Costa should make it clear that cream or marshmallows cost extra

[Learc]

when buying hot chocolate.

From experience, it depends on the store and staff. My DP pretty much lives in our local one, and the staff know him well. He never gets charged for cream, and sometimes gets unsold freebies at the end of the day
Some branches will charge you for cream even if the drink was free via the loyalty scheme.

Like a few PP, I also really struggle with the electronic menu. It changes too fast. To suggest people who might struggle with it need a carer... unbelievable.

How is it not clear?
Is it not on the menu?

I think the shift has been to vegan marshmallows and yes, they are now disappointing to what they used to be.

Oh I hate to break it to you but

After a successful trial, we're excited to welcome well-behaved dogs into many of our stores, while assistance dogs remain welcome in all Costa Coffee locations. To find out if your chosen store is dog-friendly, simply use our Store Locator, find your store, and check the list of amenities to see if dogs are allowed.

Rats! I'm so fed up of this whole dog thing. Thanks I will check out my local store.

They do - it isn't hard to see!

This. Use some common sense.

Ooh thanks for this, I didn't realise that was why. Maybe I'll start bringing my own in my bag lol 🫣

I find the 'dog-friendly' label very twee. I know what they're getting at, and it's nice for dog owners; but it's almost as if they genuinely don't understand that it's not a win-win situation, as allergies to dog fur are very common.

At least own your decision and announce that you are now 'dog-friendly and allergy-sufferers-unfriendly'.

Holiday cottage companies are mostly the same, where you can choose either 'dogs allowed' or 'no preference'. It never seems to cross their minds that the many allergy sufferers in their potential customer base NEED to find somewhere that does not allow dogs, however cute and friendly they may be.

"Dog-friendly" is twee. Some marketing idiot probably thought it sounded better than "dogs allowed" but it really doesn't. It's also a little presumptuous; it implies that everyone in the shop should not only tolerate dogs but also be "friendly" to them which is asking too much from whoever happens to be there when a dog owner brings a dog in.

Doesn’t imply anything of the sort to me. Nobody’s forcing you to be friendly to dogs.

There is a hugely successful dog friendly local coffee shop chain where I live. Five branches in my city and four more elsewhere. They are partnered with Guide Dogs and each branch sponsors a puppy. They are open 7 days a week 7.30 (8.30 at weekends) to 5.30 and are always really busy. So there is obviously a demand they are satisfying.

They really are, the taste from them is awful 😖

Who'd pay for my carer? I was a programmer for one of the top 3 global IT companies. I don't need a carer. Bit like Jay Blades doesn't need a carer. He still couldn't read the Costa menu. It's a bit of leap to assume dyslexic people can't cope in the comunity. Richard Branson is dyslexic so must struggle to read. Does he need a carer? I am a master of Java, java script. .net, sql. Unix. Visual basic etc I can read and write all that shit which the vast majority of adverage people can't. I still can't speed read on a bright white screen. But I could write you a business IT system Web front and its backend database in my sleep

@Lovelysummerdays they don't offer other coffee now, it was discontinued over a year ago

@FluffytheGoldfish not all costas are allowing dogs. In fact, almost half of stores have decided not to take part in allowing dogs

As an aside (sorry for disrailing) chocolate Babyccinos are 70p at a Costa and come with sprinkles and 4 marshmallows. I got charged £1.70 each at a service station Costa, no sprinkles, asked for marshmallows and was given 2 each! Not impressed 😡

Ugh the service station Costas are awful 🤢

I hope our local stays dog free but part of the problem is that Costa was always a safe choice when we were away from home. Now it isn't.
I have never had an issue with having to make way for a guide dog (and our local pup in training sets me sneezing surprisingly quickly), but not being able to access so many places now is extremely annoying. As another poster said, trying to find holiday accommodation is so difficult. If anyone is interested, there are 2 dog free Haven parks and the Glen Nevis caravan park is also dog free.

Currently in Costa

The screen showing hot chocolate is split so the other side shows "Costamise" and says extras at 60p each

They were also not rushing us, we ordered a drink they didn't have in stock and let us discuss what we would have instead.