Talk:Pret a Manger

message: The name of the company was created as a play on the existing phrase "pret a porter", that is, "ready to wear".  This seems unlikely to me.  The French phrase "prêt-à-manger" already existed in the sense of "ready-to-eat" or "fast food" (it's a separate question whether the French phrase was modelled, in the French language, on an earlier "prêt-à-porter" -- that does seem likely).  Can someone can cite something showing that the company itself was consciously named as a play on the second phrase?  -- I deleted the assertion for now. --Kiscica 06:45, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: "We borrowed the Pret A Manger name from a boarded up shop in Hampstead and bought the title from the liquidators for £160," Sinclair confesses. from  here. orudge 14:36, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Origin of name

message: "In January 2001 McDonald's bought a 33% stake in Pret a Manger. McDonald's is often criticised for its high-fat fast food, exploitation of workers and for causing ecological damage."
McDonald's purchase is already mentioned in the article. The criticism corresponds to McDonalds, not Pret A Manger.
F15x28 19:03, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removed criticism 

message: The sandwiches are made early in the morning and stored in a refrigerator. Some consumers prefer the type of made-to-order sandwiches available from shops like Subway, and from many independent retailers.
Is this really a "criticism"? It's just personal preference. You might as well add "some consumers prefer to eat hamburgers, some like fish and chips, and others prefer to make their own sandwiches at home".
Personally I like the idea of just grabbing a sandwich and running with it, rather than fussing over 1023 different types of bread and fillings. Having said that, I always buy from Greggs rather than the far-too-expensive Pret a Manger. 217.34.39.123 12:06, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Personal preference, not criticism 

message: What does "well-abled" mean in "The staff in the recruitment centre are well-abled people and include lawyers"? I can find no such word. Was "capable" or perhaps "well-off" intended? — Paul G 14:50, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've often seen the word used in contrast to "disabled", but it certainly has no place in that sentence - unless it's supposed to be a criticism that Pret doesn't employ disabled people, but I doubt it. - IanYates 13:28, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Non-word "well-abled" 

message: After doing a Google search for references, I removed an unsourced assertion that Pret a Manger use trans fats in some of their products. This has been in the article before though, so is there a source? or is it just an urban legend?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Petecarney (talk • contribs) 19:39, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Question on trans-fat allegations 

message: What on earth does this sentence mean: "Recent attempts to expand into the Irish market have stalled due to the reluctance of the local baguette aficionado Crip to come on board."   What is "Crip" in what way is it a "baguette aficionado" ? Why would it need to "come on board" ?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.33.2.82 (talk) 17:20, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Irish Market 

message: This article opens badly and ends appallingly. i think instead of making amendments the person who wrote this should just wipe the board clean and start afresh. If not, I would urge wikipedia to delete this article.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.67.120.66 (talk) 14:29, 24 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  general comment 

message: After I finished laughing, I removed the bizarre caveat in the introduction: from "a UK sandwich retailer (its Italian shareholder sold its stake to an investment group)", to the more succinct "a UK sandwich retailer".  This sort of rubbish is the bane of Wiki, any mention of a nationality, particularly UK it seems, and we're into a world of bullsh*t.   Was Pret really X% an Italian retailer while it had an Italian shareholder?  Did the coffee get worse when they sold up.   Does it really help explain what Pret is to have a huge caveat about formerly having a foreign shareholder at some point?   Tjamesjones (talk) 19:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Italian Shareholder 

message: I founded it, it's exactly as the French would say it.  Jeffrey Hyman.
How is the name pronounced? does it resemble French "prêt à manger" or "Pret a mainger" in English?--Felix Folio Secundus (talk) 20:56, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I call it the former, but my dad has been known to call it the latter. 178.248.34.17 (talk) 10:20, 3 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Pronunciation

message: OK I'm the original founder, how can I validate the original history.  Jeffrey Hyman
I've had a go at tidying up this article, but note:
* it still contains a lot of unsourced material, particularly in what is now the History section
* a large proportion of the references are also from Pret's own publications, which is not ideal
* the overall tone is somewhat glowing (I can almost imagine somebody from Pret's HR department writing some of the stuff about corporate culture!)
In particular, I see from the talk above some mention of including material on the (un)healthiness of the food, which was not followed-up. A quick Google shows that concern of salt levels (e.g.) has certainly been raised in the UK press at least. However I am not sure if this is notable enough for inclusion in the article … thoughts? Alexbrn 09:40, 17 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Quality of this article

message: Is it true?  Anyone live in NYC?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.44.49.32 (talk) 01:52, 5 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Frog in the Salad story

message: Hi, I'm Jeffrey Hyman and I founded the first Pret A Manger.  There is absolutely no doubt that my sister Valerie Hyman Coined the term.  Probably in our living room.  She was a theatrical costumier with a large premises in King Street Covent Garden, it was called The Costume Centre.  She also founded The Dance Centre in Floral Street Covent Garden.  We are both alive and well.  There was no Pret A Manger to my knowledge when we founded the company.  There was certainly no company by that name.  I also saw the story about the boarded up shop and the £160.  I think the £160 is very very unlikely.  Would the liquidator have worked for that!  Was it borrowed, I don't think so.  They bought the whole enterprise out of voluntary liquidation.  The liquidator David Ruben remembers the day well, as one of their team fell down an open trap door in the shop. Integius (talk) 15:16, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Comments from Hyman

message: The founders name in the body doesn't match the ones in the side bar?
Integius (talk) 16:49, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Founders

message: An IP editor changed the founder from Hyman to Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham.
When I reverted their edit pointing out that Hyman as founder was backed up by a current source in the article they in turn reverted my edits again, without comment.
I have no strong opinion on who founded Pret, and I can't tell if the current source for Hyman meets the criteria as a WP:RS, so I'll just back away from this now.  But somebody with more knowledge of the matter may want to look into this.  --Fëanor (talk) 22:11, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: As the IP editor in fact stated in their original edit summary, there are numerous reliable sources to be found that name Metcalfe and Beecham as the co-founders. I honestly don't know what sources should be given more weight. Maybe just include all three in the infobox, since that most closely resembles the sum of sources (I know, WP:SYNTH), and let the reader check out the history if they want more details? -- Fyrael (talk) 22:17, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
replies: text:  AIUI (based on the article's History section, with the caveat that it may not be based on reliable sources) it's mostly a matter of perspective on what you consider the founding moment:  Hyman founded the initial single store, that went bancrupt, and as part of the bancruptcy Metcalfe and Beecham took over and grew Pret into what it is today.  That would also explain why there are more articles referencing M&B nowadays: they had a bigger impact on the modern history of the store.  I can see the arguments both for picking Hyman or M&B as starting point for the history of the current Pret, personally I'd be fine with either.  I just think the current state of the article is undesirable as it's become self-contradictory: The infobox now lists M&B, while the History still lists Hyman. --Fëanor (talk) 22:33, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
replies: text:  I am a student writing about Pret and its impressive history. This articles history section currently reads like Hyman's autobiography. This is not a desirable situation. Pret a manger is one of the largest fast food retailers in Britain. It has stores all across the world and basically re-invented the modern lunchtime. The company deserves more respect than to have its wikipedia page begin with a 5 paragraph rant about one man who created a business under the same name that went bankrupt after 18 months. An impartial writer with real knowledge about the first years of Pret should write a proper history section, and the "founder" section should be updated accordingly.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.187.170.250 (talk) 22:55, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
replies: text:  If you were able to find such an expert and they supplied reliable sources to complement any information they added, I'm quite certain nobody would have a problem with that. -- Fyrael (talk) 03:21, 27 August 2016 (UTC)

text: Is there anyway to lock the founder section? Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham obviously founded Pret a Manger. Just google it. Many reputable scholarly and news sites show hundreds of articles about them. It also seems a pointless effort from the user who keeps changing it. Will they be writing to The Times, Daily Mail, Guardian and the Telegraph too to tell them their writers and editors made a mistake? The only source on the internet that indicates Hyman as the founder is Wikipedia, which conveniently is the only one without an editor. The continuous vandalism should stop. Cos02125 (talk) 23:43, 26 April 2017 (UTC)
replies: text:  Given that Cos02125 (talk) has admitted that he was instructed by Pret A Manger to come and "correct" the "vandalism" on this page, I think it's not hard to see where there are problems with his edits. Jeffrey Hyman has already shown that he created Pret A Manger brand and opened the first Pret A Manger sandwich shop in Hamstead London - as verified by the UK's own Companies House records that he referred to. Clearly with the news that Pret A Manger are looking to float on the NYSE one might see why the company would want to 'clean up' anything that doesn't reflect their version of history. However, as Hyman himself said here, there really can be only one founding moment of Pret A Manger as a sandwich shop. The fact that the Hampstead shop and Hyman had no part in making the chain what it is today is of little relevance when viewed in terms of who and when it was founded. Hyman was a humble man who saw no reason to shout about the fact he created the first Pret A Manger shop, and now that he's dead I suspect the sandwich giant will have little trouble in peddling their 'cleaner' version of their history. However, just because fewer people know about the humble beginnings of Pret A Manger, that doesn't somehow make Hyman's establishment of the name and the first shop any less true. Wikipedia isn't here to polish corporate stories, it's here to provide the truth. Poshcoffee (talk) 08:15, 14 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Founder: Hyman or not? 

message: Preserving here by providing this link; pls see edit summary for rationale. K.e.coffman (talk) 19:23, 23 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  self-cited & promotional content 

message: and  have both just been blocked as sockpuppets.
: See Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Cos02125  Andy Dingley (talk) 10:40, 20 February 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sockpuppets 

message: Not sure if this is worth mentioning in the article:  "Fast casual restaurant Pret A Manger closed its stores in Chicago after the unexpected death of co-worker Dante Colloly." Is it reflective of overall company culture, or an isolated local incident? --Theodore Kloba (talk) 13:35, 2 June 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not. Colloly died in a motorcycle crash on the way to work, has nothing to do with the workplace environment, Herostratus (talk) 20:21, 26 April 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  News story about Chicago Pret locations response to employee death 

message: On Season 4 Ep56 of game show Tenable a contestant claimed to have vandalised this page and that “after three years, it finally got changed back” – a bit of an exaggeration here – the edit he was referring to was added 31 October 2013 and rendered not visible by another edit less than half an hour later. Visibility was accidentally restored 27 November 2014, but it was removed 19 July 2015. As luck would have it he lost. EdwardUK (talk) 15:26, 16 May 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  un-Tenable vandalism 

message: :The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 
The result of the move request was: not moved. (non-admin closure)  ❯❯❯ Raydann(Talk) 06:55, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Pret a Manger →  – Pret themselves capitalise the 'A' in the middle. E.g. this press release. (Note also the footer on that press release page.) A bit iffy (talk) 14:23, 3 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Requested move 3 February 2023 

message: I am homeless and have been using Pret on the King's Road in Chelsea all day for the past several weeks I have been occupying myself by doing calligraphy, yesterday the store manager informed me that he had received an email from head office saying I was no longer allowed to do this, this because a customer had made a complaint. Plenty of other customers liked what I do as I don't bother other customers in fact I don't engage into conversation with anyone unless they talk to me first. Customers are always buying me coffee and sandwiches.  When I told some people what had happened they then told me that they would boycott Pret, I've asked them not to do this. One person makes a complaint and I get told that I can't carry on and yet I know people who go into Pret every day and use the internal internet and use pret as an office 2A01:4C8:104B:DE9:1:1:5F35:6E11 (talk) 12:38, 30 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Homeless people and Pret