Month: July 2022

Pret A Manger’s “Freshly Made” Brainwash (Update Sep. 2025)

I Survived Pret A Manger (unsafe company)Leave a comment

How Pret continue to do false advertising.

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So, Pret changed the sticker, giving in the above sandwich just info and Pret’s HQ address.

The old sticker said the following, which of course is now a lie. Since the pandemic profit losses, Pret now put a use-by or best-before date on sandwiches/food and hope no-one noticed the change.

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Also Los Angeles and other places outside the UK:

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And many, many more. Pret also always want people to DM to lure their data from them for future marketing, and then make it hard to unsubscribe from emails.

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Some products Pret have ALWAYS for years prepared the day before, NOT “freshly made”, like the honey yoghurt, birchler muesli and berry yoghurt pots/bowls. A team member closing/cleaning the kitchen in the afternoon would also prepare the berry bowls with yoghrurt into the plastic bowls, put clingfilm over it and place into the fridge overnight. The next morning a team member would just put the granola on top. The granola wouldn’t be put on the night before as it would be soggy by the next morning. Bottom line, the berry or honey is already in the bowl with the yoghurt the day before sales. NOT “freshly prepared”. This is why sometimes there is a watery texture in the honey pot as the yoghurt “separates” from the honey over night.

And Pret now prepare many other items the day or days before, as seen below.

Any food issues, food poisoning, pest issues and now mislabelling can be reported directly to the government via:

https://www.food.gov.uk/contact/consumers/report-problem

Upfront to any regular customer in Pret who SEES how Pret UNDERSTAFF shops even before the pandemic (1 person on coffee, 2-3 on tills in the morning, queue out the door, 3-4 people in the kitchen etc.) where staff are BURNT OUT. Many shops now open later and close earlier than advertised, due to many staff leaving and whoever stays behind is left completely exhausted …. All this after Pret cut wages and CEO Pano Christou got a payrise and millions in bonus. HOW do you think these burnt-out and disheartened low-wage staff, who are forced to smile for bonus, can keep up with hygiene and health & safety practices? Not to mention correct labelling after 2 customers died and 20+ got injured that Pret all ignored before it got public? Tell me how?! And you STILL fall for the “freshly made” lie!

Before customers died and got injured, people were oblivious to Pret’s poor practices and TRUSTED Pret because former CEO Clive Schlee and current CEO Pano Christou and the executive team were successful for years to sweet-talk the public with their wholesome slogans. Now it’s not just more common knowledge how bad Pret really are, but with below EVIDENCE, you have NO reason to believe that Pret’s food is “freshly made” nor fresh! Pret and their enablers in the PR and business world repeat over and over and over and over again, like a cultish mantra, the lie of “fresh” and “freshly made” food to keep brainwashing the public.

If a company understaffs to maximize profit and treat their staff like the dirt on their feet, it WILL come back to customers and endanger people’s health and very lives. And food.gov.uk and the media close their eyes because I’m “just a disgruntled former employee with an axe to grind”. Well, you’ve been warned.

I write so blunt because I was a team leader responsible for health and safety, and I took that very seriously. And here are the Pret executive team having a laugh to the bank on the backs of workers and the health of customers. I speak about this extensively, how it REALLY works behind the scenes on my podcast.

As Pret continue to mislabel their food and mix up ingredients, they are now breaking the law, “Natasha’s Law” whereas before they kept getting off the hook as there was no law.

Pret are known for their fairy-tale slogans, some which they removed now. Since I expose Pret from 2018 on, calling Pret out on their lies and fake slogans, they removed at least one that I know of and which has always gotten on my nerves.

Former CEO Clive Schlee was very good in fooling customers and staff alike. The slogan “Lovingly handmade in this shop today” was always a sore sight for me when I stocked up the fridges in Pret, seeing this bullsh!t, but experiencing every day that NOTHING is “lovingly” made, nor is it “made” but it’s just “assembled”. We staff were pushed and pressured to work at a high pace without being able to just breathe. I point out Pret’s systemic bullying culture. And since the pandemic it’s much much worse to regain profit!

Unrealistic targets are set on purpose that staff simply cannot fulfill the time given to assemble sandwiches. So, they’re manipulated and pressured to work extra time for free as they’re told they weren’t fast enough, while in reality they work at a super fast speed which results in neglecting health and safety, and hygiene issues.

On the “freshly made/prepared” brainwash, it’s Pret’s typical slogan where they applied psychology like all companies do, knowing how we humans think. It’s the same with the lie that Pret’s food is “natural” and Pret were then ordered to remove the word “natural” from all their marketing as their food is loaded with the “obscure chemicals” Pret claimed to not have.

You can safely say that 9 out of 10 times all the slogans on Pret’s walls and marketing is the complete opposite. It’s the same with the “happy” facade and all the smiles that are enforced by very strict weekly mystery shopper visits. If ONE staff member doesn’t smile, the whole team can get penalized by not getting bonus. More on Pret’s psychological abusive mystery shopper scheme with excerpts of mystery shopper reports via YouTube: Smile for the “Misery” Shopper.

As more and more customers wake up to the reality of Pret, many who started boycotting Pret when they learnt how Pret cut wages etc. My alltime favourite tweet regarding Pret is:

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I couldn’t have said it any better after all the bullying, lies, brainwash from Pret.

UPDATE 26.01.2023

Would you like some fleecy hair with your baguette?

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Link to Tweet.

Pret’s sign used to be: “Organic Coffee – Natural Food”. The sign was created in such a way that we in the Western world who read from left to right, and top down, that we read “organic food”. But Pret didn’t claim that the food is organic, just “natural”. And I question Pret’s claim to do organic coffee as their coffee is so cheap and Pret stopped doing fair-trade coffee since a few years now.

There are countless complaints since years on Pret’s coffee, at one point Pret was even named “worst coffee shop” as their coffee tastes like “charcoal”. I worked in many restaurants and coffee companies, Pret’s coffee beans are by far the most oiliest beans I’ve ever seen! I often got stomach cramps from the coffee that I switched to tea. And I love coffee!

Some of many complaints I summarized on YouTube:

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After being told by the Advertising Standards Authority to remove the word “natural” from Pret’s marketing, Pret exchanged the slogan from “Organic Coffee – Natural Food” to “Organic Coffee – Freshly Made Food”.

Former Pret CEO Clive Schlee said in an interview that his wife would always say to him, »Any damn fool can run Pret«. Well, that seems obvious. And any damn fool can also ruin it.

I therefore redid Pret’s sign with a more realistic logo and write about Pret’s “natural” claim in Pret A Manger – Ready to (ch)eat.

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Some of the products that is STANDARD procedure in Pret to prepare at least 1 day, at times 2+ days in advance are the YOGURT PRODUCTS.

Honey Banana Pot

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Honey and banana is placed into pots the DAY BEFORE sale, cling film over it for the night into the fridge. Yogurt added the NEXT MORNING, if not the day before. That’s why the yogurt at times separates from the honey like a watery separation = NOT freshly made.
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Very Berry Bowl


Berry compote put at the bottom of the bowl, yogurt on top, cling film over for the night into the fridge. Next morning, granola mix is added on top to remain crunchy for the morning = NOT freshly made.

If they would add the granola the day before as well, it would be soft and soggy the next day. So, according to standard set by Pret, they just add the ready mixed granola in the morning to appear the whole thing was prepared freshly THAT morning. But only a third of the product was “freshly prepared” on that morning (ready mixed granola poured out of a bag).


Bircher Muesli


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Yogurt, honey, apple pieces, raisins and whatever other ingredients are mixed together and placed into bowls for the NEXT DAY. Cling film over, stored in the fridge. Next morning the granola mix is added on the top to be crunchy, nuts and pomegranate on top = NOT freshly made.

Little side-note: Ever had a Bircher Muesli made with Mayonnaise? 😉

Imagine you sit at a table having 15 minutes before work, looking at your phone, reading the news, looking forward to the juicy Bircher Museli yogurt mix. You take a big spoonful into your mouth while being occupied with the news, just to be ambushed by a salty, creamy mayonnaise flavour invading every area of your mouth! Yikes!

Just make sure you don’t have any allergies when eating at Pret. If this customer was allergic to eggs, good night! And this was done in 2021, five and six years AFTER 2 customers died and over 20 got injured!

This EASILY happens when overstretched workers rush into the fridge and instead of the yogurt bucket, grab the mayonnaise bucket. And especially if it’s a new and foreign worker who is nervous, exhausted, can’t read the labels properly … VERY VERY easily done as Pret give staff very very little time to prepare and then fear manage them if they’re not fast enough while in reality they’re robotic fast to breaking point!

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For more mislabelled and mixed up food WITH pictures, please see Vegans and Vegetarians Eat Meat in Pret.

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VEGETABLES PREPPING

Vegetables are pre-washed in a bleach-water solution the day before preparation / food assembly. At times it’s washed even on Friday for Monday (not allowed due to 2 day shelf-life). In the morning the pre-washed vegetables are sliced and a 2-day date label applied, the sliced vegetables will be used under NORMAL procedure for 2 days (often 3-4 days) = NOT freshly made.

And these are only the normal standard procedures in Pret. I haven’t even started on how staff CHEAT by stretching dates, carrying over food rom the day before etc. etc. etc.

So, we think that Pret’s food is fresh, but Pret never claims that, they claim that it is “freshly made/prepared”. But that’s also not always true as you see here and will see in the below customer complaints and pictures of mouldy food. Pret now carry over sandwiches from previous day(s) while claiming to donate leftover food each night to charity with another of their slogan “made today, gone today”.

And even the food donation isn’t fully true, as a lot of food is wasted every day. I write about this in Pret’s Food Waste with pictures of food in the streets and my own experience of having had to waste countless large bin bags of food for many years.

Before I get to some of the many complaints on mouldy food, here just a few of many complaints on stale food from over a decade ago:

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I already wrote a post about how Pret “stretch expiry dates” which they’ve always done.

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Link to June 2022 Tweet.

Link to September 2021 Tweet.

Link to April 2022 Tweet.

etc. etc. etc.

For more pictures of mouldy food, even food with rat droppings on please see Pret’s Food Isn’t Fresh.

Pret also now freeze soups and other products. A former Pret staff already told me 2 years ago via Facebook messenger.

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It is no surprise that Pret cannot be reached. Pret fired many, I’m sure the social media staff is also downsized. This soup sounds like it’s been re-heated 3-4 + times already. Again, keep in mind that Pret soups/porridge are cooked in factories and just re-heated in shops.

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“Odd” tasting soup:

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UPDATE Feb. 2023

It’s kind of weird that an Evening Standard journalist can’t find contact details for Pret. But maybe out of shock people incl. journos just at first want to call out Pret on social media, as many know that I have an eye on Pret issues:

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Also, I have to find the DM and screenshot of another Pret staff who contacted me in 2021 with the following:

“Pret have started keeping their food overnight and selling it the next day. Considering they’ve built their entire brand on the Freshly Made slogan it’s very misleading. They’ve also slowly started removing all the freshly prepared signs from their stores hoping no one finds out.”

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For more pictures of mouldy food, even food with rat droppings on please see Pret’s Food Isn’t Fresh.

And for many pictures of mislabelling, as well as mixed up ingredients (dairy Bircher Muesli made with mayonnaise) even after TWO customers died and over 20 got injured which Pret all ignored until it got public, please see: Vegans and Vegetarians Eat Meat in Pret.

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Freshly Prepared versus Fresh

You can simply “freshly prepare” a sandwich or salad with stale bread and mouldy cheese. It’s freshly prepared, but not fresh. And now, sandwiches etc. are carried over to the next day(s), so even the “freshly prepared” slogan isn’t always true and false advertising. That’s why I also advise for people to be careful with hot food like toasties where you won’t easily see when the cheese is mouldy or the bread stale. Once it’s heated up, ingredients just melt and stick into each other.

UPDATE Septembe 2024

Trustpilot review:

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Link to review.

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And soups in Pret are often reheated 3-4 times to save money on waste. If there’s a bag of soup left in the “marinator” (water-bath) at the end of the day, the staff are supposed to throw it away for safety reasons as the soup by that time will have been heated up for the 2. time (first cooked in the factory, then reheated in the shop).

But to save money, staff cheat under pressure from management, take the hot soup bag out of the marinator, let it cool down and then place it back in the kitchen fridge. The next day or two days after, it’s reheated for the 3. time, at times even repeated for the 4th time.

And now, since Pret want money after the pandemic losses, they even SELL cooled down hot food like soups, croissants etc. via the Too Good To Go app under Pret’s charity umbrella (tax breaks). Pret with the help of TGTG sell end of day food under the charity umbrella (tax breaks and brownie points with the public).

Before the pandemic, Pret had the STRICT rule for us NOT to give even for free hot food at the end of the day for safety reasons. Not they SELL it! This means, by the time a customer buys it for cheaper via the TGTG app, they will reheat the soup at home or in the office in the microwave for at least a 3rd time, often 4th or 5th time.

When I was a team leader handing out food to the charity volunteers who picked up food after closing time, I got in trouble by management for giving soups and other hot (cooled down) items to charity. Since getting told off, I then never gave any high risk food to charity, no matter how much they asked for it. I only gave them a hot item to choose from if the charity worker ate it then and there in the shop while it was stillsomewhat warm, but explained to not take it with them. While I put their food together, made them a hot frink and they enjoyed the food in the shop after closing time while we were cleaning up. But now when Pret want money, they do everything they can to get a penny. Health and safety out the window.

Where before Pret wouldn’t even give it for FREE, they sell it now cheaper, risking health and safety of customers. What do we expect when a company gets away with 2 customer deaths and over 20 injuries we know of.

When I called Pret and TGTG out on this, TGTG blocked me.

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So far to health and safety, and transparency.

Chefs versus Sandwich Makers

When Pret run out of an item, they just place a sign into the fridge saying “Chefs at work” to imply that there are chefs/cooks in Pret’s kitchens, while they’re “just” sandwich makers who ASSEMBLE sandwiches/salads etc. from factory ready cooked produce, hence: prêt à manger / ready to eat.

The only products that are not ready cooked in factories are the frozen baguettes, cookies and croissants that are up to a year old (not fresh) and then just baked in ovens from their frozen state.

The other raw item that is delivered every morning, and god knows how old, is the raw egg mix that comes in Tetra Paks and are then just poured into paper trays and cooked in the oven for the bacon butties. Same with bacon, it’s just cooked on baking trays in the ovens.

UPDATE September 2025:

Products are frozen, defrosted and then re-frozen again which is a no-go!

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Link

No Pots and Pans in Pret’s Kitchens

Soups and porridge are also cooked in factories, delivered in bags that contain 6 cups per bag. These bags are then just reheated in water-baths or microwaves. The hot chef, or whoever starts in the morning first thing switches all the machines on (coffee machines, ovens, “marinator”/water-bath) to preheat. Porridge bags and some soup bags are put into the water bath which takes a good 40-60 minutes to heat up, ready for breakfast (porridge) and lunch (soups).

If around lunchtime a shop either runs out of soup or didn’t put enough soup bags into the marinator, they just pour a bag of cold (factory ready cooked) soup bags into a container and heat up for 8 minutes in the microwave.

I was told by a former staff that Pret now freeze their soups to extend the expiry date. Does all this sound “freshly made” or fresh to you? The private message on this is found here: Pret Staff Tested Positive For Covid (And Pret did Nothing).

In a nutshell, Pret “freshly prepare” their food the same way we do at home. We buy bread, ham, cheese, ready-boiled eggs that come in water/brine, tomatoes etc. We put all the ready cooked foods into our fridge, and two days later “freshly prepare” a ham and cheese sandwich topped with slices of ready-boiled eggs.

All the ingredients are several days to weeks old, and keep aging in our fridges.

Panera Bread, the chain mainly in the USA, which is also owned by JAB Holdings that own Pret, fired a staff for posting a video on social media explaining how Panera really do their Mac & Cheese, in water baths, just the way Pret do their soups and porridge.

Pret’s Mac & Cheese in my time 2018 was made from ready cooked pasta, then mixed with Bechamel, added in some ready-cooked cauliflower, bacon and cheese on top, and then heated in its paper packaging in the oven. But again, everything’s already factory cooked and then just assembled and re-heated.

Panera’s (frozen) Mac & Cheese preparation, same way Pret do their soups and porridge:

Bon appétit.

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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review as well as mentioned by the BBC.

Please also see the MEDIA page for more.

NEW LinkTree

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PayPal.Me

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Thank you for reading/listening.

©2017 – Present: expret.org


Interview:

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Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
©2017 – Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.

Journalist Sarah Butler from The Guardian & My Blog

I Survived Pret A Manger (unsafe company)Leave a comment

When I started writing publicly about Pret on my website and also Twitter, Facebook etc. Sarah Butler from the Guardian started following me on Twitter early on.

I’ve already emailed many journalists before I was on Twitter, but hardly anyone responded. When Sarah started following I was of course gobsmacked that a journalist seemed interested in my story with Pret. I sent her a DM, but she never replied. After a few weeks I “kicked” her off my following.

I had many journalists follow since, and of course in my drunken stupor kicked most off.

The only journalists that either replied or initiated contacting me and then investigated further were BBC journos Vivienne Nunis and Mike Powell. Mike was very interested in telling my story and mentioning my blog, which he did in his report on Pret’s lack of iced drinks on the coffee subscription.

Vivienne also reported on a Pret issue, a leaked video that I was sent via DM of a zoom call with Pret CEO Pano Christou. I passed it on to Vivienne, she reported, but didn’t mention my blog. I understand that this is often due to the editor not wanting to mention.

After Mike reported on the coffee subscription, mentioning my blog, other major news outlets reported as well, but never mentioned my blog. A Times article even quoted from my blog, but without crediting back to me. The journalist probably didn’t anticipate me finding his article with my quote. Journalists blame their editor, and here with silly excuses:

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Link

Other journalists via emails confirmed that it’s not right to NOT credit the source when quoting. One theatre and arts reviewer even agreed publicly that they should have credited to my blog:

Link

And some other journalists who got inspiration from my blog, but never bothering to mention the source.

Yes, of course I have manic episodes when drunk, but with Sarah Butler this wasn’t the case initially. In fact Sarah would comment rather positive towards Pret, especially in 2018/19 when former Pret CEO Clive Schlee was still in Pret and on Twitter. Schlee also followed Butler on Twitter. It seems to me that people often follow someone to “influence” them. As Sarah states on her Twitter profile that she writes on “ethical” business, she must have been fooled like most of the public, including many journalists, that Pret is an ethical business.

This was Pret’s and Clive Schlee’s main marketing tool to fool the public. But now, the facade has gotten much more cracks and Sarah is taking a closer look. But again, no mention of my blog.

The only time she responded to me was when I publicly asked in frustration if the claim of the Guardian to be “independent” investigative was here in 2019. Please note, I changed my Twitter handle from @LateNightGirlMe to @expretDOTorg:

Link

So, Sarah was introduced to Union president Ian Hodson, as she started interviewing him when staff issues became public after I either tagged her in or emailed her.

I could write on and on and on, but just to say that it is disheartening that journalists love to peek from my blog or social media, but hardly anyone likes to credit back to me. And no, I don’t solely put the blame on my drunken rants.

I will never forget that Mike Powell was willing to mention me. I DID mess it up and it’s the way it is. But I will always be grateful to Adam from the Adam Paradox podcast, Gergor Gall from the Scottish Left review (links at the very bottom here) and Mike Powell from the BBC for mentioning my blog.

I’m also grateful to Vivienne for investigating THE MOST on Pret issues and for her immense patience with me.

My drunken outbursts are not right and no excuse. I just want to explain what’s going on when I feel frustrated. I’ve been “robbed” so-to-speak of so many things, especially in Pret. Constant promises were broken. And when people just take and take and take and take … I can’t take it anymore.

I’m sorry to everyone for my horrible emails, tweets etc.

Please always have courage and care to credit to sources and mention who/what inspired you to write your article. It shouldn’t be me to “press” journalists and their editors to mention my blog as the source of your report. And it shouldn’t be me to do all the research so that journalists can just write articles to their name on my “back” and labour.

My experience with Pret has messed me up big time. And if I have to bend a journalist’s arm to credit back to me, something’s not right! End of. That’s the main reason I’ve kicked most journalists, even high profile journos, off my following. I’m tired of journalists just sitting there on my following, waiting for a story to drop in their laps! No, you need to put in the work and stop wanting me to feed you, where you then get the rewards to your name on the back of my research and insight.

Please have integrity and care.

Thanks for reading.

Latest podcast episode on Sarah Butler’s writing and my podcast:

If the podcast player doesn’t work, please click on link below.

Link

My prediction which Sarah Butler looked into in above episode:

Link

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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment witnessed by customers: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.

NEW: Podcast.

Please also see the MEDIA page for which press articles and Pret “charity” announcements I influenced.

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Thank you for reading/listening.

©2017 – Present: expret.org


Interview:

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Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
©2017 – Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.

Pret A Manger CEO Payrise & Millions in Bonus After CUTTING staff pay

I Survived Pret A Manger (unsafe company)Leave a comment

Two podcast episodes on my “forecast” in April that Pret’s CEO Pano Christou most likely either got the same pay from 2020 (£300K) or higher, plus the millions in bonus. And today’s episode after yesterday’s Guardian article.

The CEO didn’t spill the beans in April’s Times article what he got paid in 2021 and what he will get in 2022 because if he got the same or less, he would have announced it like Pret always announce their “charity” quickly. He only shared what his pay was in 2020.

Yesterday the news emerged that Pano Christou got a 27% payrise (£400K) and £4.2 million in bonus after cutting low-wage staff’s pay, benefits, paid breaks and other perks.

And before any office worker complains that you don’t get paid breaks, well, work for 8, 10, 12+ hours in excruciating heat, noise, stress, rude customers, mystery shopper fear management, bullying managers etc. and then we can talk again. Until then, keep sitting on your butt and browse through Linkedin.

Today’s podcast episode (may have to click on link underneath if WordPress refuses to post the player here):

Link

And on Pret’s Wage Theft, please click here.

My April 2022 podcast episode predicting that Pano either got the same or higher pay after cutting staff wages:

Link

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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment witnessed by customers: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.

NEW: Podcast.

Please also see the MEDIA page for which press articles and Pret “charity” announcements I influenced.

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Thank you for reading/listening.

©2017 – Present: expret.org


Interview:

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Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
©2017 – Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.

Pret A Manger Food is NOT “freshly made” (Update Sep. 2025)

I Survived Pret A Manger (unsafe company)Leave a comment

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… and “freshly made” is psychology, as well as not always true.

Please see customer pictures further below of mouldy food, even rat droppings on Pret food, if you want to skip my detailed text.

Also please be aware that this and other blog posts have not been updated with current complaints. I’ve been monitoring issues and writing for years, I cannot do updates for the rest of my life. Look closer into Pret, do your own research and question their claims.

For more issues please see https://linktr.ee/expret.org and also Trustpilot with ongoing reviews where as of mid 2024, even in 2023 75% of customers (1 & 2 star reviews combined) disapprove of Pret.

UPDATE June 2024 – Recently opened branch in India:

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UPDATE and upfront as some people always doubt the EVIDENCE I present here as well as having seen stuff, working at Pret I wish I never saw.

For those of you who call me a former disgruntled employee for calling out Pret’s ongoing unsafe practices (also google the £800,000 fine after staff repeatedly trapped in freezer etc.), for those of you who report me to social media platforms to get shut down, for those of you who diss me, it doesn’t matter! I KNOW what I’ve seen and experienced, and what customers have experienced.

Just because YOU have never had an issue (that you know of, as food poisoning cannot always be traced to the correct source it came from) or because you haven’t had a loved one die in Pret, does not mean you can just simply dismiss the many issues in Pret. Also see the ongoing mislabeling WITH evidence as well as Pret having been banned already in 2018 by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) from claiming their food is “natural”. You probably haven’t even noticed that the word “natural” has completely disappeared off all of Pret’s packaging and walls etc.

And for those of you who doubt the EVIDENCE I post here and think I’m lying or am just a disgruntled employee, first of all, familiarize yourself with my story before you make such a lazy judgment. Secondly, if I’m lying WHY have Pret not sued me for libel as I write since May 2018 PUBLICLY calling Pret out as well as working with the press (see the very bottom for links). I have tagged and emailed Pret in since then, they KNOW my blog!

Pret also don’t respond publicly as this would open a can of worms for them and put my blog on Wikipedia, just like after Pret responded publicly in 2012 after firing a worker (Andrej Stopa) who started a union, and he is since then on Wikipedia. And Pret try via their silence to keep my writings silent. I will never be silent!

What YOU do with that, is NOT my problem! I will never be silent on how corrupt and fake Pret are. Do your own research! Also, be aware that I haven’t updated many new complaints beyond 2023+ because I’m sick and tired doing this and not even the Food Gov people care!

Also see my Freshly Made Brainwash post, on how Pret’s food is actually made (cooked in factories, assembled and/or reheated in shops). I am honestly surprised that no more people have died in Pret, unless it is hard to link to if people had food from different brands in the same day, or more injuries aren’t known. But what I can say is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. And as Pret got away with fatalities and injuries, they keep full steam ahead with even worse food safety issues.

I also explain on my podcast in 4 episodes (because I kept forgetting important info) how Pret was and continue to be neglectful on food safety when customers died. In the episodes I talk about a weird Barbican seminar Pret held a year after the first customer died; also weird labeling machines Pret implemented in 2017 but NOT for ingredient labeling; the difference between Starbucks CEO and Pret’s CEO handling of crisis, the lack of training and how staff cheat on training etc. etc.

So, be a “die-hard” Pret fan and stay in your illusions. I also understand that some people are mad with me for simply being ABLE to call out a multi-billion £ company where most people just sit at home and live in their own frustrations about their own sad jobs. But that is also not my problem. Stay in bliss, you’ll never make a difference.

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“The more you Pret, the more you get” the chance of a mouldy sandwich with droppings from a rat!

Please watch this brief video regarding mould on bread and why we shouldn’t even eat the clean part of the bread. And then scroll down to the customer complaints, photos, videos of mouldy food and ask yourself if Pret have started to care after TWO customers died and 20+ got injured (which they ignored before it got public).

And yes, I have tagged in and even emailed the government food gov people on several occasions on this without even a generic reply! So, not sure how many people have to die. If a small independent, especially minority owned (Chinese, African etc.) business has one customer death, they would be shut down and the ones responsible probably send to prison. But Pret being a big company, loved by the Tories, nothing happens. Full steam ahead and ONLY labelling once the deaths became public.

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And mind you as well,

what you see here is just what customers were posting publicly and isn’t even all as I mainly post PICTURES for a visual. Other complaints are behind closed doors (emails etc.) or not reported. And REMEMBER that the public, and EVEN WE staff did NOT know for 2 years after the 1. customer Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died, that 2 customers died and over 20 got injured.

Pret did NOTHING whatsoever after 2 deaths and multiple injuries, not before and not after UNTIL this became public! ONLY slowly acting once this was spread across the news.

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Link

And we also didn’t know for 2 years until last year of the £800K fine, after a staff was trapped in a freezer for close to 3 hours fighting for her life due to the door being defect and this having been reported repeatedly for 19 months!

We don’t know which other disaster might still be hidden under the carpet until an inquest or lawsuit comes out. I am in fact surprised that no more customers have died, unless we don’t know about it (yet)!

And Pret carry over food now to the next day(s), and sandwiches even have a best before or use-by date now, which Pret swore never to do. But the grab for money put that vow down the drains.

TRUST YOUR SENSES! And trust your gutt!

UPDATE 08. August 2024 SALMONELLA found in vegan salad in Pret Hong Kong.

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Link to article, do a Google translate.

Pret in Hong Kong had salmonella in their FRUIT SALAD in 2021. There’s something about Pret in Hong Kong with salmonella.

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Link to article from 2021.

UPDATE 28.01.2023 Sour egg:

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UPDATE: November 2023 on Reddit under “What restaurants in the UK do you think have terrible food?”

One person replied: “Went to Pret once and had a milkshake that tasted like vomit. Swapped it for another, which also tasted like vomit. Sandwich was dry …“. etc.

Please note, that especially since the pandemic when Pret started the coffee subscription that put huge pressure on staff and added to waiting time for customers, staff prepared the milkshake drinks and left it standing on the side for hours, even days to save time AND money on waste. Often they just quickly stirred the drinks instead of putting it into the processor. You see this further below in a private message I had on Facebook with a former staff who gave me more info how Pret now carry over food and drink to the next day(s). Hence, it’s NOT (and by the way NEVER was) freshly made. Since the pandemic it has just gotten worse. And as Pret got away with customer deaths and injuries, they feel invincible.

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UPDATED: 19. Dec. 2022

I always explain to people to be extra careful with Pret food towards the end of December close to the holiday closures. Shops are racing to not have high waste and depots try to get rid of stock that expires soon. Shops then “stretch” expiry dates and now sandwiches are carried over to the next day(s).

As far back as 2010 when I was in a particular shop by Chancery Lane, London which is the 2. shop in Pret and was then already very old and mice infested that I requested to be transfered to another shop, the kitchen assistant manager would “stretch” the dates of the crayfish and chicken over the Christmas period, as the holiday closures approached. Customers days later would return saying the chikcne is off etc.

I was new as a shift runner, training to become a team leader and didn’t have the courage to speak to the AM. But I remember having been embarrassed when customers returned the products. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs that the food is being compromised!!! And this happens in EVERY shop. I worked almost 10 years in Pret in over 30 shops. EVERY SINGLE SHOP stretches dates!!!

One manager with whom I really liked to work in 2017 wanted me to stretch dates. That was the only negative with him, but I declined and said to him that I will not comproise customers’ safety and risk my job if I get caught. So, he had to do it himself! He said to me “We have no choice, we have to cheat to keep the targets” as Pret set unrealistic targets to reach. Needless to say, I was never promoted beyond team leader position because shop after shop, manager after manager I refused to do the dodgy stuff. But I slept well at nights! I was even known for throwing out £100s worth of food and drink when the fridges were too warm in the summer.

My manager would give me the evil eye when he saw me preparing to do what is called a “destructive” test, because it meant lots of waste costs that affects his bonus. But he couldn’t really say anything as I followed procedure. He just tried to stare me down and I avoided eye contact to do my bloody job! And this involved taking temperatures of the food and drinks, especially those bottled yoghurt smoothies and carrot juices. Ever had an expired carrot juice? REVOLTING!!! If it reached a certain temperature low, the policy is, to throw it out! I would not risk customers getting sick! Never would I have imagined that customers would die and get injured due to the labelling disaster in Pret!!!

Reports on food poisoning and customer complaints on stale/mouldy food has drastically increased, especially since the pandemic, despite Pret making millions again.

For any food poisoning, pest or mislabelling issues people can report directly to the government site for EHOs to take a look. The more evidence like receipts, photos/videos of mouldy food, mice, rats, bugs etc. the better. Contacting Pret alone won’t bring much as Pret just collect data for future marketing. They may send a voucher or not. But they’re building a data base since 2018 and do everything to get customer data.

Report a Food Problem link. Takes only 2 minutes.

Quote from 19.12.2022 complaint: “I have only eaten food from here today and have the Deliveroo receipt to prove this. I ate the chocolate croissant for breakfast and the chicken and avocado sandwich for lunch at 2pm.
By 4:30 I almost passed out and was feverish. I was nauseous and achey and had diarrhoea on and off for hours until 9pm when I was violently sick. I have spoken to 111 as I felt so ill | Symptoms: Nausea, Diarrhea, Vomiting, Fever”.

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August 2022

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UPDATED: October 2022

I’ve seen, heard and experienced a lot in Pret, but this is reaching a new low! Fowl tasting bottled water:

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Upfront: If you DM me on Twitter or Facebook, Instagram etc. please be aware that I don’t get notified! If I don’t respond within a week, try to get my attention again or contact me via my contact form. I am blacklisted on social media, shadow banned, my posts hidden at times in censorship after Pret must have reported me etc. I am often not notified when I receive a DM or a DM request. But they can’t silence me after I declined hush money and never signed the NDA.

After Pret ignored TWO customer allergen deaths, 15 year old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse (died 2016) and mother of five, 42 year old Celia Marsh (died 2017) and over a dozen further injuries before it got public, unsafe food practices not only continue without consequences, but have gotten much, much worse in broad daylight. There was almost a third fatality of student Isobel Colnaghi, who narrowly survived in 2017. She lost her lawsuit against Pret, because Pret didn’t break a law and successfully blamed a low wage worker.

There will be an inquest coming in September 2022 into Celia Marsh’s death as her husband is not giving up to get answers. He sued Pret but nothing could be proven if Pret was at fault. He now keeps going to have an official inquest with the vegan yogurt provider Coyo that supplied Pret with vegan products, but since Mrs Marsh’s death have been booted off by Pret. They blame each other.

The press is aware of this as I tweeted them in many times and emailed this blog post to many journalists as well as the Food Standard Authority. And maybe there is an investigation we don’t know of yet, or a journalist is going undercover to see for themselves. But this can’t go on like this.

I was a team leader in Pret with one of the job description being health and safety. I took that very seriously and never cheated on stretching expiry dates etc. Cleanliness and doing things PROPERLY was extremely important and my strength. This trickled down on staff who then also worked in a clean and careful manner, no matter how much pressure Pret threw at us. I REFUSED to cheat! Needless to say, I was never promoted beyond team leader level. And I didn’t care! I slept well at nights and never had to look over my shoulder.

Pret is very micromanaging and overly strict, penalising and bullying staff for the slightest, even unimportant issue. So, the below is extremely upsetting and offensive to me. I wasted 10 years in this toxic company doing my job extremely well, being known for my health and safety, hygiene work and record.

But now Pret want more money with less staff and quality. Hence, see the below.

Also, mislabelling continues where vegans and vegetarians eat meat, or people of certain faiths eat pork instead of whatever was labelled on their food. I collected only a few of the many, many complaints with photos: Vegans and vegetarians eat meat at Pret.

Pret are now breaking “Natasha’s Law”.

And before I go into some of the photos of customer complaints of mould and rat droppings on food further below, here only some of many food poisoning complaints.

Pret opened in Berlin 2018, and in 2019 already food poisoning report:

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A customer complaint:

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UPDATE August 2022 right off the bat, several recent food poisoning incidences. One on 22.05.22 is from Paris. These issues I believe are a direct result of what I write and post on below.

The latest (as far as I checked) is posted on Twitter on 15.08.2022

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12.08.2022, Paris:

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01. August 2022:

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Twitter on 21.06.2022:

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13.06.2022 Chicken again!

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For recent (2024 etc.) reports, especially repeated vomiting, nausea symptoms from different Pret stores, please see:

IWasPoisoned.com reports.

And Trustpilot:

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Keep in mind that not everyone reports to websites or the government EHO site, and at times when people eat from two different companies, it can be hard to track back. But Pret have the same complaints over and over from various shops over different times.

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Reddit 2023:

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TWO food poison issues from Brixton in short times:

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And many, many, many, many more. This is just the tip of the iceberg as not every customer goes on social media to complain with photos.

So, here is Pret A Manger’s psychology in using terms & slogans: “freshly made”. You can “freshly make” a sandwich with expired ingredients, mouldy cheese & stale bread. It’s “freshly made” with UN-fresh ingredients!

Also, Pret staff tell me that sandwiches and other products are now “carried over” to the next day(s) making Pret’s slogan “made today gone today” also false advertising.

This familiar sticker remains a blatant LIE!

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I re-did Pret’s logo to reflect the truth a bit more after former CEO Clive Schlee several times said in interviews that his wife always said that “any damn fool can run Pret“. Indeed!

And Pret’s toxic HR department used to have the slogan “Doing the right thing naturally”. The more a company boasts about something, the closer you have to look!

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The arrogance and lies of Pret still blows my mind. So, I changed Pret’s logo:

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This is why staff don’t see the mould. If they would make a sandwich today from a mouldy or stale bread, they would feel/see it. But as some food is carried over in its packaging, they don’t see the mould and other problems like rat droppings, plastic, hair etc.

The following blog posts are important to read, and please be aware that these issues were BEFORE Brexit and the pandemic, in fact since years:

I mention these because I was contacted on Twitter in 2021 with the following, in part, quote:
“Pret have started keeping their food overnight and selling it the next day. Considering they’ve built their entire brand on the Freshly Made slogan it’s very misleading. They’ve also slowly started removing all the freshly prepared signs from their stores hoping no one finds out.”

End of quote.

30. July 2022, that’s the worst mould sandwich so far. “Freshly made” mind you. I reckon this one is at least 2 – 4 days old sitting in fridges. Also, soups get reheated several times which is also not allowed. Hence, complaints of bitter tasting soups keep coming in.

Link

Update 04.08.2022 a video from Pret in Berlin where you can HEAR the crusty staleness of the bread. Just click the play button in the picture. You will also see further below complaints from Paris as this is company-wide.

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AND also 04.08.2022 four day expired fizzy juice:

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Many of below customer complaints are not in this YouTube slide show:

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UPDATE: September 2021

Pret together with the TooGoodToGo app now SELL leftover food for cheaper price in bags for people to pick up from shops. The OLIO app still give free food while TGTG app sells it now! Even HOT food that has expired after the 2 hours shelf life is now sold that Pret wouldn’t even give for free before, due to safety issues with the temperature fluctuation! Pret was VERY strict about this and I was reprimanded once by my Manager for giving out-of-shelf life hot food to the charity that picked up food in the evening! More detail: Pret A Manger Health and Safety Hypocricy.

So, when it comes to money, anything goes suddenly! And Pret sells expired food under the “charity” umbrella to collect money for the Pret Foundation Trust to, quote: “alleviate poverty” while having made cuts to staff wages and benefits. Pret workers are now on minimum-wage and have to top up their pay with benefits. Pret CEO Pano Christou even has the audacity to ask his low-wage staff for donations! Pret is trying to get money at EVERY turn having installed donation devices in shops that customers mistake for payment devices and accidentally donate to Pret! Katchink!

I strongly believe Pret should get investigated on where the donations REALLY go to! More on Pret’s Foundation Trust: Pret A Manger’s Charity Projects, and WHEN they do charity events.

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I have to mention like I did in above “Stretched Dates” post, that in Pret, many Managers and Leaders have always stretched dates, especially during the Christmas period when the depot sent short-dated ingredients to get rid of stock, as the holidays approached and stock was sitting around expiring.

I won’t bother posting all the Tweets of customers who complain to Pret with and without photos that the bread is stale, or the chicken tastes off etc. Just a few so you won’t need to take my word for it. There has always been date stretching, but since the lock-downs it’s gotten worse. Below Tweets are all from DIFFERENT shops, so this is not just the odd shop here or there, it’s throughout the board. And as a side-note, Pret received a cash injection from owners JAB recently: JAB pumps £185 million into Pret via MCA-insight.com

Furthermore, Pret received an additional £100 million from shareholders to open 200 more shops within 3 years. Pret also received help from the UK government with the furlough scheme as well as bank loans. Of course the bank and shareholders want their money back, so the squeeze continues. And with “squeeze” I mean raising prices, lowering pay to minimum-wage (the payrise in April 2022 is just for PR as the government raises the minimum-wage), benefit and other cuts remain in place, customers get ripped-off which I explain in detail throughout my blog and on my YouTube playlist etc. etc. etc.

Yet, Pret refuse to pay rent and have multiple lawsuits from landlords in the USA on their neck reaching into the millions, some I listed here: Pret’s Lawsuits and Settlements. Instead of paying their bills and debts as best as possible, they go ahead and open more shops worldwide. Quality suffers, customers are p!ssed off, boycott and staff walk out. What do you do when you have problems at home? You go out and continue the bullsh!t elsewhere in hopes they will never know how Pret fudges up back in the homeland (as well as those countries they’re already open).

UPDATE June 2022:

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13.08.2021 mould on cheese (for this Italian style “Parmesan” cheese to get mouldy, it takes a very LONG time. This means, this cheese has been stored way beyond its expiry date or the fridge was not cooled appropriately, and understaffed shops have no time to get it fixed):

04.09.2021 mould on bread:

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22.11.2021 mould on newly launched Christmas sandwich:

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UPDATE Jan. 2022

UPDATE May 2022, 2 mouldy products from 2 different shops in 1 day:

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A customer who seems to know that I write publicly on Pret issues posted to me on Facebook that Pret’s food isn’t freshly made. I first responded to his fair-trade question that Pret had to remove the word “natural” from signage and packaging, but my post disappeared (either got deleted by FB or hidden, I can’t find it) he responded.

And keep in mind that during the pandemic Pret started “darkkitchens” where food is made off-premises, also for delivery.

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Link to FB post. Please click on “View … more replies” to see the post.

07.05.2021 Mouldy Cornichons!

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Now THIS is bad, because pickled cornichons and cucumbers take months to mould! This mouldy cornichon hasn’t just gone bad within days, who knows how long it has been sitting in that Pret kitchen fridge! More detail on the times when mould forms, here: Can Pickles Go Bad?

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Spoiled CRAYFISH in Paris 2019

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Spoiled foods during the pandemic: Chicken OFF!

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Popcorn out of date more than 6 days:

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Mouldy breakfast berry compote:

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Stale bread:

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UPDATE from July 2021 on:

Part of a private Facebook message with a former Pret staff who allowed me to post this on my blog. Their experience DURING the pandemic where sandwiches, products are kept over-night and expired foods are used, and to my surprise that the ready cooked factory soups that come in plastic bags now get frozen to keep them beyond their expiry dates. Their only game now is to not get caught by a surprise EHO visit:

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(mild = milk)

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A customer called Pret out on this:

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Link to Tweet.

UPDATE 31.10.2021

An indicator that soup was frozen before re-heating again. Customers usually rant and rave about the Mushroom Risotto soup being their favourite soup from Pret. But here, it’s the worst, quote: “runny like soup, hardly warm and tastes odd”. I used to freeze soups I bought from the supermarket or cooked myself. With “creamy” soups it does become runny and tasteless.

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UPDATE September 2025:

Products are frozen, defrosted and then re-frozen again which is a no-go!

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About the milk, what the former staff is talking about is that when the Barista (or staff in general) have milk bottles out on the counter for 4 hours, it needs to be WASTED! Because the time for the safety of the temperature outside the fridge is 4 hours. In the morning, the counter is full of milk bottles, and they will all go by the end of the super busy morning coffee rush even within 2 hours. The morning person scribbles down the time with a black marker. So, when they put out the milk at let’s say 6am, and at 10am there are still 2 bottles left outside, they HAVE TO be wasted.

In the afternoon/evening shift, the coffee maker should usually have just 2 – 4 bottles out as it is less busy. But at times they put out too many bottles, ending up having to waste. But instead of wasting, they put the milk back into the fridge for the next day.

Thus, customers flock to Twitter complaining about bitter coffees. And I could give a gazillion other examples how there’s is cheating going on under the pressure of management. I explain it in detail here:
Pret A Manger also Stretched (Expiry) Dates

And important to mention that these practices where already done for years pre-Covid, it has just gotten worse now. A Tweet from 2019:

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And on the hygiene issues, I’ve done a whole blog entry on pest, mice, rats, flies etc. including rat droppings on food!

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Peekaboo!

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UPDATE February 2022:

Airports and railway stations are THE WORST when it comes to hygiene and pest issues, also due to chronic understaffing, unable to clean and do pest control. (Above picture is from Heathrow, below rating from City Airport etc.).

Pret London City Airport had a poor hygiene rating by a surprise EHO visit of 2 out of 5. It was mainly on pest issues and general hygiene. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. More detail on this: Pret’s Hygiene Rating December 2021.

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Heathrow again 2024:

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Link to video

Also note, the fact that the crisps wooden boxes are on the tables and chairs means that Pret staff KNOW they have mice. They are instructed to keep food OFF the floor over night when mice/rats etc. come out more. But this doesn’t help because having worked in Pret I SAW mice crawl up on furtniture/cables/benches etc.

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For more in-depth issues with photos of mice, rats, bugs etc. please see Pret’s Pest Issues.

Some of many staff reviews:

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Link to General Manager review regarding “cheating” to please OPs Managers pressure.

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etc. etc. etc.

For other “gone off” foods, please visit pest infested Pret shops via
Rat A Manger & Pret A Maggot or via YouTube with some “explicit” videos (you have been warned!). These complaints with or without photos and videos are by no means exhaustive, this is just a very small collection to show a visual of the onging pest issues in Pret.

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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review as well as mentioned by the BBC.

Please also see the MEDIA page for more.

NEW LinkTree

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BuyMeACoffee.com/expret.org

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PayPal Link

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Thank you for reading/listening.

©2017 – Present: expret.org


Interview:

(Please be aware that the player shows 0:00 as WordPress sometimes “messes” with my blog. Just press play or go straight to the interview on Adam’s page).

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Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
©2017 – Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.

Pret A Manger’s “Propaganda”?

I Survived Pret A Manger (unsafe company)Leave a comment

Let me explain.

Following Pret issues I keep seeing confusing information and mixed messages regarding Pret’s sales and profits. One week Pret’s sales are down, next week sales are 80% pre-Pandemic levels, next week Pret is close to ruin due to having to repay loans by the summer 2022, then profits up again … In the USA there are lawsuits in the millions for upaid rents.

Knowing Pret and their top leadership CEO Pano Christou, HQ staff, the HR department, OPs (area) managers, shop management etc. while claiming to be doing “the right thing naturally”, Pret’s way is to cheat, steal, borrow and scam customers and staff.

Pano Christou is under pressure to speed open shops. Pret received close to half a billion pounds, yes billion, from tax-haven Luxembourg based owners JAB Holdings (Germany’s 2. richest family, the Reimanns with an extensive Nazi slavery past) and shareholders. Pret received this money with the task to open 200 shops worldwide in the next 2 years. This is a huge and unrealistic task.

I remember when private equity firm Bridgepoint took over in 2008 and tasked Pret to open at least 15 shops per year. Me and my colleagues felt the squeeze. And now with JAB it’s even worse.

India’s richest business man has hooked up with Pret to open shops in India. I feel sorry and worried for workers AND customers in India, especially since Pret has a very poor track record on food safety and customer care, despite their “happy” and generous facade.

JAB and shareholders are like the Mafia, they want their money back. These private equity firms pass companies like Pret from hand to hand like drug dealers do with drugs and money laundry. Makes me almost feel sorry for Pano Christou who is squeezed in-between like a middle man and lower ranked drug dealer appeasing the big lords.

But the price is paid by the very bottom, the “addicts”, those who need jobs and sell their labour cheap to the overlords because they don’t know that they can beat the “addiction” when they get help and organise.

I’ve seen interviews of Pano Christou in India and other places lately, and he does NOT look relaxed. He looks tense, nervous, keeps sniffing as if he had a cold or is snorting cocaine. Not alleging that he does, but his nervous sniffing is unusual for him. I know of former OPs managers and HQ staff who took drugs in the toilets in head office.

I had to wipe cocaine traces off toilet hand dryers in Pret shops where mainly business people frequent. Again, I’m not alleging Pano is taking drugs, but I am calling Pret out again and again for scamming customers, stealing and borrowing from staff, selling expired, mouldy food even after having ignored TWO customer deaths and over a dozen injuries before this got public. THAT is what I can say for sure! I link to the reasons and evidence further below.

The media is helping Pret’s “propaganda” by saying sales are up, profits are soaring again, and I have a sense this is to attract potential investors.

Pano must be under pressure from JAB and shareholders to produce numbers. Hence, Pret delayed paying staff TWICE this year under dodgy excuses, the 2. excuse was “payroll error”.

Pano seems to be doing the EXACT thing that all shop managers do. Shop managers tweak numbers, cheat, extend expiry dates to save on food waste to boost their bonus and please their OPs managers. Pano has to produce and reach targets for his bosses JAB Holdings.

And since Pret’s been making profit again, they could and should raise wages, reinstate the benefits and paid breaks they cut. But of course no, they continue to cut in anyway they can including stopping complimentary items like butter portions for soup bread, seeds for porridge, sweetener, downsized the complimentary honey portions etc. etc.

These cuts are okay for me, what is NOT okay is borrowing from low-wage staff like workers are a bank to loan from without interest! Wage theft is also huge in Pret.

Here are just some of the mixed messages and “propaganda” Pret and the media throw out there:

04. July 2022

Link

Also 04. July 2022

I can’t believe Pano Christou getting involved, wanting the rail strikes to end so HE can make money! I have no words for this company!

Link

So, trading slumped down to 62% “because” of the train strike, let’s just blame workers again. Yet, on this same day news say that Pret’s sales are UP.

Can they make up their minds, or is this truly “propaganda” to get investors and customers in?

Pano Christou is SO detached and deranged, he doesn’t care one bit about workers. He even had the audacity AFTER he cut wages, making “temporary” pay cuts permanent to ASK his low-wage staff to donate to his “charity” half-marathon. Pano has NO shame whatsoever. His greed, or maybe it truly is desperation is amazing! I gave Pano a nickname, “Panoccio”! 🤥

-> Pret’s “charity” projects.

It also reminds me of Pret RE-founder and itsu founder Julian Metcalfe who didn’t want a 2. lockdown willing to sacrifice “a few thousand very old and vulnerable people”. I chased him off Twitter and was later informed that he is in Jeffrey Epstein’s address book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUaqFzx1hKE&list=PLV9iPgXsChP9ZZW2QQ6zpc323nYo8aXU1&index=20

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Pret and itsu are thick as thieves and ice cold business people hurting people with a smile.

30. June 2022

Link

Februrary 2022

From the Daily Telegraph, quote:

»Pret a Manger has fired a fresh warning shot over its future as it races to delay debt repayments following two years of lockdown turmoil.

Company filings for the coffee chain’s owner, Pret a Manger Ltd, said it was attempting to buy more time to repay its loans.

It has until June to pay back £66.7m in loans, after having already extended that facility. A separate £605m loan facility is due to expire the following summer.«

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This news to me seemed to have served to panic customers to flock to Pret for support. No more news on this since then. So, Pret either seemed to have repaid the £66 million and still has to repay £605m by the summer 2023.

And here’s what Pret’s been doing to reach targets:

BBC: Pret customers complain over drinks subscription deal

Ongoing complaints on the coffee subscription, apps, deals etc.

Claiming to have suppLIEr issues and technical faults preventing customers to get special offers and certain expensive and complimentary products.

The worst for me is delaying to pay their front-line, lowest paid staff TWICE this year and the ongoing wage theft.

And no, don’t make it too easy on yourself by saying staff can just look for another job. It’s not that simple when you have no money, a family to support, maybe even debt. Pret wear out their workers on purpose so they can’t think straight and have the strength to stand up or look for better jobs.

But customers can EASILY shop elsewhere and CHOOSE EASILY to support small independent businesses.

But no, most customers are as greedy as Pret by wanting freebies, a cheap coffee subscription and are willing to wait 10 – 15 minutes now while giving the few staff that are left a hard time for being “slow”!

So HOW can Pret be making pre-Pandemic 80% plus profits again while being understaffed, long queues, many customers boycott or completely abandon Pret.

Is it “propaganda” again to draw new investors while Pret is struggling in reality?

Many large companies underpay workers and are into wage theft. But for Pret to delay pay twice this year by getting bolder and bolder in broad daylight, shows desperation to me.

The uo and down, back and forth messages of soaring sales, then being close to bankruptcy is such a typical communication mess from Pret.

One employee review from New York from a purchasing director give some insights into Pret’s leadership. A purchasing director is closer to Pret leadership than shop staff. And I can underline this having had my traumatic experiences with Pret’s leadership ncluding former CEO Clive Schlee, Pano Christou, the HR department and some HQ staff.

Quote: »One of the oddest work experiences. Worked their during a transition period – so company going in one direction and then the opposite.«

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Just a few more from the USA and from London’s head office staff:

Link

Link

Link

Next, part quote:

»The kitchen staff is treated like slaves. They are expected to do the impossible. The upper management is a bunch of heartless, evil British monsters that take credit for all the positives and assign blame for all the negatives. … Advise to management: Quit your jobs and go back to England and stay there.«

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Link

»Spoiled, selfish upper management has ruined it for the rest. … upper management thinks they are better than everyone else. They spend (waste) lots of money on dinners for themselves and “leadership conferences” that are really just excuses to party in Orlando or Vegas. “Business” trips to Boston and Chicago are really expensed vacations for their families. The Brits have taken over NYC. Pret has brought over many managers and leaders form the UK and ‘beheaded’ many of the US employees who built the brand to make room for them.
Advice to Management: get over yourselves.«

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Link

A recent review of many along those lines, partial quote:

»harassing higher management from group and ops manager above. Unhealthy to both mental and physical health. … Group manager shaming for being sick. … Wages regularly not paid on time. … Safety standards for teams lack luster [causing] high risk of injury. …
Advise to management: Replace Pano with someone competent.«

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Link

I could go on and on and on, but to wrap it up, here some words from people in Ireland and Spain regarding Pret opening in those countries:

Spain’s and Ireland’s “welcome” message to Pret and below, “The Pret A Manger Anthem”.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-sZTaEOQIA&list=PLV9iPgXsChP9ZZW2QQ6zpc323nYo8aXU1&index=16

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1l36531tlM&list=PLV9iPgXsChP9ZZW2QQ6zpc323nYo8aXU1&index=17

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeEYxffiBDg&list=PLV9iPgXsChP9ZZW2QQ6zpc323nYo8aXU1&index=27

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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment witnessed by customers: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.

NEW: Podcast.

Please also see the MEDIA page for which press articles and Pret “charity” announcements I influenced.

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Thank you for reading/listening.

©2017 – Present: expret.org


Interview:

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Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
©2017 – Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.

I feel sorry for Workers in India when Pret opens there

I Survived Pret A Manger (unsafe company)Leave a comment

People in India are used to hard work and low pay under extremely harsh circumstances. I can imagine that Pret are anticipating speed opening in India where they can exploit and abuse workers even worse than they do in the UK and USA where people go to court more than people in India.

My heart breaks for any worker who is told lies and believes they get a good job in a “good” company!

It is beyond me how people, especially business people are either too naïve, too lazy, not concerned or plainly don’t care about the truth of Pret or any company at that. Of course business people are MAINLY concerned about money increase, no matter how that increase comes. And IF there are some ethical points, they don’t take a closer look and just copy & paste what they are fed by the company.

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UPDATE July 2022

A Guardian article recently reported on Pret CEO Pano Christou’s pay-rise and £4 million bonus in 2021 after he cut staff wages.

I speak about it on my blog and predicted back in April 2022 that I believe Christou either got the same pay or higher after cutting wages.

As the embedded players are just 30 second previews, please click on the blue links:

July 2022 episode:

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April 2022 episode:

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I want to dissect a thread on Twitter by an Indian business man with over 190K followers. Mr. Mukul Agrawal is the founder of Agrawal Corporate, entrepreneur, investor, trader, stock market analyst, finance coach and TEDx speaker. But it is evident that he only copied what he read maybe on Pret’s website and a little on Wikipedia, and whatever info is prevalent still.

He first writes that Pret opened its first shop in 1986, then later writes correctly that the first shop opened in 1983. He must have briefly peeked at Wikipedia. His copy & paste info is all over the place. I responded and corrected him on a few issues and pleaded to take a closer look. But I doubt he would care. It bugs me that especially business people don’t do their homework properly.

So, here for other people who do care about the truth and reality of Pret A Manger.

For people with visual impairment, I put some screenshots of the tweets and news articles here, which I always do as a form of “evidence” and in case people delete their tweets. But I paste the text underneath, as I was told by a blind person once that reading programs cannot read screenshots. I have found the same with the automated voice converter that reads my blog posts and converts my text into audio. I put some audio conversion of my blog posts on my podcast. The voice can’t read the screenshots. So, I aim to also type out or paste texts from screenshots on my blog.

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Link to tweets

Text of the tweets, I copy 4 of the 5 texts as Twitter didn’t translate the first tweet. I responded to some wrong information but want to expand here in the post. My “corrections” come underneath each quote.

First Quote: »Pret’s mission has been simple. Serving hygienic and properly prepared fresh food and good organic coffee.« End of Quote.

My response on Twitter but I expand on some more information here below.

1. Pret had to remove the word “natural” from their signage & packaging after lawsuits as their food is loaded with chemicals.

2. Pret food is NOT fresh. Customer complaints with picture of mouldy food. And Pret’s food is NOT organic. Pret do not claim that their food is organic, but they claim that their coffee is. I explain in my blog post why Pret had to remove the word “natural” from all their signage, packaging and marketing: Pret A Manger – Ready to (ch)eat.

I also linked people to my post about Pret’s food not being fresh with pictures of customer complaints of mouldy food, rat droppings on food etc. I also want to highlight that reports on food poisoning has increased in the last few months. Blog post with photos of mouldy food: Pret Food is NOT Fresh.

Pret’s brainwash slogans of “freshly made food” which replaced the “natural food” slogan on their packaging, is also a typical psychological message. But the reality is, even if it was made fresh on the day and not secretly carried over from the previous days, you can “freshly make” a sandwich from stale bread and mouldy cheese. It’s “freshly made” with NON-fresh items.

And never forget that Pret ignored TWO customer allergy deaths and over a dozen further injuries before this got public. Pret ONLY slowly started to act when the deaths became public. We staff weren’t even told and on my podcast I explain in 3 episodes how Pret was and continues to be careless with food safety and customers health and safety. Please pay particular attention to a specific London Barbican Centre seminar that Pret held AFTER the first customer died and several got injured. I speak about this in Part 01, Part 02 and Allergy Trial as part 3: expretcast on Spreaker.

And in memory of the two customers who died, it is important to keep saying their names:

Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, died in July 2016 from a reaction to sesame.

Celia Marsh, 42, mother of 5 daughters died in December 2017 from dairy in a vegan wrap.

A student named Isobel Colnaghi, almost died and would have been the third victim in 2017, also from an unlabelled sesame reaction. She lost her court case against Pret because Pret was successful to blame the low-wage worker. I speak about this in the above three podcast episode.

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Link to Daily Mail article.

Second Quote from the business man: »Since opening its first shop in London in 1986, Pret’s mission has been to serve freshly cooked food and the best organic coffee. Its food is prepared throughout the day and the unsold food is donated at the end of every day.« End of Quote.

My response:

I highlight in the tweets that not all food is donated to charity each night and link to my blog post about daily food-waste with pictures of customer complaints having seen food waste in the streets: Pret’s Food-waste.

Also, many people still don’t seem to know or realize that Pret’s food is NOT cooked in Pret kitchens, but cooked in factories and then just re-heated and assembled in shop kitchens.

It is like when you go to the supermarket, get a loaf of ready-sliced bread, some cheese, some ham and salad. You go home, put the food into your fridge and a day or two days later “make” a sandwich “fresh”. Freshly made from factory-cooked ingredients. Same with the soup. you buy a ready cooked soup in a tin or plastic tub, put it in your fridge and re-heat it a few days later in your microwave. Pret’s just been successful to fool the public with all their slogans and brainwash. And we love to fall for these fairy-tales of a multi-billion pound company with seat in tax-haven Luxembourg under the second richest family in Germany, the Reimanns, with an extensive Nazi slavery past!

The only products that are cooked from raw or partly cooked products are the frozen baguettes that are up to a year old, frozen croissants, frozen cookies and raw eggs that come already mixed in Tetra Paks for the bacon breakfast rolls. NOTHING is cooked in Pret shops, there are not pots and pans and stoves in the kitchens. There are only ovens for the baguettes and ready mixed Mac & Cheese, water baths to heat up the already factory-cooked soups and porridge, and microwaves to quickly re-heat soups.

A former employee of Pret’s sister company Panera spilled the beans on how Panera re-heat their already cooked macaroni and cheese. The staff got fired for putting a video of this on YouTube. But this is the exactly same way that Pret re-heat the ready cooked soups and porridge, in water baths of bags containing six cups of soup. The water-bath equipment is called “marinator”.

Video on YouTube:

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The only thing with Panera Bread is that compared to Pret, Panera do not advertise that their food is “freshly made”. So, I won’t have any expectations. But Pret claim that their food is freshly made and with it play with customer assumptions that they interpret this to mean that Pret’s food is fresh.

Third Quote from the business man: »Their coffee is (and always will be) 100% organic and they also have a coffee fund that financially supports the next generation of farmers. This is (partly) what we think makes Preet special.« End of Quote.

My response on the financial support for coffee farmers:

Pret exploit farmers and have even stopped doing fair-trade coffee. Pret’s multi-billionaire owners JAB Holdings in tax-haven Luxembourg pressured farmers to lower prices! I linked to a The Economist article titled, »JAB upends coffee trading« with the sub-title: “The owner of Peet’s and Pret a Manger is pressuring suppliers already ground down by low prices.” Link to the article.

Customer complaints have increased that Pret’s coffee tastes horrible. The cheap prices and Pret not doing fair-trade coffee anymore makes me question HOW their coffee can be organic. I have visited organic animal and vegetable farms in Virginia, USA where I was looking into doing a 3 month sabbatical a few years ago. I asked many questions to the farmers and they told me that it is extremely expensive to get certified organic via annual fees. And my question is, how can Pret’s coffee be organic when it is so cheap and the taste very poor.

A reminder, Pret was caught cheating by claiming that their food is natural. They had to take the word “natural” off their marketing. In other issues Pret has been caught ripping off customers, lying about the subscription deal which the BBC reported on in December 2021. Article: Pret A Manger customers complain over drinks subscription deal.

And the price reflects on the quality and taste. Here are only few of the many complaints from customers who say Pret’s coffee tastes like “dishwater” or the beans are like “rat shit”:

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And many, many, many more.

Last Quote from the business man: »Established in 1983, Pret currently has over 460 shops in the UK, with 324 locations in London alone.« End of Quote.

My response was just that this time he mentioned the correct date of the first Pret shop opening. I want to highlight something that a friend of the late Jeffrey Hyman, the original founder of Pret, told me on Twitter not long ago. Hyman’s friend paid tribute to him on the anniversary of his death. I responded to his tweet saying that Pret always avoid mentioning Mr. Hyman. I have noticed now as well that since about a year, Pret has put the words “London 1986” above their shop doors. This seems to me like wanting to brainwash the public about the year of Pret’s first opening.

Jeffrey Hyman’s friend said the following to me on Twitter after I pointed out Pret’s refusal to mention Hyman:

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When I tweeted, “Unfortunately Pret don’t give him credit and continue to avoid mentioning him”, he replied, quote: »I know. They even employed someone to repeatedly change the Wikipedia page that mentions how Jeffrey Hyman founded the first Pret-A-Manger. A moderator banned the person when they said they were retained by Pret to do that.« End of quote.

After what I survived and went through in Pret, especially from the VERY TOP executive leadership team and the HR department, I absolutely believe the person. Pret lie, cheat and steal left, right and center! They have no morals, no ethics, and every good, wholesome or ethical thing you read from Pret is the COMPLETE opposite!

I want to nightlight again my favourite tweet by a former customer who said the following after replying to a customer who called for boycotting Pret when Pret made the temporary pandemic pay cuts permanent:

Link to the tweet and quote:

»A while back, I saw a Pret ad that said its staff were “passionate” about making sandwiches. This kind of bullshit talk always hides ruthless practices in my experience« End of quote.

At least current CEO Pano Christou removed the brainwashing slogan on their packaging that used to say “Lovingly handmade” after I keep pointing out the opposite. And people are usually naïve to believe that a low-wage, stressed out worker can “lovingly” hand make anything!

I want to expand now on a few other issues. The main issue of exploiting workers. Pret settled twice class action lawsuits in the USA. Pret “shaved down” (meaning, rounded down) wages and were sued twice within 4 years. Pret settled and repaid close to $1 million each time repaying 4000 workers. Pret also recently settled a lawsuit for finger printing workers. More on these and other lawsuits including on racism and bullying in shops: Pret’s Lawsuits and Settlements.

Also, recently Pret delayed paying their lowest-paid staff twice! The second time Pret cleverly used the Queen’s Jubilee weekend, knowig that the public would be distracted with celebrations. And they were right! I was contacted by desperate staff with this info and passed it on to journalists, including Sarah Butler from the Guardian. Sarah reported on it, but her article was drowned out by the Jubilee weekend as hardly any customer commented. Usually when the Guardian or BBC report on a scandal in Pret, there is an outcry for days and calls for boycott. But not this time, because Pret was clever enough to use the bank holiday weekend to delay pay. And also on bank holiday Monday all the banks are closed so that Pret won’t have to pay emergency wages and staff cannot arrange an overdraft in order to pay their bills.

Staff have announced that they basically now will sabotage Pret, which means also their food and service quality. What a staff member said on Instagram about the pay delay which directly influences food safety and customer satisfaction. And please don’t blame the staff here, that’s too easy! Pret put customers in danger again by under-staffing shops and treating their staff like sh!t

It comes around full circle. How you treat your staff reflects also what you think of your customers.

Link to Instagram post.

One person raised the delayed pay with Pret on Instagram, quote: »This is outrageous, it’s a bank holiday week-end and your team members are working instead of enjoying themselves and you didn’t even pay them. You should not allow to have these technical issues as you push your staff to not do any mistake. And is not even the first time.« End of quote.

To which the above person replied in part, quote:

»Don’t worry. We already drastically reduced food and service quality (since we work for free) and we will make sure Pret doesn’t make as much money as they think they will this bank holiday weekend.

They told us 12 hours before payday that there is no money, on 1st of June when everybody has rent/mortgage to pay. They left us with no money to provide for our families.

We tried to contact the head office regarding the issue but all of them were already gone enjoying early bank holiday.

Lots of people already took sick-leave as a strike action leaving those in the shops understaffed (food availability will be affected). Thank you for your support.« End of quote.

More on this with a link to the Guardian article after I contacted the press: Bloomberg’s Pret Index and Pret’s Wage Theft.

I also want to highlight here as a reference why and when Pret make huge “charity” announcements, especially why former CEO Clive Schlee made the £1000 announcement for all staff back in May 2018 when he found out about my blog. A small list of “charity” announcements: Pret’s Charity Projects.

Former CEO Clive Schlee under whose “leadership” two customers died and over a dozen got injured, left with this “legacy” from staff on Glassdoor:

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And current CEO and Schlee’s prodigy, Pano Christou is continuing it:

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I could go and on and on, but I stop here and leave the reader with two YouTube slides of people in Spain and Ireland resisting Pret’s plan to open in their countries. I doubt India will resist Pret as many workers there for one don’t have information on how exploitative Pret are, and also because they are used to harsh work environments. But it’s not right. They also deserve a decent wage and respectful working conditions with dignity and a good life. But that will never happen with Pret, not in reality, only on paper.

Please see my YouTube playlist for more issues in Pret, especially with the coffee subscription and staff issues. And my podcast where I walk people through Pret’s strict weekly mystery shopper scheme, why stressed staff in understaffed shops smile so much for 8, 10+ hours straight, not mater if they are depressed, sick, bereaved etc. Podcast: Pret’s Strict Mystery Shopper Scheme with examples of weekly reports. I explain how one staff member can get extra cash even when the whole team didn’t get bonus. I also explain how staff use the freebie give-aways to penalize rude customers etc.

Thank you for reading, and I am sorry for my traumatized self sometimes. I still struggle daily and am not sure if I will survive. I just write and write to distract myself and inform people, so they don’t experience the trauma, pain and loss that I went through.

Spain:

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Ireland:

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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago.
I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review as well as mentioned by the BBC.

Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.

NEW LinkTree

PayPal.Me

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Thank you for reading/listening.

©2017 – Present: expret.org


Interview:

(Please be aware that the player shows 0:00 but just press play)

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Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
©2017 – Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.