Pret A Manger is to scrap its subscription service from September, instead replacing it with a more expensive alternative.
Dubbed “too good to be true” by some customers, the offer saw subscribers get five free coffees or an alternative a day for £20 a month.
Launched in 2022 to boost business after the pandemic, reports of offices using cards saw a clampdown on who could use it while the price recently went up to £30 a month with 20% off other items.
But from September, "Club Pret" subscribers will instead get 50% off up to five barista-made drinks a day for £5 a month until March 31, 2025, and 10 pounds a month thereafter.
The 20% reduction on other items will also be scrapped.
"Four years and over a quarter of a billion coffees later, we have decided that it’s time to rethink how it works," said Clare Clough, Pret’s UK and Ireland managing director.
Pret "never really got comfortable with" dual pricing across its food products, Clough told Reuters.
Crunching the numbers, the Standard said that for someone who drinks a maximum of five a day, the new scheme would cost £260 more per month, or more than £3,000 extra per year.
For someone drinking one coffee a day, the monthly cost doubles to £67 with one coffee every two and a half days the only way to save money, calculates the newspaper.
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