Pret(ty) Good - For The Consumer
Last month Pret in the UK announced a new “YourPret Barista” subscription service. For £20 a month you can have up to 5 hot drinks a day, every day of the month. The only restriction is that the drinks have to be 30 minutes apart.
First month, at least during the launch, is free.
As a certified coffee addict and as a fan of Pret’s filter coffee (99p - we shall return to that later) the whole proposition seemed attractive and risk free - you can cancel at any time.
Signed-up and then added the emailed QR code to my wallet and good to go.
It’s now been 4 weeks since I started to use the service and it is worth noting my nearest Pret is about 2 miles away, I’ve not changed my behavior in any way and I often work close to home.
That is borne out by the fact I’ve used the subscription 15 days out of the last 28.
In that time the minimum drink number in a day has been 1 and the maximum has been 3, something I did on 3 occasions on busy days in Mayfair and Soho in London.
Summary of my drinks;
11 x cappuccino
8 x hot chocolate
5 x macchiato
2 x espresso
1 x filter (there’s that filter again, more about that later)
In total I ended up drinking coffee to the value of £66.84.
Clearly this is working for me, if not for Pret.
But let’s dig a little deeper.
Although the number of days I used Pret did not change because of the subscription and nor did the number of drinks I had on the various days what did completely change was the drink type. Up until this month’s trial I only would buy filter coffee at Pret.
Those 27 drinks would have cost me £26.73 and because the ingredients and time spent making them is less than the more milk based and time intensive drinks I DID consume, they would have cost Pret less to create.
On the plus side Pret will get money up front and keep my loyalty (they had it mostly already other than Starbucks when I travel or am close to home).
But there is another quite bizarre aspect to this very welcome offering and one that is, I am sure, the opposite to what Pret envisaged.
Because the transaction is so easy with the deviated QR code, in this COVID age of simplicity it actually has resulted in me buying less non-drink items. In fact, I have bought NONE. Usually, I would sneak in a bar of chocolate or a croissant. But the thought of doing an additional transaction and therefore complicating the process puts me off. Sure I could think of this as a food transaction with a drink but it’s now stuck in my mind as the place to go for a drink and not food. (I would do anything to see their data).
It seems silly but it’s fact.
I love this offering but I think it’s priced too cheaply for Pret - £30 would seem more realistic AND they should consider this enhancement.
“YourPret Barista” - as is
”YourPret Barista Plus” - free drinks plus it’s linked to your debit / credit card. Swipe the QR code and get your free drink, buy anything else and you get a 10% discount and it’s deducted.
Value and convenience for the customer and a little bit more opportunity for Pret.
Without a product evolution I can’t see this lasting for too long sadly.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Izatt is a brand consultant living in London and founder of Mission Critical, a highly focused and curated weekly briefing for time poor and information hungry decision makers and THE FIRST, a monthly briefing containing 31 inspirational insights. Mission Critical is a digital product delivered via his Estonian Consultancy business.
You can email Mark here and read about his recently published book ‘Mission Critical - 101 tips to survive and thrive at work in the office, on the move and at home’.
