Pret closing Boston and Chicago locations

NYC, Philly and DC remain open for now.

[www.bostonherald.com]

Very sad for the many nice employees I encountered on these shops. So many of their locations were aimed at serving downtown business workers. The news that Google will be having employees work from home through July 2021 makes one think that very few people will be returning to downtown professional offices anytime soon.

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Don't know about Pret, but I agree with the observation that very few people will be returning to downtown professional offices any time soon. I'm in Dallas and before COVID did lots of OSI visits in downtown and surrounding professional office. Since COVID i've done maybe 5. AND every one of them have been one-on-one interviews wait only one or two employees in the office. Everyone else were working off-site.

Their shopping program has probably been discontinued too.

They were one of my faves. Even though they are still open in NYC, I belueve MSF is likely right about their ms program.

It makes you think about how tied the local economies were to eateries of all types. Except for those few places that were 100% take-out/delivery, I dont think many restsurants can survive on take-out and they have to cut the number of tables by more than 50%. And theyre being ripped off by fees charged by delivery companies--which I had no idea how rogue they were:
[www.sltrib.com]

A lot of people had to survive on reduced wages. Eating out was not an option. The restaurant owners and workers were affected and so were the suppliers.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

There are lots of QSR options in the central business districts of major cities, so competition is stronger for fewer customers. Even for shoppers, Pret was a bit of a hard sell. Some of that was due to the MSC. I deleted their app a few months back but will reinstall it in order to see if my treats are still there. The beverage ones weren't supposed to expire until 2025 and 2026.

I think the hourly employees will be okay. If they were able to get unemployment, they fared better over the last few months with the PUA that was added on top of regular unemployment compensation. Also, there has been an increasing number of restaurant job openings recently, so similar jobs should be available. Not sure what things will look like for the better-compensated shop managers.

I only did this shop once at an airport and found it a bit cumbersome. I wonder if they have closed all airport locations as there is even less traffic there right now than on the outside. I heard a report about a donut shop recently and they are really hurting having lost the traffic in the mornings of people on the way to the office picking up a coffee and donut. I really think there will be an oversupply of office space for a long time as many companies have discovered the cost savings of having reliable people work from home. I, for one, hope some of the excess office space can be turned into badly needed SRO housing in areas like mine where there is a real shortage of lower cost housing. Office space is costly so maybe some of the older buildings would work for this.

what is an OSI visit?

I did one pret shop. Awful assignment. Awful food. No loss.

OSI On-Site Inspections. Where you go to mostly offices or professional Locations.

@Rousseau wrote:

I did one pret shop. Awful assignment. Awful food. No loss.

The employees and suppliers might disagree when they don’t have any money in their bank accounts.

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Pret closing Boston and Chicago locations

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