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Coffee, Coffee .. Everywhere!!
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
I took my first proper walk around central London today after hardly venturing into it inthe last two years and pretty shocked at the number of coffee shops.
I was supposed to meet someone in a Starbucks and had a hard job trying to find the right one - there were Starbucks everywhere. I walked into one an dthe manager told me there was 20 alone in Liverpool street area!!
Was also shocked at the prices £2 to £3 for a coffee??
Do you think it's worth paying that much for coffee and which ones do you like??
I was supposed to meet someone in a Starbucks and had a hard job trying to find the right one - there were Starbucks everywhere. I walked into one an dthe manager told me there was 20 alone in Liverpool street area!!
Was also shocked at the prices £2 to £3 for a coffee??
Do you think it's worth paying that much for coffee and which ones do you like??
0
Comments
I was reading an article about coffee houses, and it's such a competitive market that the various chains (eg Starbucks) are buying up shops everywhere, no matter how much it costs (even in London at London prices), to gain market share for the future. It's like a war, only with a frothy head and better smelling.
Mr_Wobble
I like the coffee shop in friends .. I also went to some bars in London like Tiger Tiger - was surprised at how empty they were - a few years ago you'd have to queue to get in.
Also the Buzz Bar was totally shut - two years ago it would have litteraly been buzzing.
Mr_Wobble
I like cafedirect coffee
Mmmm, coffee.. need some...
Costa wasn't particularly good, and certainly not cheap.
The canteen did great coffee, though...and in paper cups
Its not. Makes perfect business sense.
If Starbucks open 15 shops within a three-mile radius, then most shops will be Starbucks. Any smaller chains or independents will be forced out of business by all the myriad of Starbucks forcing away their customers. Therefore the only coffee shops will be Starbucks.
When the other chains are gone, half the Starbucks shops will close. A lot run at a slight loss, just to force out competition.
This reminds me of Stage Coach Buses - when they'd move their operations to a new area they'd give people free bus rides until the competition went out of business and then start charging for the rides once all their competition had died off.
However I think most people like the layout of some of these coffee places more then the products they sell, and I think "Friends" has probabaly been the best marketing for coffee shops they could have hoped for - I don't think I've ever seen a single episode of Friends without them going to the coffee shop, although their cups look way bigger.
I'm sure many independant coffee shops serve better and cheaper coffee BUT their decor is usually very much more like a greasy spoon place.
I just saw a unit with a "to Let" sign in the window - it's located inbetween the platforms of my local train station which takes people directly to Euston and Gatwick and was thinking that would make an excellent location for a coffee shop.
I went into town today and noticed that we now have Costas. What`s even worse is that it is in a brand new Ottakars! A coffee shop in a book shop, what could be more sucky than that?!!
Hot chocolate with thick creamy irish cream
And all this is within five minutes of me. Not to mention at least three chippys, four bakeries, three greengrocers, a couple of butchers, a fishmonger, late opening convenience stores, and dozens of other useful shops, oh - and even a branch of my bank and a cash machine. Damn good location I'm living in at the moment. I hardly ever need to go into town.
Mr_Wobble
there is a book shop right near the cutty sark station with a costa coffee inside... always had a couple of people there when i was in it... makes pretty good sense to me!
If I was running a bookshop having steaming cups of coffee near my books would not make any sense at all!
Anyway, my objection is that it is so bloody.... ELLEN. Ack. The "lifestyle" set should be shot in my opinion.
That's really new though, it wasn't there about 2 years ago, only after all the docklands development moved in.
I have no problems with coffee shops in bookshops personally. As long as it's Costa, i actually don't like Starbucks very much.
When I visited America I went to Starbucks almost every day, there was so many everywhere!
I do like the atmosphere too, and the hot chocolate is lovely!
How much is a coffee in the USA? I bet a lot cheaper then in the UK. When Starbucks first started out the price of coffee was quite high but it's been falling and falling and they've just kept the prices of their coffee the same so making bigger profits.
Has anyone tried roasted coffee beans with peanuts, tastes pretty nice, was given it once.
How exactly does that work?
Are the peanuts and coffee beans ground up together and then used? I would have thought the peanuts to be too insoluble but it sounds nice.
LOL .. no not in a coffee I mean just to eat.
Roasted peanuts but with a few coffee beans here and there tastes really nice.
Ahhh riiiiiiiiight!
Well that made me look pretty damn silly!
But one day I'll make a coffee/peanut hybrid and then you won't be laughing...