To want to give a standing ovation to the lady in Costa who screeched "HOW MUCH'???

[Sparklingbrook]

When buying three hot drinks this afternoon. She's not wrong.

I went in to be intentionally ripped off as DS1 had had his brace tightened and wanted a passion fruit and mango smoothie, and I am a soft touch.

But there's always a queue so I must be missing something?

Oh and I would sell my soul for a Costa lemon and poppyseed muffin.

Looked onto buying up a small independent place earlier this year. Now realise how much turnover you need to cover the rent and rates!! That's before you factor in staff costs and then try to make some profit for yourself. It's no wonder it's the big chains that can survive. Would really help if the main costs like these got lowered.

Peter Andre's coffee shop does a mean hot chocolate

And his sarnie's are delicious

(dons hard hat ready to be clumped)

DB lives darn sarf and he is always very 'is that all' when we go out to eat up here. I still think it's expensive though.

I saw an advert for Starbucks today which referred to a "hand crafted beverage". Utter tosh (both the advert and any Starbucks drink)

So how much do three hot drinks cost in Costa? (Sorry if you have already said, I'm off to bed in a minute and don't want to read through all four pages!)

I've seen that ad too Lilymaid. First of all I thought it was saying you got a coffee and bacon panini for two pounds, but then i realised you got the bacon panini for 2 pounds as long as you purchased a "hand crafted beverage" at the same time! Actually I am going to always call a coffee a hand crafted beverage from now on. "Anyone want a hand crafted beverage?" I will say.

I don't know exactly Quangle, but a tenner was passed over.

I was once charged £2.95 for a single almond croissant in a naice independent coffee shop in London. This was 4 years ago and I still sit slack-jawed in shock for a few moments whenever I think about it.

Goodness knows what a coffee would cost in there - I don't like coffee so never bought it, but suspect a coffee and a croissant would have been significantly north of a fiver. Ridiculous.

kids rule your boss was right. Former colleague had been a hotel manager. He said he was always more concerned about staff nicking coffee than booze because one of those massive catering cans of Nescafé translated to £800 of income .

I don't think anyone's mentioned the filter coffee at Pret - tasty, organic and only 99p!

Someone left a bag full of Costa muffins behind in my workplace recently... they were there on Friday and hadn't been claimed by Monday so I pilfered acquired them... they were three days old and still delicious!

They were wrapped up though...

carabos yep so true

did chuckle about take the booze just leave the coffee

I do also like the coffee at Pret. I'm just not in there often, as my nearest one isn't actually very close to anywhere else I go.

at 'hand-crafted beverage'. I'm going to steal appropriate this too.

How much is a coffee in the uk these days? Here in nz it's between 4and 5 dollars. Just under 2 quid.

Yeah, Ginger but at least we can get good coffee in nz

It's costs Costa roughly 12p to make your coffee! Business is good ain't it?

If you want a laugh, ask the staff in costa which coffee beans they use.

It totally confuses them.

Costa is one of the few places that serves decaf coffee - try getting it anywhere that's not a proper coffee chain and you'll struggle. So I bite the bullet when I'm out and about and buy Costa. Plus their cake is nice :o

Perhaps she was the same lady who followed me out of the local shop and tapped me on the shoulder yesterday. When I turned round expecting to be mugged in our dodgy area with a pleasant smile on my face she said "excuse me, did she really just charge you 60p for one stamp?" with a look of absolute shock on her face.

I went into Costa a couple of weeks ago with my best friend. She queued for ages and when she gave me my coffee it was cold! Not impressed!!
I went straight to the front of a very long line of people and asked the barista to make another which they did. Cafe Nero is another expensive one. I paid nearly £8 for two decaf lattes and two rock hard chocolate brownies!

You need a filter jug, grinder and Hasnean.co.uk, Oh and DH back from the school run he said he'd do coffee this morning.

No I don't work for them and there are lots of other coffee suppliers. Pollards in Sheffield was my mum's favourite place.

Hasbean clearly, my iPod hasn't woken up either

YABU Its on the board in big writing in Costa, I love Costa was made up when I found a mill shop had an outlet here.

Don't like Costa at all and only venture in if we're at a service station with limited options. Expensive, yes. And really winds me up when they bark "Your name is............?" Why do they need your name? What's wrong with a number on a wooden spoon? And why not politely ask "What is your name?" or "May I have your name please"?