I read this week that Costa is being sold.
If you didn’t know this (and I’m sure you do) Costa is owned by the Coca Cola Corporation, bought some years ago for almost £4billion from Whitbread, the little café started by the two brothers all those years ago that became the biggest convenience coffee provider in at least the United Kingdom, but is overseas too.
Coke can’t make money. In fact, they’ve lost a lot of money and are selling it for £2billion (that’s a £2billion loss, so someone is going to lose their head for that)
Costa sells convenience, not really very good coffee. Some people in Costa’s are nice, but really, it’s a sales machine selling adequate or barely adequate coffee at high prices in volume. It has self-service machines in every petrol station, kiosks, shops, everything to try to get you to consume as much coffee as possible, but all markets have a saturation point.
What Costa wanted is to make their money before the saturation point – they didn’t.
Starbucks are still making money, but they’re slightly different organisation making less. These guys sell convenience coffee, that is their job, even at £5 per cup.
The Old Wharf at Hickling is a family-owned, owner-operator business in, believe it or not, The Old Wharf at Hickling and is my favourite place in the world at the moment.
Cyclists find coffee shops and old cyclists like me who are not very good find coffee shops with cakes. They ride to it and convince themselves they’ve earned a coffee and a cake, and then they have it (even though they haven’t)
It has soul.
They have a loyalty card that they stamp with a little stamper, and they make sure they give you the free coffee.
They have ‘homemade’ cakes, which are extraordinary, but they’re consistent.
They do brilliant food and brilliant service, and they smile all the time. They recognise me now (only because I’ve been there far too often)
It’s in no way a chore to spend £8 on a coffee and cake at Hickling, in fact, it’s a joy.
You can buy (and sell) convenience, or you can buy soul, but it’s usually difficult to buy both.
There is a huge market for soul.
Blog Post Number- 4822
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