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 had a Burger King meal today and it was £10.29!

Ditto McDonalds and KFC. I know inflation is above 10% but a quarter pounder with cheese meal at McDonalda used to be under £4, I think.

@saraclara I wrote to them to ask if they would bring it back but sadly they said no 😭

Of course I get that a business has to do the maths to be able to pay its bills and come away with a profit.

my point was that over 450% profit on a sandwich means that people realise what a rip off it is and question the sense in paying £4.50 for a bit of bread with some cheap filling in. That isn't a good business model, because the customer can decide really easily to cut it out of their weekly expenditure especially now with the CoL crisis when we're all questioning every penny leaving our bank accounts.

however if they were less greedy and decided to make less profit (not no profit!) but keep their customers loyal, they would be able to stay in business.

The only reason Pret can survive is because it's so widespread and ubiquitous in U.K. during the 'boom' times that its profitable shops will prop up those that are now haemorrhaging customers (but not forever). Eg London train stations will always have a big turnover where people will pay more for the speed and convenience that in a provincial high street. Those stores could close, once the beancounters check their profit centres and realise which branches rip off their customers and can get away with daylight robbery are on a losing trend.

I can buy a lovely fresh bowl of pasta and salad for about £11 in my local town non-chain restaurant - which puts into perspective what a rip off Pret is.

Yes, the sandwiches are the same all the time. They used to have a lovely prawn and dill sandwich but they stopped this years ago.

my point was that over 450% profit on a sandwich means that people realise what a rip off it is

It's not 450% profit! @daisychain01 you've missed my whole point again. Profit is what remains after the ingredients, the rent, the wages, the everything else had been paid. It could be as little as a few pence.

I bought a hot Pret sandwich the other day and it was £5.95. I was a bit shocked. Everything is more expensive lately though :(

Some supermarket sarnies are pretty good. Love M and S egg, tomato and salad cream. Weve street food stalls across from the office and some of them are just ridiculously priced. I appreciate they're entrepreneurs trying to make a living but the product is often shoddy and cheaply main and presented. 12 quid for a halloumi wrap was a recent shocker. Literally two slices of cheap catering halloumi in a pita with some iceberg and half a mushy tomato

I love Pret and think it's good value - it's my go-to place for a fresh sandwich and a drink in town

I've literally been eating there once a week for a decade and never had a dodgy sandwich. The staff are always great too.

Op its pricey in Dublin too. Sandwiches or anything. Coffee scone was 6.50 euro! But thats in most places

Well London is London. I'm not talking about somewhere in the sticks though, I work in the centre of a major city. These pubs are within a couple of minutes of the train station, the court, a large shopping centre, a major tourist attraction etc.

Apologies - Markup not profit.

Still a rip off though.

I'm in Cafe uno and all their sandwiches and panini are being sold on a special offer at half price which makes a panini £2.75 (chicken and salad). It can be done.

Have you ladies been to pound bakery? The quality is not the same, but it's much cheaper.

Never heard of it. Is it a regional place?

The Pound Bakery is similar to Greggs. Definitely not the same quality.

Pret have been increasing their prices at regular intervals throughout the year for many, many years now. I use to buy it daily when I worked in the west end over ten year ago. Every 4 months or so I’d notice the price of everything had increased by 20-50p. I used to love the macaroni cheese with kale which was around £3. It’s now I think £6 and smaller than before (and colder and soggier). I won’t give them my money anymore.

Where are they based?

Prets sandwiches probably are better than a supermarket one but I'd not give my money to a company that neglects its responsibility to customers with allergies.

I don’t use pret as hate their coffee but price of everything is going up so in this case
all the ingredients, energy costs, probably their rent, probably staff wages
don’t get why you are surprised tbh

Just don't buy it.why start a thread about it ?
Everything is over priced at the moment.

For the Benji lovers - mine was an egg (possibly with bacon) tornado when hungover. Amazing value!!

Sadly the cost of living crisis is going to send lots of cafes and restaurants under. The huge pret in our city centre is apparently closing soon. I'll miss the ham and grêve baguette, mainly because I can't find that cheese anywhere to make it at home.

well the Tories elected someone who believed the hype and not the universal opinion of economists, she then tanked our economy. So we now suffering compared to other developed countries. It was entirely, predictably self inflicted- or rather inflicted on us by the Tory party.

Like every other genre of product and shop, the good cafes and coffee shops will survive the storm, because they offer a reasonably priced product, good quality product, motivated staff and pleasant engagement with customers who they clearly value. The arrogant ones that couldn't care less and whack up the prices and trim back on the product will fall by the wayside.

We have noticed too many coffee shops opening in our town (like too many banks, too many charity shops, too many mobile phone stores).

over time there will be 'natural selection'. The cafe DH and I were in yesterday was (no exaggeration) heaving with people. Highly unlikely it will fold. I take friends in there, and they always go away wanting to come back. The staff yesterday were good humoured, efficient and everyone got along. They regularly do specials to suit all budgets.

No, £3.50 will get you a large meal deal from a supermarket.

A triple cheese sandwich
A Costa Cappuccino
And a bag of crisps

From Tesco.

The Prêt à manger here is always heaving. It's cheaper than the nearby independents selling sausage rolls for £6.00, and sandwiches costing more than that.