO of Sentinel Management Consultants, believes Pret did the math and decided it’s worth bothering clients like me a little.
He says the subscription makes regular customers more engaged, ensuring they come every time they have to choose between Pret and an alternative cafe.
The subscription was used 1.25 million times a week in April last year and subscribers spend around 30 per cent more per transaction than non-subscribers, according to Pret figures.
“Once you’ve signed up, you can’t justify going anywhere else because you have to pay for the subscription,” says Mr. Sables.
He adds that Pret subscribers spend more because they come for their “free” coffee at times of the day when they are probably also considering eating: breakfast when they have their morning coffee, lunch in the afternoon.
And he adds: ‘The risk is that it will annoy passers-by who came in occasionally but who now feel put off by the non-subscriber pricing model.
“But Pret has clearly decided that it gains more by encouraging loyal customers than it loses by alienating those who come in casually.”
However, Clive Black, a retail analyst at Shore Capital, points out that no other coffee shops use a subscription model. He says: “Pret is trying to monetise loyalty and it is questionable whether it is working.”
He doubts many more people have the degree of loyalty to a coffee brand necessary for Pret’s subscription to grow.
The company aims to have 500 stores in the UK by the end of the year. But Mr Black warns: ‘The Pret brand will only travel much further than London and its home counties. It will never be able to reach the level of 2,000 to 3,000 stores that Greggs, for example, enjoys.’
In recent weeks, Pret has angered some loyalty club subscribers by forcing them to log into the app every time they want to claim drinks or discounts.
Richard Hyman, a retail consultant, says: “It used to be that you could buy a coffee with money in your pocket or purse; it didn’t feel like real money.” Now, the prices make you stop and think.”
He adds that consumers understand that food establishments have had to raise prices. “But there is a price sensitivity and a tipping point that retailers overcome at their own risk,” she adds.
Today, Pret’s tuna and mayonnaise baguette costs £4.50 for non-members, or £5.40 to eat in, up from £2.99 in December 2021, while a flat white has risen from £2.85 to £3.90, according to coffee maker UCC Coffee.
In February, Pret cut prices on some of its best-selling items after claiming it was overcharging.
The cheddar baguette was reduced by £1 to £3.99, although when I bought one yesterday on High Street Kensington in London, the full price was £4.50.
So what could Pret do to tempt me back?
First, demonstrate that they are not as expensive as we think. After all, they’re actually not much more expensive than, say, Starbucks or Caffe Nero.
Secondly, recover the old loyalty system, according to which baristas could occasionally give away a coffee.
I’ve rarely felt more affection for a brand than when I walked into a Pret after a tough day and a barista gave me a free croissant and said, “You look like you could use this.”
I said to everyone I spoke to that day: Can you really put a price on good publicity like that?
Finally, Pret upset people who enjoyed sharing their subscription. This is no way to treat someone since you have to wait 30 minutes between ordering each drink, but how about offering subscribers a 20 percent discount on additional drinks?
Do you think Pret A Manger offers good value for money?
rachel.rickard@dailymail.co.uk
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