Six years ago I wrote already on the Lidl Disaster, and call me naïve, but I always hope a business/organisation/service improves over time. But I need to boycott this chain for life now. In above link I explain the disaster, especially when it comes to food safety. And this was long before the pandemic. Fast forward six years and things have not improved but rather gotten worse, yet more hidden.
I rarely go to Lidl anymore for reasons I wrote in a Trustpilot review. But in the beginning to mid of June I went to Lidl to buy bulk items like water, milk etc. as a friend was about to visit and I wanted to have enough fluids as the weather turned warmer as well as my friend eating cereal in the morning. Me and my organised self bulk-shopped so we wouldn’t have to waste time going shopping and could just hover all over London like excited tourists. This turned out to be a mistake.
I bought a “crate” of long-life milk and oat milk. I rarely buy any dairy products anymore due to how animals are treated, but made an exception as my friend prefers cow’s milk. I’m neither vegan nor vegetarian but have drastically cut down on live and dead animal products. If you ever come across a documentary simply called “Cow“, I really recommend it! I saw it where after the screening they had a Q&A with the writer and director, both female worth mentioning. I appreciate that they weren’t “preachy” and just let the film do its thing. It is NOT as expected, and I was really surprised of the SILENT suffering these beautiful creatures go through.
This is NOT a gore or “violent” documentary, it is just so profound how silent it is, yet how much you can see the suffering! The film mainly follows one particular cow to really zoom in on the day-to-day existence of a cow. When you watch that one cow’s daily ordeal but also the joy and tranquility when out in the field during the summer, you clearly see a personality that differs from other cows. Absolutely mind-blowing!
It also makes it clear that all the suffering of animals (fish, insects etc.) are without any sound! Imagine we’d hear all the suffering animals go through! I’m sure the meat and dairy industry would have much less customers.
The camera angles are some of THE best I’ve ever seen in any film! Heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. Surreal, and an absolute must-watch! It rekindled my desire to work with animals in some way and reminds me of the holidays we’ve spent on small old-fashioned country farms when I was a kid, born and raised in the city.
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Okay, I didn’t turn vegan, but I try to cut down as much as I can on animal products and try to seek out truly ethical businesses. And it’s a question of time before we learn of catastrophic issues in the vegan industry, where acres upon acres of forests are erroded for plantbased “superfoods” threatening and/or extinguishing wild-life. If you live long enough, you know not to romanticise anything anymore.
So, only yesterday, mid July, I noticed that the oat milk expired in March 2024! Gulp! Sure, the milk is still drinkable and I understand the difference between “best before” and “use by” dates, but this is unacceptable! Lesson learnt: never buy in bulk anymore, and go shopping with your friend to choose what they want.
I already have beef (pun intended!) with Lidl for always putting more expensive items behind less expensive items’ price labels. I often notice because since I go shopping as a child even, I was raised as well as having moved out early, to calculate the money I spend and ALWAYS, all my life calculate the price I pay, and this way IMMEDIATELY notice when the till rings it up higher than what I summed up from the price tags. It’s also a good excercise to keep your mind fit! Do the calculations in your head to stay fit mentally!
Lidl is THE worst company doing this. I used to live close to Morrisons and only bought bits and bobs there, and found even years ago Morrisons doing the same. But Lidl has absolutely hands down the worst activity in deception like this.
As I finished the oat milk and threw the packaging out already I missed taking photos. Yet, it would be useless as I don’t have the receipt anymore and they could say I bought it before March 2024. Another lesson learnt, always check the dates before putting items in your trolley! .
And no, there’s no point in contacting Lidl like I did 6 years ago because this is systemic and from customer reviews their customer service seems appalling. But I left a Trustpilot review today and will leave reviews on Google, TripAdvisor and wherever reviews can be left. I always say to Pret staff, who contact me, to leave a review on Glassdoor AND Indeed, and whatever other employee review site’s out there. Indeed has 4 reviews on their Berlin store while Glassdoor has none (or vice versa, can’t remember)! Always leave a review on every available review site as you can only leave one per site.
Just the start of my review, the rest via above link:
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After I wrote the review, I checked out other reviews for Lidl GB. Unsurprisingly, 69% of one star reviews says it all. Several mention they’d leave zero stars if they could. If you check reviews, it is always set to “most relevant” or “most popular” by default, I always select “most recent” to see if there’s a trend on issues that repeat itself in a certain time period.
I did NOT read the Lidl reviews before I left mine. But some absolutely confirm my concerns when it comes to bad/expired food while the expiry dates are still good. I believe this is due to meat, fish, fresh drinks etc. being sat on the shop floor by customers abandoning the queues. I explain in detail WITH photos in above “Lidl Disaster” link.
Sure, most companies have poor reviews now. Pret having 75% (1 & 2 star reviews combined) unhappy customers, but that doesn’t excuse unsafe food handling. Just because “most” companies are bad, doesn’t make it right or that we have to accept this. Such a lame excuse!
I will also pass this on to the press, especially Channel 4 Dispatches, BBC Panorama and all the journalists I have worked with on my Pret stuff, to hopefully give them ideas to investigate undercover. But I got my undercover journo itch now and will visit several Lidl stores in different areas, camera in hand and then update this post with part 3.
I once saw 2 people in two different areas in a the same Lidl at the same time taking photos. As I know the manager a little bit from chats while shopping, I asked him if they have mystery shoppers as I saw 2 people taking photos. Having had traumatic experiences with Pret’s mystery shopper scheme, I always tip off any business management if I think there’s a mystery shopper. He confirmed that Lidl have mystery shoppers. This is why I believe staff always move stock around to make shelves look filled.
Pret do the same thing, often even moving the wrong food item like a baguette behind another baguette and its label because Pret have the stupid rule that ANY item needs to have at least 2 of its kind as a pair behind a label. This is called a “line”. If there’s only 1 item behind a label and the mystery shopper (MS) comes at that time, having to count the “lines”, and only sees 1 item, the whole team won’t get bonus, even if you were off that day.
Example by nanka-photo in this case two Bloomer sandwiches close together. (Side note: these prices are a thing of the past!)
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What managers and team leaders (MODs) often do, yet are NOT allowed to do, they take the label off the fridge shelf. If they’re caught taking the label off, they get a disciplinary. So, what do they do to avoid the fncking fear management? They place a SIMILAR looking item behind the correctly labelled item to make it look like a line (2 items).
You know where I’m going with this, right?
Pret always have a meat item and a veggie or vegan alternative of a meaty product. Especially during Christmas for example. Pret do a meaty baguette and a vegan or veggie alternative baguette that often looks very similar to the meat version. If there’s 1 veggie baguette on the shelf, but 5 similar looking meaty baguettes, the manager on duty (MOD) takes the meaty baguette, turns it around with the back facing customers so they can’t see the ingredients in case ham is sticking out, and places it BEHIND the veggie baguette to make it look like a line (2 baguettes) for the mystery shopper. The shelf will then show 2 “veggie” and 4 meaty baguettes, and everyone gets their bonus.
If you do see only 1 item of a particular type of food, than at times it’s okay as the shelves have the certain amount of “selection” during certain times of the day. As an example, but I can’t remember exactly and Pret keep changing the rules, but after 2pm lunch rush, shops are not required anymore to have ALL items but a certain amount of lines, let’s say 20 lines of a minimum of 2 items each. Then after 5pm they have to have only let’s say 12 lines and so on. Don’t quote me on the time and amount of lines. It’s just an example.
But between 12 noon and 2pm, or 2:30pm depending on the shop location, ALL shops have to have FULL selection of ALL items Pret offer, with a minimum of 2 items of each kind = a line per product. If one item of its kind has only 1 product and the MS happens to be around tasked to count the lines, no-one gets bonus that week.
There’s as reason why I renamed the mystery shopper as “misery” shopper! For an in-depth study on Pret’s micromanaging mystery shopper scheme, please see The Dangers of Emotional Labour, as well as Recruiting for Personality rather than Skill can be Fatal. Pret’s emphasis always is having staff with a “bubbly” personality to appear a happy company, rather than people who actually know what the freak they’re doing.
I’ve put a snippet on Soundcloud of an interview from Desert Island Disc with Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin, who says that he does NOT demand his staff to smile! I was in tears when I heard this, because Pret bully and penalize staff if they don’t smile, even when you’re bereaved like I was! Again, if ONE staff doesn’t smile the MISERY shopper can penalize the whole team by not awarding bonus for that week. I was reprimanded when the MS commented that I didn’t smile despite also commenting that my service was polite and efficient. The MS didn’t know that I just buried my brother the previous week, but Pret and my manager knew. There was NO mercy!
But the lack of know-how also shows so clear with current CEO Pano Christou, who’s with Pret since over 20 years and doesn’t have an excuse for sinking the ship after former CEO Clive Schlee ran Pret into an iceberg. Yet, Christou doesn’t seem to manage as Pret are £700 million in debt having now brought back RE-co-founder Sinclair Beecham to help fix the mess. Beecham already pumped money into Pret during the pandemic. And while Beecham tries to fix Pret, the other RE-co-founder Julian Metcalfe via the press recently threw Pret under the bus! *PLONK* 🤭
The use of different products to make a line for the mystery shopper then can potentially endanger people’s lives or health if they’re allergic or are vegans etc. Especially before the packaging was labelled. Yes, since 2021 by law all packaging has to be labelled under “Natasha’s Law”, named after the first customer who died from hidden allergens in a Pret baguette. But, in a hurry people often grab an item and only later have time to check the ingredients, or worse, they still blindly trust Pret.
And to be fair to the staff, customers also misplace sandwiches, return some to the wrong spot etc. You MUST always check the labels especially in Pret. Staff also continue to mislabel food packaging itself or mix up ingredients due to being pressured to work faster and longer for less. Customers post pictures of mislabelled food and also mouldy food, as well as pest (mice, flies, rats …) issues.
The worst thing I saw from customers posting on social media is a Pret dairy Bircher Muesli made with MAYONNAISE!!! This is very very VERY easy to happen. The stressed-out staff, being fear managed, rush into the walk-in fridge and instead of grabbing the 10 liter yoghurt bucket, they grab the 10 liter mayonnaise bucket. Now you may say, how on earth can that staff member not notice?! You’ll be surprised how many things get missed, especially when you’re so stressed out and fatigued. Plus, most staff in Pret kitchens and shops are foreigners, many having just arrived from their home countries. Some often don’t speak English well yet etc. I’ve seen a lot of avoidable mistakes and made some myself.
And some staff also have a drinking problem, highly hung-over starting work at 5am. I started to drink after my brother died and to this day don’t know how I worked from 5am ON TIME every time, heavily hung-over but also on adrenaline. I came across a reddit post regarding PTSD and adrenaline and the pennies dropped!
Staff are simply so burnt out! Here’s a recent Glassdoor staff review that breaks my heart because I know what these team leaders are going through who run shops and get blamed when the shop manager fncks up. I quote one sentence that brings me to tears and also saw similr reviews on shop managers breaking down in the office. I will never stop urging all staff to join a union! A Barista writes:
“I’ve seen some team leaders having breakdowns during their shift over their job.” 😪
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I put one of my all time favourite Pret staff reviews on a slide and zoomed in on every word as the review is in one long bulk text on Indeed, but for people to understand the sheer pressure and unnecessary micromanagement low-wage staff are under, ESPECIALLY due to the “military” style mystery shopper scheme Pret put in place. I wish I’d knew who the person is who wrote this! They deserve a blinking Pulitzer price for this review! Over the years I was contacted by former Pret staff who wrote certain reviews that I’ve put on my blog or on YouTube and they recognised their reviews. I do hope that person sees their review again in the many places I scattered it.
An anti-noise organisation even posted it on their newsletter after complaining to Pret about the high noise levels in shops and I pointed them to the review. Please note, the link in their newsletter to my slide doesn’t work anymore and needs to be updated. It’s now the below “video”.
If you want to understand Pret A Manger in a nutshell, this is THE BEST review to paint a picture, I could not have written it better. The title and the last sentence are golden and a whole book or film could be produced on this review alone! I underline every dot and comma of this review. In my slide I did a correction of “lose” vs “loose”, otherwise I ususally don’t correct any typos and leave it in their own words.
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And this review has 54 Yes and 3 No votes (as of 12.07.2024). Speaks for itself.
But back to Lidl. Today after I wrote my Lidl review I started reading some others and literally had some laugh-out-loud moments. Some reviews are so funny, they need an extra page! I realised today that reading customer and employee reviews is one my favourite things to relax and have a laugh!
I won’t highlight much of a specific review. You might find those funny or you don’t, but I want to leave that up to the reader. I had a few LOLs today! Weirdly, the Pret A Manger reviews are never funny but mostly very angry. Maybe that’s due to Pret having fooled the public for so long and people are p!ssed off once they realise how fake and bad Pret really are. Lidl are a low-cost / discount supermarket where people already don’t have high expectations. But Pret always presented themselves as posh and ethical. So, people were in for some nasty surprises, unfortunately some surprises that literally has cost some customers their lives and health including staff.
And to be fair to my particular Lidl branch, I’ve never had an issue with any of their staff and always had the odd chat here and there with some staff including the branch manager. All the staff and especially the manager are super hard working. And even if there were issues, I know from experience in the hospitality industry that the fish stinks from its head. If there are systemic issues of any kind, it always comes from the top, even if that is just passively ignoring issues. And I rarely write a complaint to a company on staff, even if a staff is rude or seems careless, unless they’re always rude and careless or exceptionally offensive. Everyone has a bad day, and workers are already treated like sh!t. As a rule of thumb, if you do give a tip, ALWAYS give a cash tip, NEVER a credit/debit card tip.
I worked in restaurants where the company took 15% off the card tip, and Pret now have “tap” devices to leave tips, but knowing Pret, I wouldn’t be surprised if they keep it all! Hefty allegation you may say? Check their track record on wage theft, underpaying, overtime not paid, almost weekly hours missed from the weekly pay, last week pay often chased by ex-staff, bonus withheld, “outstanding card” cash rewards deleted off mystery shopper reports, THREE times delayed pay under dodgy payroll error excuses with two times within 3 months! And not to mention CEO Pano Christou filling his pockets after cutting wages.
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So, tipping in the UK isn’t common and I don’t always tip, but ALWAYS leave a CASH tip! I cannot always tip, but when I’m happy with the food I always give a tip to the chef in the kitchen as well as the service person. Kitchen folk are always forgotten! I even tip the toilet lady at a venue sometimes, especially during the Christmas period. It’s the best thing to put a smile on someone’s face who does the worst job!
In supermarkets, especially Lidl, ALWAYS check the expiry dates AND the shelf price labels versus the products behind it. I must say, I’ve never had an issue with Tesco!
Enlarge the screen for better read or go to the Lidl reviews directly. For computers without touch-screen, just type ctrl & + to enlarge and ctrl & – to decrease again. Not all reviews are funny, I just post a mix of a few.
I must say this first review I paste here, I can’t understand how a long-time customer mis-types Lidl throughout the review. Reminds me of people on social media saying it took them years to realize that Pret a called Pret A Manger not Pret A Manager.
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Here’s where I believe the customer might have taken a turkey mince package from the fridge that might have been on the shop floor out of the cold like I explain in above “Lidl Disaster” link WITH pictures. The date is good, but the turkey is foul.
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So, customers leaving basket behind seems a company-wide thing.
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In the following review I could literally picture a person standing in their kitchen videoing a lizard swimming in the water for 23 seconds. 🤣
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Two reviews on overcharging posted on the same day:
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“Lip festival” 🤣
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… plus many more.
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And I would not be a good former Pret employee if I wouldn’t end with recent Pret customer AND staff reviews. 😉
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Glassdoor – Barista:
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Indeed – Manager:
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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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Thank you for reading/listening.
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Interview:
(Please be aware that the player shows 0:00 but just press play)
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Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 