Pret customers’ anger after new female employee is spotted wearing a ‘kiss me’ official badge
COFFEE chain Pret a Manger has been slammed online as "kind of gross" after a female employee was spotted wearing an official badge with the slogan: "I Am New, Kiss Me!"
The badge was spotted pinned to a staff member's shirt at a Bishopsgate store by a stunned customer who took a photo and shared it on Twitter.
Bella Mackie first spotted the badge and then told her followers on the social network: "Come on @Pret, it’s kind of gross to make new female employees wear this badge".
She later added: "So bleak. Imagine the comments."
The chain has since vowed to investigate "as a matter of urgency", adding that no staff members are forced to wear any badges with this message but that they are allowed to personalise their own.
Her tweet has since sparked a backlash on social media towards the chain, with one person writing: "It's not just gross. It's totally unacceptable - doesn't matter the gender."
Another person wrote: "What?! That's really inappropriate".
A third simply wrote: "Icky", while another said: "Promoting harassment.
"Such a shame.
"A good company's standards plummet."
Labour MP Harriet Harman also shared the image, writing: "Oh no! This cannot be for real! If it is, @Pret, stop it immediately! I love Pret but hate this!"
But someone else pointed out the badge was personalised by the employee wearing it, saying: "You must not have a laugh or freedom to choose your own badges in case twitter gets offended on your behalf."
Pret management replied Bella on social media, saying: "Hi Bella, we definitely don't ask our employees to wear badges with this message. Could you please let us know which shop it was so we can investigate?"
They later clarified: "Our teams can order badges with names on and can personalise them. Thanks for letting us know which shop it was and for making us aware of this in the first place.
"We will look into it."
Pret A Manger People Director Andrea Wareham told The Sun Online: "We do not ask our employees to wear badges with this message. Our teams can personalise their own name badges; on this occasion, the badge has been used inappropriately.
"We have already taken action and will be ensuring that only names are used on badges going forward."
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