3. How is Pret A Manger using 'mystery shopping' as a way of controlling the marketing effort? Pret A Manger Holdings (based in London) operates a quick-service restaurant chain with about 330 sandwich restaurants in the UK, the US and Hong Kong (as at the beginning of 2013). ‘Pret A Manger’ originates from French and means ‘Ready to Eat’. All the restaurants are owned by Pret A Manger, and the company is not using the franchise concept. Its menu features handmade sandwiches (including baguettes and wraps), salads, sushi and desserts, along with teas and coffees.

Fresh ingredients are delivered each morning to the shops, and leftovers are donated to local charities in the evenings. Co-founders, former surveyor Julian Metcalfe and his friend Sinclair Beecham, opened their first sandwich shop in 1986. In May 2018 JAB Holding Company (a Luxembourg-based investment fund belonging to Germany’s wealthy Reimann family, owning the consumer giant Reckitt Benckiser) announced that they would acquire Pret A Manger from Bridgepoint, which took over the company in 2008. When the deal (£ 1.5 billion) had been done during summer 2018 every one of Pret A Manger’s 12,000 employees were gifted a £1,000 payout to thank them for their hard work in getting the popular sandwich shop chain at the current value.