Weird experience in Pret

[Camomiletea1]

Yesterday I popped in to Pret to get lunch for myself and my toddler. Was hanging about for a couple of minutes choosing what sandwiches to get as my 2 year old was being indecisive. At this point I hadn’t acknowledged or even looked in the direction of the tills as I’m sure a lot of you know with a 2 year old, they can dash at any moment and I didn’t have the buggy with me.

Anyway, after choosing our items we walked to the till and there were 3 maybe 4 men there and only one other customer. One of the men took the items off me and said something like “I would love to serve you lovely people.” I thought that comment was a bit OTT, but I thought maybe he was just being friendly. My son had chosen a toastie so we had to wait for a couple of minutes. During that time another of the men commented that “we are so happy you are here.” One of the others then started asking how old he was and what his name was. I don’t have a problem with that per se and normally think its lovely when strangers show interest in my child, as its also good socialization for him, but honestly I just felt a bit uncomfortable at that point.

Finally, the toastie was ready so I walked me and my son off to sit downstairs. There are some tables upstairs but I wanted to go downstairs as there’s more space. As we were walking down the stairs one of them said, “of course she wants to sit downstairs.” Then I heard the others laugh. The security guard was definitely in ear shot of that comment too as he was stood right near the stairs, but didn’t say anything.

Now I left feeling really confused because I am a bit of an over thinker so not sure if that’s blurring my vision.

YABU- you’re being too sensitive
YANBU- the customer service was strange and unprofessional

Perhaps they have been pulled up on not being friendly enough and told to improve, or they've had some kind of training on it. Maybe it's company wide.
Also I wonder if they have been told to be extra nice to women with small children and babies to make them feel welcome and hope they will tell all their friends that Pret is so child-friendly blah blah. Not every place is particularly child-friendly, perhaps Pret hopes to win over the mum market and have the place filled with women with babies and toddlers spending lots of money.

You could look at the google reviews of that particular pret and see what people have been saying about it. You might find they've had bad reviews about rude customer service or something and a manager might have acted on that and told them to sort themselves out and it's ending up sounding weird because they've gone over the top trying to be nice!

I once got a free coffee in pret because the only server was on the phone when I arrived at the counter. She politely apologised and said she’d be with me in a moment … which she was. Then she handed me the coffee and apologised for the ‘terrible customer service’ and said it was on the house. I was very pleased as I’d only noticed after ordering that is was £5ish for the coffee (service station prices) and was wishing I’d gone to Greggs instead.

Anyway, long winded way of saying I think they really push excellent customer service and friendliness to the point it seems a bit off to the British!