Customers are heartbroken over the announcement. (Picture: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Furious Pret customers vow to cancel coffee subscription after ‘ridiculous’ change
If you’re a member of Club Pret, you might want to sit down before reading this, as we’ve got some rather upsetting news to share.
The high street coffee chain is changing up its subscription in a few months, and you can kiss goodbye to those free drinks and cheap food.
Pret is scrapping the £30 a month fee which currently gets people up to five hot or iced drinks per day and a 20% discount on food. Instead the new membership scheme will be £10 a month, and in exchange for the cost, subscribers will only get 50% off five drinks each day.
The change is set to come into effect from September 2024, and for the first few months existing customers and new members will pay £5 a month for the membership. This will increase to the £10 fee as of 31 March 2025.
But there is a small bit of light amongst the darkness — the chain is slashing the price of several popular items from July 18, including its signature Arabica Filter Coffee which will be available for 99p instead of £1.80.
And the classic All Butter croissant is also being reduced to £1.99, instead of the usual £2.30 price tag.
Club Pret launched in 2020 and the subscription has been described as an ‘offer that seemed almost too good to be true’ by Pret UK and Ireland’s managing director Clare Clough.
In a message to customers explaining the reason for the change, she said: ‘It’s almost four years since we introduced our coffee subscription at the height of the pandemic, and I’m proud of the role Club Pret has played for us and our customers since.
‘Four years and over a quarter of a billion coffees later, we have decided that it’s time to rethink how it works.
‘So, the current subscription benefits will end in September and be replaced by a new and simpler offer.
‘Club Pret subscribers will get 50% off up to five Barista made drinks a day for a reduced monthly fee of £10 – and just £5 for existing and new subscribers until 31 March 2025. This also means we will remove the 20% discount on food and get rid of dual pricing across our food products – something we never really got comfortable with.
‘We know this is a change. But with Club Pret subscription, our coffees, teas, Coolers and iced drinks will continue to be the best offer on the high street, and at a much more accessible price than the £360 a year people have to pay for the current scheme.
‘Given the majority of our customers are not Club Pret subscribers, our priority now is to focus on better value for everyone.
‘By making these changes, we are underlining our commitment to providing better value for all our Pret customers, as well as the Pret quality and service you’ve come to know and expect.
‘I am extremely grateful for the ongoing loyalty of all of our customers and I hope to see you in our shops very soon.’
This statement has done little to appease Pret customers though, with many taking to social media vowing to cancel their memberships.
He posted: ‘Changing your subscription to £10 a month and no food discount when your prices are ridiculous anyway and only 50% off your hot drinks!! Have a word, I will be cancelling as I think many others will be!!! Shame on you.’
@BeatriceSEM joked: ‘Pret breaking hearts across West London this morning…’
‘It’s a very sad day for coffee lovers,’ wrote @amyallison_xo, as @RicRodriguez_UK branded it a ‘terrible, terrible decision’.
Some claimed the new membership offer would offer ‘awful value’ for money. Journalist Thomas Mason posted: ‘It’s not great value, it’s a price increase! Under the current subscription, you can get up to 150 coffees a month £30. At £5 and 50% off, you’d be lucky to get 12 coffees per month for the same £30.’
Others have said they will be cancelling and signing up for LEON’s Roast Rewards subscription instead, which costs £25 per month and includes give barista-made drinks, and 20% off the breakfast and all-day food menu.
Customers can redeem one coffee per hour, but the food discount can be used as frequently as liked. The rewards are available through the app or web ordering, but not self-serve kiosks.