To wonder why Costa is so popular?

[Pumpkinsspiceandallthingsnice]

I don't go in all that often but it always looks so cosy through the window.

Every time I do go in I can never get a clean table let alone a decent seat. There never seem to be enough staff to clear the tables. The cakes are always quite dry and not worth the money at all.

Yet it's always so busy.

The coffee tastes like dishwater. Shit shop tbh

I like a Costa flat white and I like the general ambience in my local one and that it's open so early.

It does take forever though. Used to go to one in one of the central London stations which was like a well-oiled machine..so quick. Never seen that repeated anywhere outside London.

I hate it, the coffee is rubbish.

I don’t drink hot drinks of any description so it’s not a place I really ever find myself in but I was at lunch with a colleague recently and he wanted to nip in and get a drink. I was more shocked that one of the drinks on the menu was over 650 calories!
I only drink water (or booze from time to time), my mind felt frazzled.
The tables that were empty appeared dirty, the whole place was pretty dingy and the food on offer looked basic (not horrible, just nothing I’d go out of my way for).

Comfy seats for breastfeeding (impossible on a trendy high industrial stool)
The cafes near me are usually clean and staff nice, toilets also decent with a baby change
Latte with an extra shot is actually pretty good
My son loves the plain cheese and ham toastie
You can get a sensibly sized kids hot chocolate
The rewards scheme is pretty good
They also take part in “Too good to go” which I like

My local Costa has lovely staff and is also warm and cosy with very clean toilets
I only drink black coffee or espresso and tend to go in before work when I have porridge or a chocolate twist or toast
Nero coffee is also ok but the one nearest for me is not as clean as the Costa

The food isn't great but I quite enjoy a latte at Costa. And the staff at the two nearest to me are lovely. They were really kind to my elderly father when he was alive, carrying his tray to a table for him and taking the time to chat to him. Now its my turn to experience their kindness. I'm recovering from cancer. I've never mentioned it to them but the bald head, or alternatively the headscarf, are a bit of a give away! Anyway, my drink is always brought over for me and I frequently find it upsized or with an extra squirt of cream or sprinkles or whatever, or I find a brownie slipped alongside it. So kind!

I love their lemon muffins, and like the M&S pasta salads. The black forest hot chocolate is pretty good too.

Quick service

Really coffee

They don’t mind if you just pop in to use the baby change then go out again

The seats are comfy

I don't drink coffee and rarely go into town these days, but I like Costa because in the days when I was juggling pushchair/baby/toddler they would always carry my tray to my table.

I have no idea why they’re popular as their coffee is awful. I can get much better coffee in Greggs or McDonalds and it will be a fraction of the price.

Costa is the Weatherspoons of coffee shops - ubiquitous and not very good.

All the local independents are dog friendly (and I have a dog allergy) but the Costa only allows working dogs inside. Also, although it is easier to get dairy alternatives now, you can be sure that the big chains will always have an alternative. Several times over the years we have had to leave independents we as they had no hot drinks that Dd1 could have.
Our local store is always clean and the staff are lovely.

I'd agree with the poster who says it's unusable if you actually like just coffee. Black coffee, without a tonne of syrups in etc. McDonalds coffee is genuinely better. And Costa is so very grubby. Which all the chains are tbf. The only Starbucks toilets I've been in should have been condemned as a biohazard. And the tables always look like they've just hosted a toddler convention.

As I'm watching the pennies more and more these days it's a luxury I can't justify unless I'm at a motorway service station going on holiday (and I've emptied my flask!). I love their flat white, but last time I got one from there it was £4.25, so I either make a travel mug up at home before I go anywhere, or I go to a Mcdonalds where I pay £1.69 for something just as nice.

There is a huge surge in growth of Costa being everywhere these days: in my fairly small town you can buy it from the Costa in the high street, in both the big and the little Tesco, in Sainsburys store and petrol station, and in at least three two petrol stations, or you can drive through or drink in at the new one on a retail park. This mug here has their stuff for my tassimo at work very occasionally as that's not cheap either at 75p a cup (and it's definitely not as nice as fresh, and about half the size!). Then there's all the chilled coffees and bean blends that you can buy in the supermarkets too. I'm not complaining, just saying that Costa really is everywhere these days!

I also think we are becoming more and more a nation who buy coffee out and about. We go for a coffee more than we go for a drink in a pub these days, only we also buy it to take out and about. Only a few years ago it would have been unthinkable to imagine that a coffee machine in a Tesco express in a small town would enough trade to make it worthwhile but there always seems to be people leaving there with a Costa in their hand these days.

I accept your point, but to me the equivalent would be a wine bar selling nothing but cheap piss that tasted like vinegar. You don't need to be a 'connoisseur' to recognise that some cheap wines are undrinkable, and no decent wine bar would stock them, yet Costa somehow thrive by selling the equivalent in fresh coffee.

I think it's telling that a lot of the people who drink plain, black coffee are saying the same thing. Obviously there's always going to be a difference in personal taste, but it's not about being a coffee snob when you're perfectly happy drinking supermarket brand filter coffee at home, yet can't stomach the stuff they serve in chain coffee houses. They're punting the equivalent of the cheapest, nastiest German plonk you can buy in cornershops, yet somehow people are lapping it up. It's mystifying.

Well it sounds like you're not voting with your wallet because you seem to go back there rather than give up on it.

Unfortunately Costa completely alienated me and many others when they stopped using gluten free oat milk. Now their machines are potentially contaminated as apparently, they do not keep the oat milk strictly away from other types. It could so easily have been avoided by sticking with GF. It's a pity as I quite like their drinks. I've only been to nero once - it was awful and bitter and recently I was told by staff that it is all a may contain for gluten so another no no now. The starbucks at my workplace is GF (at least for basic coffees, don't know about some of the specials) so I have one every now and then as a treat.

The city I live in has a really strong independent coffee game at the moment, and collaboration with artisan bakeries, so it's beyond me why people step foot in the grubby, overpriced palaces of mediocrity, but there it is.

With you, scianel I can never get over the prices for something so rubbish.
years ago when dd was little ( so about 17) they sold their own coffee beans in bags. I worked out that if a bag made x coffees, I’d have to pay £40 for the bag of coffee. Considering a bag of illy is about £6 and they’re making a profit, and I’d rather pay £6 for a bag of illy and drink it at home thanks,

Morehousework absolutely. I mean I don't mind paying over the odds for a treat as I appreciate businesses have overheads and have to turn a profit but I want it to taste like a treat!

What bothers me with non-chain coffee shops is that you never know if they have plant milk. Costa or Starbucks are always a safe choice if you can't have normal milk. I don't visit coffee shops too much nowadays because of hideous prices increase. 7 quid for two coffees, no thank you, unless I really have to 😐

Both of those exist outside of London, dont worry, it's not just barren land!

When someone wonders why something else is so popular, be it Costa or Ed sheeran (another thread), you're basically saying you have superior tastes. You don't, you just have different tastes. Big deal.

The staff in my local one are lovely but the coffee is awful. Quantity over quality every time.

People are right that the base product is poor though. If you drink your coffee black you can really tell. This is why they sell it with all those syrups and different milks etc.