And neither do Pret close shops when they do refurbishments. Refurbishments are done during the night and/or on weekends when those shops are closed anyway on weekends, depending how large or small the shop is. Small shops can get refurbs done within one weekend.
The Norwich shop that now closed for a second time this year, might also be due to the landlord not extending the lease or other issues, if this is a permanent closure. If it’s temporary, it is NEVER due to fridges breaking.
“Fault” is vague and broken fridges is a lie.
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I worked in over 30 shops in Pret and had to deal with neighbours coming in first thing in the morning to complain about the noise builders did outside while sawing wood with noisy electric saws during the night.
Pret never ever ever are willing to lose money, closing shops when fridges break.
There have been several tweets to Pret by neighbours of Pret stores who were woken up during the night or early Sunday morning from loud sawing or knocking by builders. I didn’t screenshot them all, except this one:
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Sometimes different staff in one shop give different reasons (lies) as they haven’t been all briefed on which one lie to settle on. 😀
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Further, I worked in many shops where fridges and freezers broke. Procedure is to do call-outs for repairs and move chilled stock to other fridges. Fridges get repaired or replaced but a shop will never close due to fridges breaking. And it is impossible for ALL fridges to break.
The ONLY reason Pret close a shop temporary is due to PEST issues, especially mice and rats. Fly infestations keep shops open.
If the reader ever walks by a Pret store at night AFTER closing time and sees plastic covers over coffee machines, that means the shop has a fly infestation. The plastic covers are there to protect the expensive machines against the fine particles of chemicals that is supposed to be sprayed over night by pest control. Those particles would sieve into the coffee machines, costing about £20,000 each, plus/minus, and break them. When it comes to saving money, Pret go out of their way to preserve machines. When it comes to human or animal safety, no concern until it becomes public.
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Always check if it’s raisin or a fly. 😉
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Sometimes a manager slips up and tells the truth!
A Google review:
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etc. etc. etc. etc.
Staff are supposed to also cover the food, the till cakes, crisps, chocolates etc. as the chemicals will land on the food. But due to the typical pressure Pret put on staff, there’s no time to remove food at night and restock early in the morning.
Around 2010 or 2011-ish a random, surprise EHO visit to a Pret Cannon Street branch lead to that shop being closed as the EHO found pests there. Up until then, Pret only had an in-house pest control team who could not tackle the pest issues. I worked in one mice infested shop leading me to request a transferral to another shop. But then the Cannon Street shop got closed by an EHO and ONLY THEN did Pret get an outside pest control firm permanently hired, in those days it was Rentokil, not sure if they’re still doing the jobs.
General shop managers were trained and the procedure from then on became that if staff see evidence of pest, like mouse droppings etc., the shop had to be closed immediately, a deep clean arranged and Rentokil informed. Rentokil (or whatever pest control firm now) then would come in during the night to set traps and spray chemicals, depending what the pest issue is.
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etc. etc. etc.
When we found evidence of pests, upon sudden closure, we staff were told to say something like, “We have technical issues” etc. One time a staff said that we had an electrical failure and the no-nonsense customer said, “You have your lights on…” From then on staff just say “technical issues”, and in this case now with the Norwich store they lie and say “Fridges broken”. Nopes, if one or several fridges break, first of all they mainly break during the summer, and secondly, Pret never ever close shops when equipment breaks. I worked with 2 broken fridges in the shop and 1 broken walk-in fridge in ONE shop once, leading us to transfer food to nearby shop fridges to not lose stock and money. And the shop remained open.
When pests are found and the shop immediately closed, asking customers to leave, staff then move furniture to do a deep clean everywhere.
I write extensively about Pret’s pest issues on Pret A Manger Pest Issues and did a slide as my blog URL at times is blocked on platforms after Pret must have reported me. I don’t care, I spread out across the Internet.
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A reminder, or to make readers aware who don’t know yet, apart from Pret having done NOTHING after TWO customers died and dozens became injured from unlabelled allergen, Pret only reacting once this became public, Pret also were fined £800,000 in 2023 after a staff almost died in a walk-in freezer.
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Pret had repair call-outs for 19 months on the faulty freezer door handle in the Victoria Coach station branch, but nothing was done. Staff kept getting trapped inside the freezer for a few minutes until one woman got trapped for 2 hours 45 minutes (NOT 2.5 hours like Pret claimed. Every second counts in -18 degrees Celsius).
The fine was initially set at £1.6 million, but the judge halved it after Pret pleaded guilty early on. The woman is still waiting in court for compensation, unless it now has been settled and a NDA signed. I’m not updated there.
I explain in my £800K post WHY colleagues of the trapped lady never missed her for over 2 hours.
Keeping it short now, I end with a recent video by a new YouTube channel that posts about the tricks companies do. Their content titles are always quite click-baity, but still filled with vital information. Their Pret A Manger post, even though done with AI voice and somewhat not well researched, is nevertheless brilliant in pointing out how Pret have been, and in my experience and ongoing research, continue to be negligent with safety. Unfortunately the person(s) behind the channel weren’t aware (until I pointed it out days ago) about the staff in freezer and the £800K fine.
Nevertheless, good pinpointing about Pret, as well as crediting to my blog where they found a lot of the information:
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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.
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Thank you for reading/listening.
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Interview:
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Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 