Further to the item in today’s newsletter about a sceptic’s experience of Costa.
I’ve no interest in Costa and indeed would head for an independent coffee shop every time given the choice, but my experiences of the three Costa visits I can recall since new rules were forced upon us have all been positive. My latest visit yesterday was a busy branch with people inside and outside enjoying themselves.
No mandatory mask wearing whether ordering or sat down. Staff were friendly and relaxed and service was good. Yes, piles of out-of-commission furniture, arrows and the like but on the whole a good experience.
My suspicion is it’s more to do with how individual shops and their staff implement and execute the rules - I’ve had good and awful experiences in independents too.
We've been going to a local Costa for many years on Sunday morning. We return after they re-opened after the "lockdown". Starting this week they became very demanding that we use our phones to scan to "trace and track" (but we said "we don't carry smart phones anymore), didn't provide way to write down that information before serving us (we usually give an old phone number anyway), yelled at the people behind us who encroached our 2 meter-spacing too-closely (we didn't really mind).
We aren't going back. We've found some non-corporate places that have great coffee and food and are not making us scan with phones on entry!
