Yes
If some people want a Waitrose nearby. They believe it will keep their property at a good price. This is a fallacy. You find Waitrose in areas that are not posh. West Ealing has a Waitrose. That is not posh. The car park is always full.
It may or may not be posh but its product range and pricing certainly are.
When we lived on the border of Shepherd's Bush/Chiswick, we sometimes drove to the West Ealing Waitrose as (as that time anyway) it was the nearest branch.
Our local Aldi is frequented by people who drive very expensive cars and put their shopping into MandS bags. We aren't posh enough for a Wsitrose. Our nearest is 25 miles away.
Yes
If some people want a Waitrose nearby. They believe it will keep their property at a good price. This is a fallacy. You find Waitrose in areas that are not posh. West Ealing has a Waitrose. That is not posh. The car park is always full.
It may or may not be posh but its product range and pricing certainly are.
@Hugal meant the area is not remotely posh, despite the presence of a Waitrose.
Our local Aldi is frequented by people who drive very expensive cars and put their shopping into MandS bags. We aren't posh enough for a Wsitrose. Our nearest is 25 miles away.
At one time the Sheffield Waitrose was a strange outlier, well to the north of any others. I believe this is no longer the case.
There must have been a point where the Morrisons southward march crossed the Waitrose forward positions...
Booths is partly the reason they struggle further north - Booths is a long-established firm and pretty much the equivalent.
Booths are very good for bottled ale, of all things, or used to be. There are only 27 of them, mostly in the NW. Most of Yorkshire and all of Durham and and Northumberland are Booths free. I think there must be more to it than Booths. But this is historical; Waitrose has made it to Newcastle upon Tyne
Waitrose is 10 minutes walk from my house so very convenient for me as I do not drive; I can just stroll there with a shopping trolley. And it’s great for buying ethical food.
Back to coffee shops... I'm not sure how it is developing in the UK, but around here it is essential for the shop's survival to have a drive-through lane where you have your coffee served at the window. (I was going to say a drive-through window, but the smart comments were too predictable). All cars have multiple cupholders, so this is expected. A few years ago Starbucks sniffily said that they would never have drive-throughs, as they wished to develop communities. They all have drive-throughs now. I have never bought coffee at a drive-through. It is idiotic to drink coffee while driving in traffic, and I actually have a perfectly good coffee pot at home that is always full or just about to be filled, at minimal expense, so I may have a mug before I leave and after I get back from wherever I am going. If I need it on the road, then I probably need a break too, so I go somewhere where I can sit at a table for fifteen minutes or so.
The exception here is a small, unpretentious chain here called Coffee Culture that does exactly what Starbucks said they would do. No drive-through, good coffee, quite decent baked goods, and a comfortable atmosphere, so that's where I meet my Lebanese friend once a week to have Middle Eastern politics explained to me.
Drive-thru very rare for a coffee shop here. If we want that we go to McDonalds. Coffee shops - even chains - are primarily for a sit down and a rest with a drink.
There's an Unlucky Fried Kitten sharing a carpark with a Costa near here. Only the Kitten has a Drive-Thru.
Drive through coffee shops are becoming common at motorway services in recent years, for the benefit of passengers in cars - because only an idiot would be driving and drinking at the same time.
In the Glasgow area there have been a few applications for drive through coffee shops successfully fought against by the local communities. So that trend towards drive through coffee shops is there, but not popular with the local communities these are forced onto.
In Uncommon Ground in one of the Cardiff arcades. They have a one hour laptop policy. You can only use a laptop for one hour of work.
The coffee is great and is a local independent
Drive through coffee shops are becoming common at motorway services in recent years, for the benefit of passengers in cars - because only an idiot would be driving and drinking at the same time.
I can't imagine commuters where I live giving up drinking during their morning drive. Or eating breakfast, for those with long commutes. Most people are driving alone to work, and the drive-thrus are definitely for them.
Drive through coffee shops are becoming common at motorway services in recent years, for the benefit of passengers in cars - because only an idiot would be driving and drinking at the same time.
I can't imagine commuters where I live giving up drinking during their morning drive. Or eating breakfast, for those with long commutes. Most people are driving alone to work, and the drive-thrus are definitely for them.
I used to see it all the time on my commute to Mississauga. A good one, seen more than once, was a person balancing a bowl of cereal on the steering wheel while driving. The one that gave me some satisfaction was seeing someone in the mirror approaching too fast at a traffic light. His cardboard coffee cup exploded in his face when he hit the brakes and crushed it against the steering wheel. The door opened and he dropped the remains on the road.
Commuting and driving habits and conditions are different here, as I daresay they are across various US States. You've got a lot more space than we have for a start.
I remember seeing an American visitor raving excitedly online about being able to walk round central London easily. I imagine it wouldn't be so easy in whichever US city she came from. It's easy enough to walk around Manhattan but I imagine it would be different in some Mid-Western or Californian cities.
I've never forgotten passing someone coming the other way through the back streets of Newbury with a copy of The Newbury Weekly News open on their steering wheel - yes, I could read the masthead through their windscreen! What's more, back then, it was a broadsheet!
I hope they pulled that stunt in sight of a plod before they commodes with someone...
Drive through coffee shops are becoming common at motorway services in recent years, for the benefit of passengers in cars - because only an idiot would be driving and drinking at the same time.
If I visited a motorway services, my first port of call would be the toilets, not a drive through coffee place
Drive through coffee shops are becoming common at motorway services in recent years, for the benefit of passengers in cars - because only an idiot would be driving and drinking at the same time.
If I visited a motorway services, my first port of call would be the toilets, not a drive through coffee place
Me too. I make tea at home, and drink it before I leave. I could do the same with coffee if I liked the stuff. Simple biology suggests that I'm more likely to encounter the need to urinate before I am to encounter the need to drink more tea.
Although I suppose for the people ordering double whip caramel iced sludge bombs or whatever it is they get from starbucks, they're getting something they couldn't make at home.
When I have an early start in the morning, I need to eat breakfast and drink tea first. Yes, this means I have to get up even earlier by half an hour, which is unpleasant, but I wouldn't feel awake enough to join Ruth's commuters without having first had breakfast.
I don't think @Alan Cresswell 's "idiot" characterization is reasonable. Taking a sip of a drink is a comparatively minor distraction, and can be timed to occur at times when the driver has a clear view, and can reasonably predict that they aren't going to need to take sudden evasive action. I don't think it's different in scale from changing the station on the radio, adjusting the cabin temperature, or any of the other routine things that people do whilst driving. Which isn't to say that drinking can't be done in a stupid way by idiots - I'm sure the chap who felt it reasonable to read a newspaper whilst driving would also find a stupid way to interact with his morning coffee.
Whenever I'm consuming anything in my car (which happens on long drives quite often), I am always aware that I might at any point have to drop whatever I'm holding in my lap so I can have both hands available. Which means that I choose the things that I might put in my hands accordingly.
Back to coffee shops... I'm not sure how it is developing in the UK, but around here it is essential for the shop's survival to have a drive-through lane where you have your coffee served at the window. (I was going to say a drive-through window, but the smart comments were too predictable). All cars have multiple cupholders, so this is expected. A few years ago Starbucks sniffily said that they would never have drive-throughs, as they wished to develop communities. They all have drive-throughs now. I have never bought coffee at a drive-through. It is idiotic to drink coffee while driving in traffic, and I actually have a perfectly good coffee pot at home that is always full or just about to be filled, at minimal expense, so I may have a mug before I leave and after I get back from wherever I am going. If I need it on the road, then I probably need a break too, so I go somewhere where I can sit at a table for fifteen minutes or so. .
I’m with you as far as coffee practice on the road is concerned… when I need to travel to your general part of the world for work I usually leave Toronto really early to try to avoid some traffic, and stop at a Starbucks somewhere off the QEW or 401 (depending on where I’m going) for breakfast and coffee. It sometimes feels like I’m the only person actually inside the coffee shop as everyone else drives by the window.
I have had Starbucks drive-by coffee but only when sharing a car with colleagues.
I’m finding that even the downtown (I.e., non-car-friendly) Starbuckses are increasingly grab-and-go kinds of places.
What this crap about in Starbucks where they ask your name so they can write it on the cup? I don’t k is why it annoys me, but it does
There are often several people waiting for coffee at the collection point. There could be several similar orders. Having a name makes it easier to ensure you get your order.
Except, that's not how it works. On Thursday I broke my rule from necessity, as the service station with EV charging available also only had a Starbucks. I placed my order, gave my name as asked, moved down the line to the service area and waited with a couple of others, they took their drinks and the lassie then came over with mine, confirmed it was an Americano and I took it away. The staff never used my name even after I gave it to them.
The main value of coffee drive-throughs is for exhausted new parents who can't avoid being on the road for some necessary reason. You desperately need the caffeine, but you simply can't face the prospect of getting the baby out of his seat, grabbing all his paraphernalia, dragging yourself into the shop and back out again, reassembling baby in seat and stashing paraphernalia again... And it's ten times worse if the baby is (finally!) sleeping. A drive-through means you don't have to do any of that shit, you can get your drug and wake yourself up long enough to visit the pediatrician or whatever.
Ghastly story. The survivors were terrified of cannibal islands...
Had I been Fremen and equipped, I would have cannibalized the scabs jumping the mile-long line at Starbucks yesterday by ordering their drinks online, while the rest of us living stiffs stood for half an hour waiting for ethernet ghosts seated near the pick up counter to receive their drinks. Had I not been so parched, and every other coffee shop's line out the door, too, I would have just kept walking.
Stabuck's disservice model was good, when no one could order in person. It needs to go, now.
The main value of coffee drive-throughs is for exhausted new parents who can't avoid being on the road for some necessary reason. You desperately need the caffeine, but you simply can't face the prospect of getting the baby out of his seat, grabbing all his paraphernalia, dragging yourself into the shop and back out again, reassembling baby in seat and stashing paraphernalia again... And it's ten times worse if the baby is (finally!) sleeping. A drive-through means you don't have to do any of that shit, you can get your drug and wake yourself up long enough to visit the pediatrician or whatever.
For real!
For menopausal women, as well, as sleep seems not regularly to be part of our lives anymore.
The main value of coffee drive-throughs is for exhausted new parents who can't avoid being on the road for some necessary reason. You desperately need the caffeine, but you simply can't face the prospect of getting the baby out of his seat, grabbing all his paraphernalia, dragging yourself into the shop and back out again, reassembling baby in seat and stashing paraphernalia again... And it's ten times worse if the baby is (finally!) sleeping. A drive-through means you don't have to do any of that shit, you can get your drug and wake yourself up long enough to visit the pediatrician or whatever.
That's when we use Mucky D's or the Unlucky Fried Kitten.
The staff never used my name even after I gave it to them.
But if they needed your name, they had it. And it's easier if they follow the protocol rather than guess at whether 8 other people will come in right behind you and order the same thing. Have you ever worked a job like this?
Some people have a Starbucks name, a name they use because folks behind the counter tend to trip over their real name or their real name sounds too much like other real names.
Some people have a Starbucks name, a name they use because folks behind the counter tend to trip over their real name or their real name sounds too much like other real names.
I have heard stories, probably apocryphal, of a customer giving their name as Spartacus, with predictable results. And of things like ‘Marc with a c’ resulting in ‘Cark’.
Church coffee is a drink sui generis (of its own kind). There is a lady who does coffee after midweek Communion at our place. The formula is always one smallish spoonful of Nescafe (shaken}, three-quarters of a mug of hot water, milk to taste. I once asked if I could have a little more coffee, and got a reproachful look and the reply 'It's awfully bad for you, you know.'
The staff never used my name even after I gave it to them.
But if they needed your name, they had it. And it's easier if they follow the protocol rather than guess at whether 8 other people will come in right behind you and order the same thing. Have you ever worked a job like this?
Church coffee is a drink sui generis (of its own kind). There is a lady who does coffee after midweek Communion at our place. The formula is always one smallish spoonful of Nescafe (shaken}, three-quarters of a mug of hot water, milk to taste. I once asked if I could have a little more coffee, and got a reproachful look and the reply 'It's awfully bad for you, you know.'
A whole spoonful?! That's generous for church coffee. 3 granules in your Berylware is more typical.
Drive through coffee shops are becoming common at motorway services in recent years, for the benefit of passengers in cars - because only an idiot would be driving and drinking at the same time.
If I visited a motorway services, my first port of call would be the toilets, not a drive through coffee place
Indeed. Or a sit-down one too, come to that. I resent paying over the odds for a cup of slop.
As a tight-wad I either take a flask of coffee or else a flask of hot water and a tea bag.
I have, very occasionally, had a coffee and a sticky bun at Strensham or Frankley Services but almost immediately regret it.
Church coffee is a drink sui generis (of its own kind). There is a lady who does coffee after midweek Communion at our place. The formula is always one smallish spoonful of Nescafe (shaken}, three-quarters of a mug of hot water, milk to taste. I once asked if I could have a little more coffee, and got a reproachful look and the reply 'It's awfully bad for you, you know.'
Church coffee is taken Very Seriously at every church I know of in my part of the world. I’ve never encountered instant at church. Many churches will only use Fair Trade coffee; we get ours from a local roaster.
The amount of time I spent in church staff meetings while we talked about the coffee ... so much of my life I'll never get back! And the last minister I worked for was an interim who thought the local tap water tasted bad, so we also had endless conversations about that. She swore up and down providing good drinking water was vital to getting someone good to agree to be the permanent minister.
The amount of time I spent in church staff meetings while we talked about the coffee ... so much of my life I'll never get back! And the last minister I worked for was an interim who thought the local tap water tasted bad, so we also had endless conversations about that. She swore up and down providing good drinking water was vital to getting someone good to agree to be the permanent minister.
That's serious - I know. We grow our own water at home, but at the church in town the chlorine in the water on a bad day can turn a pot of coffee into a witch's brew. The only cure for that is to fill the pot the night before and let the chlorine disperse.
Comments
It may or may not be posh but its product range and pricing certainly are.
@Hugal meant the area is not remotely posh, despite the presence of a Waitrose.
At one time the Sheffield Waitrose was a strange outlier, well to the north of any others. I believe this is no longer the case.
There must have been a point where the Morrisons southward march crossed the Waitrose forward positions...
Booths are very good for bottled ale, of all things, or used to be. There are only 27 of them, mostly in the NW. Most of Yorkshire and all of Durham and and Northumberland are Booths free. I think there must be more to it than Booths. But this is historical; Waitrose has made it to Newcastle upon Tyne
I am all for this as it improves the local supply of fresh fruit and veg - and coffee beans for that matter.
The exception here is a small, unpretentious chain here called Coffee Culture that does exactly what Starbucks said they would do. No drive-through, good coffee, quite decent baked goods, and a comfortable atmosphere, so that's where I meet my Lebanese friend once a week to have Middle Eastern politics explained to me.
There's an Unlucky Fried Kitten sharing a carpark with a Costa near here. Only the Kitten has a Drive-Thru.
In the Glasgow area there have been a few applications for drive through coffee shops successfully fought against by the local communities. So that trend towards drive through coffee shops is there, but not popular with the local communities these are forced onto.
The coffee is great and is a local independent
I can't imagine commuters where I live giving up drinking during their morning drive. Or eating breakfast, for those with long commutes. Most people are driving alone to work, and the drive-thrus are definitely for them.
I used to see it all the time on my commute to Mississauga. A good one, seen more than once, was a person balancing a bowl of cereal on the steering wheel while driving. The one that gave me some satisfaction was seeing someone in the mirror approaching too fast at a traffic light. His cardboard coffee cup exploded in his face when he hit the brakes and crushed it against the steering wheel. The door opened and he dropped the remains on the road.
I remember seeing an American visitor raving excitedly online about being able to walk round central London easily. I imagine it wouldn't be so easy in whichever US city she came from. It's easy enough to walk around Manhattan but I imagine it would be different in some Mid-Western or Californian cities.
I hope they pulled that stunt in sight of a plod before they commodes with someone...
Bollocks! Collided! FFS...
If I visited a motorway services, my first port of call would be the toilets, not a drive through coffee place
Me too. I make tea at home, and drink it before I leave. I could do the same with coffee if I liked the stuff. Simple biology suggests that I'm more likely to encounter the need to urinate before I am to encounter the need to drink more tea.
Although I suppose for the people ordering double whip caramel iced sludge bombs or whatever it is they get from starbucks, they're getting something they couldn't make at home.
When I have an early start in the morning, I need to eat breakfast and drink tea first. Yes, this means I have to get up even earlier by half an hour, which is unpleasant, but I wouldn't feel awake enough to join Ruth's commuters without having first had breakfast.
I don't think @Alan Cresswell 's "idiot" characterization is reasonable. Taking a sip of a drink is a comparatively minor distraction, and can be timed to occur at times when the driver has a clear view, and can reasonably predict that they aren't going to need to take sudden evasive action. I don't think it's different in scale from changing the station on the radio, adjusting the cabin temperature, or any of the other routine things that people do whilst driving. Which isn't to say that drinking can't be done in a stupid way by idiots - I'm sure the chap who felt it reasonable to read a newspaper whilst driving would also find a stupid way to interact with his morning coffee.
Whenever I'm consuming anything in my car (which happens on long drives quite often), I am always aware that I might at any point have to drop whatever I'm holding in my lap so I can have both hands available. Which means that I choose the things that I might put in my hands accordingly.
I’m with you as far as coffee practice on the road is concerned… when I need to travel to your general part of the world for work I usually leave Toronto really early to try to avoid some traffic, and stop at a Starbucks somewhere off the QEW or 401 (depending on where I’m going) for breakfast and coffee. It sometimes feels like I’m the only person actually inside the coffee shop as everyone else drives by the window.
I have had Starbucks drive-by coffee but only when sharing a car with colleagues.
I’m finding that even the downtown (I.e., non-car-friendly) Starbuckses are increasingly grab-and-go kinds of places.
There are often several people waiting for coffee at the collection point. There could be several similar orders. Having a name makes it easier to ensure you get your order.
Had I been Fremen and equipped, I would have cannibalized the scabs jumping the mile-long line at Starbucks yesterday by ordering their drinks online, while the rest of us living stiffs stood for half an hour waiting for ethernet ghosts seated near the pick up counter to receive their drinks. Had I not been so parched, and every other coffee shop's line out the door, too, I would have just kept walking.
Stabuck's disservice model was good, when no one could order in person. It needs to go, now.
For real!
For menopausal women, as well, as sleep seems not regularly to be part of our lives anymore.
That's when we use Mucky D's or the Unlucky Fried Kitten.
But if they needed your name, they had it. And it's easier if they follow the protocol rather than guess at whether 8 other people will come in right behind you and order the same thing. Have you ever worked a job like this?
Some people have a Starbucks name, a name they use because folks behind the counter tend to trip over their real name or their real name sounds too much like other real names.
Which sounds like the perfect moment to drop in getting a coffee with an Irish name
I have heard stories, probably apocryphal, of a customer giving their name as Spartacus, with predictable results. And of things like ‘Marc with a c’ resulting in ‘Cark’.
It helps the staff and doesn’t bother me.
Yeah this. It's used in case of disputes.
A whole spoonful?! That's generous for church coffee. 3 granules in your Berylware is more typical.
OMG, Woods Berylware, the stuff a nation's village halls were built on!
There was Jasperware as well, I wonder if there were others?
PS My 7-year old grandson is called Jasper.
Indeed. Or a sit-down one too, come to that. I resent paying over the odds for a cup of slop.
As a tight-wad I either take a flask of coffee or else a flask of hot water and a tea bag.
I have, very occasionally, had a coffee and a sticky bun at Strensham or Frankley Services but almost immediately regret it.
The link to The Beryline Prophecy is now obligatory:
https://cyber-coenobites.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-beryline-prophecy.html?m=1
Also good to see the sect I (nearly) carry the name of mentioned!
That's serious - I know. We grow our own water at home, but at the church in town the chlorine in the water on a bad day can turn a pot of coffee into a witch's brew. The only cure for that is to fill the pot the night before and let the chlorine disperse.