Is the High Street doomed

[Badgers]

Tastes great for free

Good to hear you did not pay as there is a LOT of blood on the hands of that company.

 

[ska invita]

Good to hear you did not pay as there is a LOT of blood on the hands of that company.

whats the story there badgers? im not aware

 

[Badgers]

whats the story there badgers? im not aware

Pret are majority owned by Jab Holdings who are owned by billionaires Albert Reimann Sr. and Albert Reimann Jr.

A family who built the concentration camps for the Nazis and profited very very well from it.

Germany's second richest family with wealth over £30bn

Reimann family firm reveals Nazi slave past in Germany

The Reimanns - big investors in popular consumer brands - discover dark links to the Nazi period.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reuters | Breaking International News & Views

Find latest news from every corner of the globe at Reuters.com, your online source for breaking international news coverage.

uk.reuters.com

They also own or have majority shares in Kunty Cream Doughnuts and some others

 

[Marty1]

Fuck Pret and those chains

Ive never been to one - is it like a posh Greggs?

 

[Marty1]

As the high street crumbles:

Amazon to create 7,000 UK jobs

The online retail giant is recruiting at more than 50 sites in response to growing customer demand.

www.bbc.co.uk

Top 3 rated comments from that article:

 

[BristolEcho]

Ive never been to one - is it like a posh Greggs?

I've always thought of it as a place people go to when they don't want to go to Costa or Starbucks for ethical reasons as Pret present themselves as being a bit more ethical in general. Could be wrong though.

 

[Badgers]

I've always thought of it as a place people go to when they don't want to go to Costa or Starbucks for ethical reasons as Pret present themselves as being a bit more ethical in general. Could be wrong though.

See my post above about the ethics

 

[BristolEcho]

See my post above about the ethics

Yep! Wasn't aware of the takeover either.

I'm sure Pret always had posters in the window saying how well they treated staff etc.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I've always thought of it as a place people go to when they don't want to go to Costa or Starbucks for ethical reasons as Pret present themselves as being a bit more ethical in general. Could be wrong though.

see post #873...

 

[Badgers]

Giving away a few old sarnies to food shelters is better than some places do but stinks of a PR thing. Maybe I am just cynical

 

[Saul Goodman]

Giving away a few old sarnies to food shelters is better than some places do but stinks of a PR thing. Maybe I am just cynical

Companies like this are rarely magnanimous benefactors. I doubt this one has broken the mould.

 

[BristolEcho]

Giving away a few old sarnies to food shelters is better than some places do but stinks of a PR thing. Maybe I am just cynical

I think you are realistic not cynical.

 

[hash tag]

See my post above about the ethics
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But how far do we take the Nazi sympathisers bit? I have read the Henry Ford was to the right of Hitler, then there is Volkswagen, Porsche and Hugo Boss who all helped with Hitlers war effort. L'Oreal is a massive organisation. I gather their founder was at least a sympathiser.

 

[hash tag]

Changing tack slightly, there is much speculation about Waitrose linking up with Amazon....thatll be Waitrose struck off my list

 

[TopCat]

My local high street seems to be doing ok. Lots of outdoor eating and drinking. People are hanging out locally.

 

[rubbershoes]

Changing tack slightly, there is much speculation about Waitrose linking up with Amazon....thatll be Waitrose struck off my list

Isn't it ocado rather than amazon?

 

[ska invita]

Isn't it ocado rather than amazon?

Ocado split with Waitrose to deal with M&S iirc

 

[Marty1]

Changing tack slightly, there is much speculation about Waitrose linking up with Amazon....thatll be Waitrose struck off my list

Yeah, something to do with Deliveroo which Amazon have a stake in so would use to deliver groceries.

I honestly think that in some point in the near future it will be very hard to escape buying from Amazon’s online ecosystem.

 

[ska invita]

Yeah, something to do with Deliveroo which Amazon have a stake in so would use to deliver groceries.

I honestly think that in some point in the near future it will be very hard to escape buying from Amazon’s online ecosystem.

That's the great thing about capitalism, the choice it creates

 

[Badgers]

But how far do we take the Nazi sympathisers bit? I have read the Henry Ford was to the right of Hitler, then there is Volkswagen, Porsche and Hugo Boss who all helped with Hitlers war effort. L'Oreal is a massive organisation. I gather their founder was at least a sympathiser.

I think building concentration camps is a bit more involved than being a 'sympathiser'

 

[Marty1]

That's the great thing about capitalism, the choice it creates

Every civilisation, was built on the back of a disposable workforce

 

[seeformiles]

Some people don't have the time/energy to make their own sandwiches or coffee. Which is absurd but there you have it. Helps create more shit jobs at least.

The time & energy excuse is totally absurd - the sort of excuse a lazy twat who’s never made a sandwich in their life would use. I worked with one such chap who was forever overdrawn and complaining about money worries on one hand while spending over £20 a day on crap from the canteen on the other. He couldn’t see the connection between the two at all. Prime Subway/Pret/Starbucks customer.

 

[Marty1]

And now - Costa Coffee looking to shed jobs.

Costa Coffee warns up to 1,650 jobs are at risk

The coffee chain says there are still "high levels of uncertainty" as to when trade will recover.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Artaxerxes]

My local high street seems to be doing ok. Lots of outdoor eating and drinking. People are hanging out locally.

Covid has the potential to do the high street a world of good once it’s gone. All those office workers now working from home popping down to get local products rather than fucking about on the commute. The coffee shops nearby might get more clientele than mums with strollers.

There’s a local market near mine every Monday, happening for centuries. Fuck knows why it’s not changed day since then but wfh means I can potentially get to it rather than wasting a day off to visit somewhere barely worth a day off and get some shopping done outside of relying on Tesco or Sainsbury’s.

It’s a bold new future and Boris wants us all to get back on that tube and have our heads in a strangers armpits at 7am and the guzzle a pret as it’s the only coffee shop at the station.

 

[hash tag]

I think Amazon have a small stake in Deliveroo. The talk was Amazon themselves delivering food for Waitrose, complete with a few hour delivery time.

Amazon create 7000 new "jobs". I wonder how many will be real jobs and how many will be Zero hours

 

[Humberto]

Yet they demand loyalty, love and enthusiasm for nothing in return. Just wrong on several levels.

 

[two sheds]

"create" jobs should probably instead be "replace" jobs since high-street jobs will likely be lost because amazon avoids paying tax which makes them cheaper at the expense of retailers who do pay tax.

 

[UrbaneFox]

I don’t mind a Pret Jambon Beurre, well i bought one once, and then recreated at home ever since

I like that one. If forced to go in Pret.

 

[NoXion]

How crazy do you have to be to queue for a cold sandwich, and pay as much for it as you would for the ingredients to make a load of them.

Does it really blow your mind that some people are willing to pay for the labour and other costs brought about by the convenience of being able to just grab something and go? There's a nice little Italian place almost literally just over the road from my place, who make sandwiches nicer than any I could be bothered to make. I can be in and out of that place in minutes, I've got better things to do with my time and energy than make sandwiches. For sure, buying them from Gaudio's costs more money than making them myself, but I can afford it.

 

[Pickman's model]

It’s the people who get daily takeout coffee that get to me. It’s at least once a day and you know most get it twice a day but you can just boil a kettle for a fraction of the price.

Yeh but hot water doesn't give you that caffeine buzz