It is the fight-to-the-death battle of the meal deals that could help decide the fate of London’s best known sandwich chain. Last week, Pret A Manger, the ubiquitous office-worker pit stop with nearly 300 branches around the capital, bowed to the inevitable. More than a quarter of a century after Boots pioneered the meal deal in 1999, Pret has finally followed suit by starting to offer the sandwich-plus-drink-plus-crisps lunchtime package that has proved so successful for the likes of Tesco and Marks & Spencer. Astonishingly, more than seven million meal deals are sold daily around the UK.
Pret’s Canada Square branch in Canary Wharf was doing a brisk trade at lunchtime on day one of the meal deal trial. Office workers could snap up a chicken Caesar and bacon baguette, a packet of popcorn and a bottle of sparkling water for “Pret Deal” price of £7 — a £2.49 saving on buying the same items separately.
