To think 4.70 for a pret sandwich is too expensive?

[WaltonOnNaze]

A sandwich. Not a baguette or flatbread etc. am sure they used to be about £3.50 not so long ago.

I bet you can't get a crayfish tail sandwich at Greggs. Pret is more expensive, but have a selection of nicer fillings. I'm sure Greggs are fine and cheaper for a more basic sandwich, but like an interesting filling.

Go to the pub instead, the one near our work do ham egg and chips for a fiver and it isn't a wetherspoons.

The second closest do a hot filled baguette with chips and a pint for £8.50

Me and DH never buy anything 'out' now. We take cheddars, crisps, apples, cereal bars, and 'breakfast yogurt biscuits' when we go out for the day, (Or we know we won't be back til mid afternoon,) in case we get peckish. Used to have a lunchtime Maccies, or a Greggs, or a Burger King... But even they have all gone mad now with their prices.

Me and DH used to have (at Maccies,): small fries, mcflurry and cappuccino for me, and a medium extra value meal for him. Used to be £6.50 to £7.00 in total pre 2020, and now costs a £10-11. Sausage rolls and cakes from Greggs used to be 45p to 60p each, now cost about 85p to a pound. Also, as you say @WaltonOnNaze and many others have, the price of sandwiches has doubled.

Even meals in supermarket cafes that used to cost us £10-12 for the two, now cost more like £18-20. And don't even get me STARTED on Chinese takeaways. WAS £11 to £13 for me and DH pre 2020. Now around £26. Ludicrous. As I say, we never buy food 'out' any more. No Maccies, no Greggs, no shop-bought sandwiches, and no takeaways.

I know everything has gone up yada yada blah blah, but I don't believe it NEEDS to go as much. Nope, I really don't. Fucking DOUBLED in price most stuff has. In 2 to 2.5 years. SOME stuff has TRIPLED in price!

Prices are going up everywhere. Coffee shops have overheads, energy bills, staffing costs etc. it’s hard for them. But the reality is a lot of people will just stop buying from them at some point.
And it’s not always about affordability, more a latte and a nice cake just isn’t worth the £8-10 that some cafes are trying to charge. Particularly if you are buying for more than one person.

As others have pointed out, poet's USP is that all their sandwiches etc are made fresh on the same day. That makes it far more appealing to me than other sandwich shops. Having said that, I didn't think it had gone up THAT much. I'm pretty sure last year it was £5.80 or so for the sandwich I usually get and a bag of crisps and now it's £6.10 (noticed as I got one today 😆) so it's certainly no going up crazy amounts in relation to their previous prices.

Don't they also donate leftovers to homeless people at the end of the day? Or is that a random rumour I heard once years ago and believed!?

It is expensive. A really good home made BLT 🥪 isn't cheap though.

I miss some of their old sandwiches: Pret all-day breakfast, mozzarella, tomato and basil with pine nuts and pastrami and pickle. They also used to do these desserts that were like a posh yogurt with a thick layer of caramel. Sigh.

It was £10 when I started working in London 8 years ago!

I used to enjoy their kid's sandwiches as they were not stuffed with mayo or excess filling, just plain cheese or ham on granary bread but my local one no longer does them.

And there's the problem. All their costs (staff, ingredients and energy) have increased in price hugely, so they have to charge more to make a profit.

However, this is at the same time as many people's disposable incomes are also being squeezed, so they either can't afford to pay for food out, or are at the very least questioning whether it is value for money, which it quite often isn't, especially as prices increase.

I used to love pret and several other places for office lunches but I'm a civil servant so can't afford the increase. I can see why though as I gone from being in the office 5x a week to 1x so even if we were all still buying rather than bringing lunch their income would still have massively reduced after covid.

I don't think it's "too expensive" it's probably a fair price for a Pret quality sandwich in 2023.

But understandable that with everything else going up in price some of us will be looking for cheaper lunch options.

For some it is too expensive, for some isn’t . It’s too expensive for me, hence I don’t buy them. In general, I cut shop bough sandwiches, eating out etc. by 99% because I can’t afford it.

I’ve never got the Pret love. It’s over-priced at £4.70. It was over-priced at £3.50. The only people I see walking into Pret are students with little imagination and too much money.

We have a local charity that helps and houses young disadvantaged adults and yes Pret do donate their leftover sandwiches and other products to the project. Good on them. For this reason I don't mind paying a little more for a sandwich in Pret.

The chicken & avocado sandwich is my fave. I also like the falafel mezze bowl and the almond croissant.
M&S do a great chicken & avocado sarnie too.

Well if you can't be arsed pay the price or make your own, although you. Seem not to eat between trips to work.

What?

My local Costa put up its prices today. I bet the staff have not seen a wage increase though.

I was in Greggs in central London a few days ago. For breakfast, I ordered a bacon & sausage bap with brown sauce & a cappuccino. £2.95. Unbelievable value.

The biggest markup is on tea. A teabag is about a penny.
I saw a sign saying a Christmas sandwich gives 50p to the homeless. That's great, but I'm struggling myself so I just went home to eat.

You were on here screaming for lockdown. Own the consequences

If I go into the office, I'll go to a Pret that's over the road.

There is always a queue in there, so I think they do pretty well.

If the staff are on NMW, they'll see an increase in their hourly rate of around 10% in April.

However, a lot of businesses, will probably cut hours to compensate.
Another cost increase to businesses is interest rates.

A lot of chains have huge debts, so that is likely to get a lot more expensive next time it's due to be refinanced.

I work in central London, the nearest pub has a board outside advertising that a burger and pint is 'only' £15 😂 Pret is next door and cheaper than that!

They never seem to really review their range these days and have less choice. They used to have a special of the week. I think they have suffered finding staff topas most of the staff in the ones I go to in central London were not British. Now there are only 1-2 people serving even during busy times and it can take a while. But fairly par for the post pandemic/Brexit/COL crisis course.