Pret a Manger customers have threatened to cancel their membership to its coffee subscription after the company announced a price increase. The coffee and sandwich chain has raised the price of its coffee subscription from £25 to £30 a month and relaunched as Club Pret.
It marks the second price hike for the popular service, where subscribers can get five coffees or other hot and iced drinks per day. The in-store subscription is redeemed around 1.25 million times per week, up by more than a tenth compared to last year, Pret revealed.
Pret said it has expanded Club Pret to also include 10 percent off its food, snacks and drinks. Existing subscribers will automatically become part of the new service and will see their monthly bill go up from June 5.
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When the coffee subscription launched in September 2020, it was priced at £20 a month and attracted a wave of consumers cashing in on the five-a-day offer during Covid. The coffee and sandwich chain had suffered declining sales as commuters deserted its city-centre locations during the lockdowns.
Introducing the all new (woohoo!) Club Pret! Join between 26 April and 3 May to be in with the chance of getting your subscription free for a year or free for LIFE. https://t.co/dgT24KjNw9
(Terms and exclusions apply. See https://t.co/tm1yWU4Yjn.) pic.twitter.com/wbuD8evVmM— Pret (@Pret)
Pret increased the price of the in-store coffee subscription to £25 a month in February last year. Chief executive Pano Christou previously said the business was forced to pass on cost inflation to consumers in the form of price rises.
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Club Pret is available in the majority of the chain’s 439 shops from Wednesday (April 26) and people can get 50 percent off the first month when they sign up. But some Pret customers are fuming with the changes and have threatened to cancel their subscriptions, slamming the rebrand as “dishonest marketing” and simply a “gift-wrapped price hike.”
Taking to Twitter, @imjamesbarr said: “I hate it when brands try to hide a price hike. It’s dishonest. Cancelling my subscription.”
@halap3n0 added: “This is extremely misleading, you’re pretending this is good news and trying to hide the fact that it’s a price rise. Not impressed, me and my wife are cancelling. Dishonest marketing.”
@sarahlane91 added: “Will have to monitor to see if it is still worth it. I am not sure this is the great thing you are making it out to be, it’s just a gift-wrapped price hike.”
@halap3n0 said: “No one wants the club. Also food has gone up more than 10 percent so pretending this is a deal is a joke, I’m making my own coffee in the office from now on.”
@JonnyWright3110 said: “There’s inflation, then there’s Pret inflation!!”
A Pret spokesperson said: “Last year the average coffee subscriber saved £600 through the Coffee Subscription, so with the new 10 per cent discount off our entire menu alongside up to five Barista-made drinks a day, we're expecting Club Pret members to be able to save even more.”
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