The staggering cost of a simple egg sandwich, available from Pret A Manger’s White House stores, could explain why Kamala Harris could lose the US election.
While Pret’s egg salad and rocket sandwich costs more than $10 at its local branch, its salmon, avocado and quinoa salad is just 20 cents cheaper at $20. In the UK, equivalent sandwiches and salads are less than half the price.
Pret is growing rapidly across the US, with 42 locations in New York alone, seven in Washington DC and currently three stores on the West Coast in Los Angeles and Chicago.
But the disparity in prices for the same sandwiches, salads and soups on one side of the Atlantic and the other offers a clue as to why the incumbent vice president may not be able to go all the way.
The cost-of-living crisis threatens to derail the presidential race. Donald Trump may be controversial for many reasons, but voters trust him on the economy.
Pret has been coy about why its prices in the US are so significantly higher than in the UK.
At Pret’s branch on K Street and 17th Avenue, a stone’s throw from the White House, an egg sandwich costs $10.45 (about £8) including sales tax, while at a central London store near Buckingham Palace the same sandwich costs just £3.50 (more than $4.50).
The same applies to other similar types of food.
The tuna and cucumber margin is even higher. In DC, it costs $11.55 (£8.70) with sales tax, but in the UK store it’s just £3.50.
Half sandwich costing $7
The price of a half tuna sandwich, which Washington grocery stores call a “slim,” is a whopping $7 for a meal that can be eaten in three bites.
There have been numerous complaints about the rising cost of Pret lunches in the UK.
Eating out has skyrocketed in the US – New York has a bad rap now – and there’s a general shrug. Exorbitant prices feel like the norm.
Inflation in the US has now fallen to 2.5%, a marked decline from the peak of 9% in June 2022.
While the UK’s inflation rate is currently slightly lower at 2.2%, Americans did not experience the UK’s seven months of double-digit inflation ending in October 2022.
The US Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage point last week shows that the bank believes the period of high inflation that began in the US following the Covid-19 pandemic is now over.
Although prices in the U.S. are now rising at a slower rate, consumers are still feeling the effects of high inflation during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Both Harris and Trump have promised anti-inflation policies that have been derided by economists but popular with voters.
Economy is voters’ biggest concern
“The economy is the number one concern for voters,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
Prices are on average 20 to 25 percent higher since Joe Biden took office.
And it turns out that the price of many goods that people really care about, such as food, has increased in many cases by much more than that.
“This tells you what you need to know about why people are feeling bad about the economy. People are not feeling good, and it’s not a very complicated thing. People are feeling the pinch here.”
Mr Strain added: “I was just in London and bought a Pret sandwich and was shocked at the price: it was nothing. It was £3 whereas here it’s £8 or £9.”
The solution, according to Harris, is her proposal for an “opportunity economy,” including a federal ban on “price gouging” at grocery stores that Trump has described as “communist.”
In his own campaign, he promised to halt federal taxes on tips and overtime pay for hospitality workers and to cap annual interest rates on credit cards at 10 percent.
Customers at Ms Harris’ local Pret store last week were left slightly shocked by the prices.
‘It’s very expensive, but what can you do?’
Traffic at the store was light. One customer, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s expensive, but what can you do? If you’re hungry you have to eat.
“But everything is so expensive, not just Pret. I don’t know what Kamala’s plans are for the economy but I hope whoever wins does something.”
Store staff said some people complained, but most were happy to pay for a freshly made sandwich.
Jenifer Vega, 23, who serves food behind the counter, said: “This is healthy food. Sometimes people say ‘this is too much’ but most are happy to buy from here.”
His co-worker Angel Antonio, 20, added: “There’s nothing special about paying $11 for a sandwich. That’s what everything costs.”
“The operational costs and supply chains of the UK and US markets are very different,” Pret said in its official statement.
The United States is richer than the United Kingdom, and its GDP per capita suggests that the United States has more spending power on the other side of the Atlantic.
According to the latest figures, the US has a GDP per capita of just over $80,000, 60% more than the UK’s GDP per capita of $50,000.
But there is no doubt that the US is also experiencing difficulties after Covid, just as the cost of living crisis and the turbulent period in Downing Street in the UK led to the Conservatives being defeated in the UK elections this summer.
“It’s the economy, stupid,” Bill Clinton’s political advisor Jim Carville said in 1992, and for all the serious concerns about Trump’s erratic behavior and crimes, the United States may well turn to him and Ms. Harris for an economic revival.
The $10 price tag on an egg and mayonnaise sandwich could be what brings down the Democrats.