Carrie Bradshaw had to be striding around Manhattan rather than Minneapolis in her Manolos, while Carine Roitfeld and Emmanuelle Alt needed the backdrop of cobbled streets and Parisian cafes to achieve their cult status.
But as the pandemic kept us out of offices for months on end, it shifted our mindset and major companies including Twitter and Facebook are now telling employees they might be able to work from home indefinitely.
And it’s not just Pret that’s worried: one of the biggest casualties has been central London's shopping streets, which traditionally make their money from lunch-break impulse buys and an after-work browse.
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