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Costa Coffee sold


spunko

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2 minutes ago, dgul said:

How come when you're abroad pretty much every coffee shop is an independent, while when you look at the UK most are part of a chain?

Same as the rest of the High Street really. 

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13 minutes ago, dgul said:

How come when you're abroad pretty much every coffee shop is an independent, while when you look at the UK most are part of a chain?

Could it be rent and being able to offshore tax?

About 6 years ago went to the pub on a Sunday with my ex, it was absolutely dead ... then went into Starbucks and it was heaving with drones playing on the internet drinking  coffee flavoured sugary milk ... twas then i realised England's changed and having a skin full on a Sunday is no longer socially acceptable!

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Not really that bothered to be honest. I would much rather support my local independent and thankfully we have a really good one in town. My local costa is always grotty, not a place I would want to sit in. Mum gave me some Costa gift cards last Xmas (bought in NI), which couldn't even be used in England. Customer services in England were unwilling to change them and we even knew someone on the inside at head office. Hopefully, more people wake up and support their local SME!

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sleepwello'nights
38 minutes ago, spunko2010 said:

Same as the rest of the High Street really. 

Yes that's something that occurs to me whenever I go abroad. Tying this in to the recent sale of House of Fraser, its high rents that I think is the major factor in the demise of their stores. Online sales will have diverted income from the High Street but they will still capture sales with their online channel so the growth of online will only have changed the mix of sales not caused a decline in total sales.

In the past retail groups were fairly well insulated from rents as they tended to own large property portfolios. A stores like House of Fraser with large sites were able to dictate footfall so didn't necessarily have to relocate when town centres were redeveloped or enlarged. Once private equity got involved the strategy changed.

I know I explored the possibility of retail premises back in the 90's. Rents were too high to make it viable for the business I had in mind and that was for secondary locations in a major town. 

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2 hours ago, dgul said:

How come when you're abroad pretty much every coffee shop is an independent, while when you look at the UK most are part of a chain?

Go to Warsaw there is a Costa every few hundred metres. Literally. There are more costas than on the entire rest of the planet combined (feels like anyway.) 

I do go in costa but can't say I am keen. Considering business rates how can you make profit on a bit of flavoured hot water. You cant, hence the ludicrous up selling into expensive flat latte moccachino corte whatever instead of just coffee. 

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3 hours ago, Funn3r said:

Go to Warsaw there is a Costa every few hundred metres. Literally. There are more costas than on the entire rest of the planet combined (feels like anyway.) 

I do go in costa but can't say I am keen. Considering business rates how can you make profit on a bit of flavoured hot water. You cant, hence the ludicrous up selling into expensive flat latte moccachino corte whatever instead of just coffee. 

I don't go to any of the coffee chains as none of them seem to be able to supply a nice cup of tea.

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Costa was probably a real gold mine. It's always heaving in any one you pass. I don't drink coffee generally, so don't drink in there.

It's all about the brand. Easy name to remember. The characteristic dark red colour of the shop front. You instantly know it's a Costa from a mile off. You generally know what you are getting. It was onto a winner.

McDonalds is the worlds most successful restaurant by numbers of outlets, not for the quality of food. But they got the formula right to geometrically scale up the business globally.

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Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe a big factor in McDonald's success is buying the land for their restaurants which they then rent back to their franchise holders?

Holding the franchise to a few McDs is, apparently, a license to print money.

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Greggs the bakers sell coffee. If you go before 11am you can get a roll and bacon and coffee for £2. I bring my own reusable cup to burnish my SJW halo.

 

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To be honest I don't go into Costa coffee branches much, but I do use those expensive self-service machines more than I care to admit. It still amazes me that larger brands like Starbucks haven't made any real attempt to move into that space here. The massive problem with high street coffee shops is that it takes bloody AGES to get served. I was in a Starbucks service station earlier in the year and it took a good 10 minutes to get my coffee. Those machines take about 25 seconds from start to finish, there is very little staff cost besides repair and emptying, and that is very important to a business. They should have spun the Express machine part off and kept that IMO.

However I don't know about the inner workings of those machines, I suspect there's a significant revenue split between Costa (or possibly the sub-let owner if it isn't Costa, they are just whoring out their branding) and the retail outlet.

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I went to a very picturesque fishing village in Malta over the summer....lovely old architecture ect....except for a big fuck off Costa Coffee on the corner!

(which to be fair, I bought a coffee in, cause the seats outside had a nice view)

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I just popped into one as I'm a big fan of their open toilets to non customers policy. 

Relieved now. xD

And I may have also utilised it for bank note purposes too. :D

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Greggs coffee is total no go for me now, had one too many cleaning fluid americanos with my two quid bacon roll deal. That leaves an impression. But what do you expect for two quid right 

Costa is acceptable enough, I’m no coffee snob but I think I appreciate a decent BEAN in the stovetop at home, I prefer Starbucks taste but it just takes too long, and the one nearest to me has this unbelievably miserable old BINT in there which is the icing on the shitcake of waiting fifteen minutes for a coffee and a whatever and paying five six quid for it, to be greeted by her dour fucking mug and manner, no thanks, last time I went in there I was queuing for around six or seven minutes before I decided to turn heel and not go there again. Was a relief. 

 

costa express, way too variable down to which skanky outpost it is hunkered down in. Some of those things could have all sorts of junk in the pipes / behind the scenes. 

 

macdonalds coffee is actually pretty good, at least it’s consistent.

 

costa works for me when I’m hitting the road for a few hours, also those wild bean cafes you see in the BP stations are good , but I usually visit the same one so could be down to local culture and working practice who knows.

but yeah I never used to drink the stuff until a few years ago now I’m clearly addicted so that can’t be progress 

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Well I'm not paying £3/4 for a lattee despite having a penchant for milkshakes that they remind me of.

We've got a Nespresso at work that have to say is pretty easy and imo tastes good.  Think a lot of pressure is going on in the machines with good results.  25p for a cuppa is my upper limit!

I'm definitely no coffee snob but consider the difference between instant and real night and day.  When I used to use the home machine or the aeropress I would generally buy the cheapest coffee going for my occasional coffee.  Those hulking machines that grind and growl taste fine to me but a bit cumbersome for my tepid coffee habit.  Recently got into those coffee bags as there so easy to use.  However I bought one brand Lyons I think that had almost double the bags for the same cost but were super watery.  Presently got the Sainsbury's ones - really tasty black goodness - but damn way to much hassle. .. No you don't just dump the bag in water like tea you have to rip the top of the bag off, balance some kind of cardboard structure on the edge of the cup then slowly pour water in bag, wait and repeat.  

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On 01/09/2018 at 19:48, 201p said:

Costa was probably a real gold mine. It's always heaving in any one you pass. I don't drink coffee generally, so don't drink in there.

It's all about the brand. Easy name to remember. The characteristic dark red colour of the shop front. You instantly know it's a Costa from a mile off. You generally know what you are getting. It was onto a winner.

McDonalds is the worlds most successful restaurant by numbers of outlets, not for the quality of food. But they got the formula right to geometrically scale up the business globally.

Yeah. Apparently after a demerger they expected a stand alone Costa to have been trading at around 10 times earnings. If that had been the case, I’d have piled in.

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8 hours ago, spunko2010 said:

 I was in a Starbucks service station earlier in the year and it took a good 10 minutes to get my coffee.

I like the sandwiches from Subway. However it's not worth the wait if there is more than one person in the queue. I'm sure the passage of time is slower when waiting in a queue... 5 minutes in a queue feels like ten minutes....

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On 01/09/2018 at 10:41, dgul said:

How come when you're abroad pretty much every coffee shop is an independent, while when you look at the UK most are part of a chain?

cos they're protected

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Whitbread don't brew anymore they seem to be invested heavily in hotels. Now that they soon won't own Costa they'll be taken over by any of the plethora of American hotel chains. A 350 ? year old British business gone. 

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16 hours ago, The XYY Man said:

Really...?

Try the Peterlee branch on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

It's a big square one with massive un-tinted windows - so you can see right in from 3 sides of the building - and if there are ever more than 10 in there, then there's a bus-load of special-needs folk in town for the day.

Now being one of the few fuckers in Peterlee who actually has to work Monday to Friday, I thought maybe it was just 'cos I visited at the wrong time of the week.

But no - I've been on holiday for the last three weeks - and can assure you it's exactly the same Monday to Friday.

I see no difference between this over-priced shit-hole, and the always empty kebab shops being labelled as paedophiles and money-launderers on another popular thread on this forum.

Two sides of the very same coin from where I'm watching...

 

XYY

 

 

You live and work in Peterlee and then spend your holidays there too? It must be a lovely place so I'll add it to my list of possible bolt holes in the far north.

Or is it that your ankle tag has a limited range? 

 

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1 hour ago, lid said:

A Yorkshireman I met on a job put me onto these a few months back and I haven't looked back 

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/MCDONALDS-COFFEE-HOT-DRINKS-LOYALTY-STICKERS-630-PACK/263914750812?hash=item3d728b835c:g:TsEAAOSw1d9bahTV

Works out at 11 pence a cup which is dosboddertastic 

Works out at 0p a cup if you grub the stickers off discarded cups in the street.

Decent scam though, credit to the lad

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3 minutes ago, The XYY Man said:

 

:)

We stopped going away after our last such holiday in 2012.

We have had what I think are called "stay-cations" in the current vernacular ever since.

Reasons...?

We're both smokers.

Hotels and pubs don't like us anymore.

So they don't get any more of our money.

Train and planes don't like us anymore.

So they get fuck-all either.

Strange beds. We don't like them.

So we sleep each night in ours.

And of course we're a pair of old cunts.

But we went out every day in the car, and explored and enjoyed immensely the beauty of Co Durham, Northumberland and North Yorkshire.

And have both returned to work fresh and lively with fully-charged batteries. Unlike many of our colleagues - who are still fucking whining about airport delays, missing luggage and Delhi-belly.

So yes, you should indeed make this most marvelous and wonderful place your bolt-hole...

;)

 

XYY

Flying, and airports, are a pain in the arse. No big loss for you there.

I put Peterlee into the 'instant google street view' site to see the sights and it took me to some random fucking house....this anywhere near your gaff:

https://www.instantstreetview.com/@54.762286,-1.3291,39.65h,-2.74p,1z

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thats where peters and lee used to live in peterlee. I can tell its not XYY's gaff cos it hasnt got a run down double sized outside toilet, or a selection of ginger rugs hanging drying on the line.

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2 minutes ago, The XYY Man said:

That is a fairly typical Peterlee ex-council house Joe. Would currently cost between 45K and 85K depending on the part of town, and the number of bedrooms. That's not what you'll see the vendors asking for them in many cases mind, but that's what the ones that go are actually selling for.

I don't actually live in Peterlee itself, but in an adjacent ex-colliery - and my abode is a traditional two-bedroomed terraced.

The immediate area is a bit of a shit-hole. But there are well-paid jobs on Peterlee's North-West Industrial Estate - 1.5 miles from my door - and you can commute to and from some very nice and exclusive areas with tens of minutes if you don't like it a bit rough. (Me and Mrs XYY don't mind that at all...!!!)

Peterlee - it's the place to be...

;)

 

XYY

 

I don't get why it isn't more common for Londonistan folk to just say 'fuck it' and move up north somewhere like that. Buy a wee house outright within 10 years. Beats dodging acid attacks on the way to the office to pay of your 400K mortgage!

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