For weeks my resentment of Pret a Manger had been rising.
The narrative around the back-to-office/WFH debate seemed focussed on this one sandwich chain. As if millions of us should be inconvenienced, indeed ordered about, just to keep Pret afloat.
Anyway, I moaned to anyone, why is the Pret near my office so much more worthy than the Pret near my house? Doesn’t it have feelings?
Yesterday Pret boss Pano Christou was on Ian King Live, and it turns out my anger was misplaced.
It’s not his fault his firm is the poster child for dragging us back to boring offices.
As he told King: “It is up to us to find where the customers are.”
Quite right.
A marketing consultant called Andy Turner got in touch to agree with me.
His plan for Pret: Ditch underperforming shops and invest in clean, mobile sandwich vans deployed to white collar residential areas. Make them distinctive and signal their arrival like ice cream vans.
Brilliant idea. What’s the Pret theme tune?
I think really clever marketing and PR strategies are needed more than ever. I haven’t got any, so over to you.
