It’s not often that a cheese and pickle sandwich turns heads, but this week Pret a Manger’s “posh” version grabbed headlines after a tweet decrying its £7.15 price tag went viral.
Although that included VAT for eating in, the social media post shone a spotlight on the rising cost of lunch on the go, as the soaring cost of ingredients has been passed on to consumers.
But amid the gloom there is some good news for hungry office workers and travellers: a Guardian analysis of lunchtime meal deals has found that cut-throat competition between retailers means prices have typically gone up by less than the average rate of food inflation. The catch is that in many cases you have to sign up to the company’s loyalty or membership scheme to get the lowest price.
The Guardian carried out a detailed analysis of lunchtime meal deal prices in February 2022, and we repeated the exercise this week to see if they had risen in line with the 13.6% food and drink inflation shown in official figures.
At Tesco, shoppers could in 2022 get a sandwich, snack and a drink for a flat rate of £3, but now those who buy a meal without a Clubcard will find themselves shelling out £3.90 – 30% more. However, with a Clubcard, the increase is 13.3%, to £3.40.
At Boots, it’s a similar story. While 18 months ago you paid £3.99 in central London and £3.39 elsewhere, without the retailer’s Advantage Card you are charged £4.99 or £3.99 – an increase of up to 25%. However, with the scheme, lunch costs £4.50 or £3.60 – increases of 12.8% and 6.2% respectively.
The Co-op’s regular price is unchanged at £3.50, although to pay that you now have to be a member, which involves paying a £1 joining fee. Non-members pay £4 – a 14% rise.
Sainsbury’s has held its price at £3.50 and says that it has not pared back how many products shoppers can choose from. But in common with some other retailers, it has launched a new tier of pricier “premium” offerings. For £5 you can now grab a poké pot, a pack of bao buns or a Mexican burrito bowl, instead of a simple sandwich.
With more people back in offices and taking trips, the “grab and go” lunch market is big business – figures from analysts Kantar show the lunchtime food-to-go market was worth just under £21bn over the past year – and retailers are battling to win over price-conscious shoppers during the cost of living crisis.
Jim Winship, director of The British Sandwich & Food to Go Association, said it had been a challenging time for retailers in this sector.
“There have been staff shortages, a whole raft of ingredient inflation and shortages, [while] lots of them have sites in city centres where people are only there once or twice a week now. These have all been problems since the pandemic,” he said.
Winship said price inflation did appear to have stabilised, but border checks set to come in on EU goods could mean more increases were in the pipeline.
Outside meal deals, prices have been rising more quickly. At the Co-op we visited this week, the cost of a Ginsters Cornish pasty when bought alone had jumped by 40% from £1.50 to £2.10, while an M&S bottle of Coca-Cola had gone up by 24% from £1.85 to £2.30.
At Pret a Manger, where there is no meal deal, customers can buy a £30-a-month membership which cuts 20% off the headline price of everything it sells.
It is understood that the average increase across its entire menu over the past year has been 16%, although for non-members two of its most popular products have gone up by more than that.
Looking at a typical London outlet, a chicken caesar baguette that cost £4.55 in September 2022 currently costs £5.50 – an increase of 21% – while a pole-and-line tuna baguette has increased in price by 18% from £3.60 a year ago to £4.25.
A Pret spokesperson said: “At Pret, our freshly made sandwiches are prepared by people in our kitchens every day, not by machines or in big factories, like in many supermarkets and other chains. We are proud of the quality and freshness this gives our products, but it does mean we face different cost pressures to most other food businesses.”
