Street latte jolt as FiDi workers return

Latte sales are soaring again in lower Manhattan as financial pros, from top lawyers to clerks, finally return to their Wall Street offices, according to data from cafe chain Pret À Manger.

Sales volume at Pret À Manger locations in the Wall Street-Tribeca area reached a pandemic-era high last week, according to Bloomberg.

To be sure, Pret’s sales in downtown New York are still only 45 percent of pre-pandemic data, but sales jumped 15 percent from the previous week.

In Midtown, where Pret À Manger has 15 stores, sales were up 11 percent during that period.

Sales aren’t quite at their pandemic-era high in that part of town, but at 49 percent pre-pandemic sales, it’s near the levels reached earlier this summer.

“I think we will still see a good trend over the next month or two in New York, and my sense is that it will be slightly more of an upward trend than in London,” Pret’s chief executive, Pano Christou, told Bloomberg.

“New York’s recovery just seems to be three to six months or so off of London,” he added.

Pret sales in London have rebounded sharply and are almost at pre-pandemic levels.

The latte lift in Manhattan is occurring as some employers stuck to September return-tooffice plans. At Bank of America, most employees were expected to be back at their desks after Labor Day, while last week, Citigroup said New York-based workers must return to the office at least twice a week.

And execs at JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have been vocal about wanting staffers back, but so far, are not mandating it.