This extortionate egg sandwich could be the reason Kamala Harris loses the election
The astonishing cost of Pret A Manger's basic egg sandwich - available from its store yards from the White House - might just explain why Kamala Harris could lose the US election.
Pret's egg salad and arugula sandwich costs more than $10 at her local branch, while a salmon, avocado and quinoa salad is just 20 cents shy of $20. In the UK, the equivalent sandwiches and salads are less than half the price.
Pret, which is expanding rapidly across the US with 42 branches in New York alone, seven in Washington DC and its first stores now opened on the West Coast in Los Angeles and three in Chicago.
But it is the huge gulf in prices for the same sandwiches, salads and soups on one side of the Atlantic and the other that gives just a clue as to why the incumbent vice president might not make it all the way.
The cost of living crisis threatens to derail her presidential bid. Donald Trump might be controversial for many reasons, but voters trust him on the economy.
Pret is coy about precisely why its prices are so markedly higher in the US than the UK .
In Pret's branch on K Street and 17th Street, a stone's throw from the White House, its egg sandwich was priced with sales tax at $10.45 (close to £8) while the same sandwich in a central London store close to Buckingham Palace was just £3.50 (a little over $4.50).
The same is true of a range of its other comparable meals.
The tuna and cucumber markup is even higher. In DC, it costs $11.55 (£8.70) with sales tax compared to just £3.50 in the UK store.
The half sandwich which costs $7
Half a tuna sandwich - what the Washington store calls 'slim' - costs a staggering $7 for a meal that can be eaten in three mouthfuls.
In the UK there have been myriad complaints about the soaring cost of a Pret lunch .
In the US, meals out have skyrocketed - New York is now notorious - there is a general shrug. Exorbitant prices feel like the norm.
Inflation in the US is now down to 2.5 per cent – a marked reduction from its high of 9 per cent in June 2022.
Although the UK's inflation rate is now slightly lower, at 2.2 per cent, Americans did not experience Britain's seven months of double-digit inflation, which ended in October 2022.
The Federal Reserve's decision last week to cut interest rates by half a percentage point suggests the bank believes the steep inflationary period that began in the US after the Covid-19 pandemic is now over.
Although prices in the US are now rising at a slower rate, consumers are still feeling the effects of high inflation during Joe Biden's presidency.
Both Ms Harris and Trump have pledged inflation-busting policies which are both derided by economists and popular with voters.
Economy is top concern for voters
Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said: "The economy is the number one concern for voters.
Prices are on average 20 to 25 percent higher now than when Joe Biden took office.
In addition, the prices of many goods that are really important to people, like the price of food, are up even more than that in many instances.
"That tells you what you need to know about why people are feeling down on the economy. People are not feeling good and this is not super complicated. People are feeling the squeeze here."
Mr Strain added: "I was just in London and bought a Pret sandwich and I was shocked at the price: it was nothing. It was £3, whereas here it's £8 or £9."
For Ms Harris, the solution is her pitch for an "opportunity economy," including a federal ban on "price gouging" by grocery stores that Trump described as "communist".
His own campaign has promised to stop federal taxes on tips received by hospitality workers and overtime pay, and to cap the annual interest rates on credit cards at 10 per cent.
In Ms Harris's local Pret store last week, customers were a little aghast at the prices.
'It's very expensive, but what can you do?'
Traffic in the store was sparse. One shopper, who did not wish to give his name, said: "It's very expensive but what can you do? If you are hungry, you have to eat.
"But everything is very expensive, not just Pret. I don't know what Kamala's plans are for the economy but I hope whoever wins does something."
Staff in the store said some people did complain but most were happy to pay for a freshly-made sandwich.
Jenifer Vega, 23, serving behind the counter, said: "It's a health food. Sometimes people are like, 'oh that's too much', but most are happy to buy here."
Angel Antonio, 20, her co-worker, added: "There's nothing special about paying $11 for a sandwich. That's what things cost."
In an official statement, Pret said: "The UK and US markets have very different operational costs and supply chains."
America is wealthier than the UK and the GDP per capita shows greater spending power on the US side of the Atlantic.
Latest figures show the US has a GDP per capita of a little over $80,000, 60 per cent higher than the UK's compared to $50,000.
But there's no doubt the squeeze is being felt in the US post-Covid, just as in the UK the cost of living crisis, coupled with turbulent times in Downing Street, saw the Conservatives thrashed in this summer's UK election.
Bill Clinton's political adviser Jim Carville declared in 1992: "It's the economy, stupid" and for all the serious concerns about Trump's erratic behaviour and criminality, the US might well turn to him and against Ms Harris for an economic refresh.
The $10 price tag on the egg mayo sandwich might just be what unseats the Democratic ticket.
