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Tue, May 16

Pret a Screw me Over

I'm one of those people who can't function without her coffee in the morning. The number one way to get me out of bed is to lure me with a latte (a trick that J has learned to use every Sunday when I try to sleep in.)

During the work week, the one thing I love and look forward to in the morning is my cup of steaming hot Medium Roast organically grown coffee from Pret a Manger, the coffee shop (previously owned by McDonald's) downstairs from where I work. I work hard in my relationships, and had half a year fostering Pret friendships with the cashiers and management. I was disappointed when all my Pret buddies slowly started to disappear, being dispensed to "other locations" . I suspect they have been shipped off to the so-called "organic farms" and are being forced to do field labor there.

I was forced to make new friends with unfamiliar faces. People who didn't give me free coffee anymore. I noticed a subtle, darker change in the Pret atmosphere. They've been playing a lot of moody Sade songs from the speakers. And I've noticed that the people behind the register have started leaving and getting replaced more and more frequently.

Losing friends, fun morning banter, and my coffees on the house was bad enough. But I still had one more perk, to which all Pret frequenters were entitled: The Coffee Punch Card. Yes, I USED to get three punches for every one cup of coffee with the old Pret employees, which changed when the newcomers arrived. Even still, I go so often that I get those nine punches quite easily. Often within a week (for twice a day coffee weeks). The great thing about the "free" coffee you got with the card, is that it could be ANY kind of coffee, even "special drinks". For example: a super large capuccino with a little bit o chocolate sprinkled in.

This morning, I had just finished reading an article in last week's New Yorker about the truth about organically grown food (Paradise Sold: What are you buying when you buy organic?) and was on my way to do my small part--to buy my morning coffee from the organically grown coffee beans that Pret claims to use. I slapped down my card, and was told, quite coldly from one of those new and unfriendly Pret cashiers, that "we will no longer be accepting punch cards from this location."

I was steaming even more than the cup of coffee I'd placed on the counter. I felt like a dumbass for forking over $1.50 for a small cup of coffee every morning and some afternoons, but at least I knew that with every purchase I was contributing to a thrifty cause (if not an earth-minded one, with the whole buying organic thing): that free capuccino. The one perk in my low-paying publishing world that requires that I need more than the average person's amount of caffeine to get through the day: the payoff that some of that caffeine would be FREE.

No longer. So folks, I might just become a new patron of the Dunkin Donuts across the street. You know. Just to prove a point and all. I am SO sure the bigwigs at Pret will miss my business.

Posted by lexzog at May 16, 2006 12:00 AM

Comments

Dunkin Donuts!

We'll make a Red Sox fan out of you yet!

Posted by: suileabháin at May 31, 2006 09:57 AM

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