It's strange isn't it? Only six months or a year ago, the news that Pret A Manger is today offering its customers free Wi-Fi would have really made our day.
Simon Kerry, Head of IT for Pret said: "We are delighted to be able to offer Wi-Fi as a free service to our customers. Everything we do at Pret is about delighting our customers; whether it's freshly made sandwiches, 'Just Roasted' coffee, or great customer service."
As it is - while we of course welcome the news of free Wi-Fi access through The Cloud in Pret - six months on, most of us have easy, very cheap internet access via our iPhones or dongle-ified netbooks, so we don't tend to have so much 'disconnect anxiety' when we are away from a free or unsecured Wi-Fi network.
Crayfish and Wi-Fi
Still, it's nice to know that the next time we are wandering aimlessly around town, we can always pop in to Pret for a crayfish sarnie and a quick ten-minute email check.
The idea of sitting down and working for longer than ten minutes in Pret is not really that appealing though, as they tend to be pretty hectic places where people are rushing in and out to grab a take-out. Not really the most comfortable or stress-free environment for concentrating on those all-important PowerPoint or Excel docs for the AGM.
Sixty Pret stores are already offering the free service, with all 130 across the UK set to get the free Wi-Fi treatment by mid-December.
