[goatforce5]

Pret a Manager (normally shortened to plain ol' "Pret") is a premium sandwich/coffee chain based in the UK. They have stores in Manhattan and other places too. I miss it desperately.

Pre-packaged sandwiches are normally considered a bit ghetto and nasty. Pret used to (maybe they still do... I dunno...) print the recipe for the sandwich you were eating on the side of the box so that you realised you were getting good quality ingredients and a fair amount of effort went in to what you were eating.

Seems as though Pret realised what you were buying was not so much the product itself, but the convenience.

[waqf]

I'm confused by your post because:

1. Are you USian or UKian (or neither)? Pre-packaged sandwiches have much greater acceptance in the UK. Heck, M&S sells them.

2. Don't pre-packaged sandwiches already have ingredients printed on them? If you're drawing a distinction between ingredients and recipe, how does one more than the other guarantee quality of ingredients?

[goatforce5]

1) Neither. But i've lived in both. From what I saw, Pret really upped the ante with the quality of their sandwiches, and others followed as best they could.

2) This picture answers it better than I tried to explain it:

http://www.psfk.com/2007/01/pret_gives_it_a.html