The Economist May 17th 2021 pp20 |Business|Workplace “Pret Index”
Image source worldcoffeeportal.com
Read The Economist for all detail
Summary provided by 2244
What’s the Pret index you say? Pret is a coffee/bakery/sandwich network of shops in the U.K. and they’ve decided to share relative sales data with The Economist to help gauge the pandemic retail recovery. Pret Manger's retail regions include Yorkshire, Suburban London, Regional Towns, London’s West End, Manchester, London train stations, Scotland, Regional train stations, London’s financial districts-including the The City and Canary Wharf, and London airports-Heathrow and Gatwick. The transaction volume index is set to 1.0 for pre-pandemic January 2020.
Location January 2020/Week Ended March 4, 2021/Week Ended May 6, 2021/Comment
Yorkshire/1/~0.6/~1/Has a population >5.0M with Leeds as the largest city ~ 200 miles north of London. Many significant companies were founded or are based in Yorkshire
Suburban London/1/~0.7/~0.85 close to pre-pandemic levels although consumers appear to be staying near to home
Regional towns/1/~0.4/~0.8
London’s West End/1/~0.45/~0.6 London’s shopping area. “Nonessential stores were allowed to reopen April 12.
Manchester/1/~0.4/~0.55/
London train stations/1/~0.4/~0.55/still lagging but in “slightly better shape than airports”
Scotland/1/0.25/0.5/”Business in Scotland has languished, reflecting tighter lockdown rules than in England
Regional train stations/1/~0.15/~0.35/
London financial districts/1/~0.3/~0.35/”Official U.K. government guidance is that those who can work form home should do so until June”
London airports/1/~0.12/~0.18/Many flights are grounded and “Britons [are] barred from taking overseas vacations or nonessential trips until at least May 17.”
Prior to the pandemic “Pret a Manger Ltd…sold about 200,000 lattes and 100,000 croissants a week to Britain’s office workers, shoppers, and commuters…”. So far in the pandemic retail recovery, Northern England and the suburbs have climbed close to pre-pandemic activity for Pret wit, in order of diminished return, regional train stations, the London financial districts and airports lagging while those regions/entities wait for further lifting of constraints.